Antepartum

Not as in the place I work, but as in the place where I've been admitted and the place where I am stuck...

It all started Saturday morning. I was having severe pains in my abdomen and contractions pretty much all morning. I've been contracting for weeks so I wasn't overly concerned but I was keeping an eye on it. I started feeling better when it got closer to noon. I wanted to feel great because it was our baby sprinkle bbq at Jim and Leslie's and I wanted to feel good for it. By about 2 (when we were dropping the kids off at my parents) I was feeling decent. Not great but better than the morning.

We went to the shower (I mean, sprinkle) and had a fantastic time. Really an awesome time. We got to see friends we hadn't seen in forever. We were SHOWERED (not sprinkled) with love and diapers and we just had a lot of fun. The pain was there but mainly in the background the whole time. But when we got on the road, the pain was back and in full force. I was miserable the whole drive to my parent's house to get the kids. Miserable. Almost in tears. But we made it and we got the kids loaded up and headed home.

The whole drive home I was almost in tears. We got home, got the kids in bed and went to watch a little TV. I bailed on Nick right away to go upstairs to bed. I couldn't focus I was in so much pain. If I moved, there was shooting pain in my abdomen. If I took a deep breath, there was shooting pain in my abdomen. I also had a pounding headache that wouldn't go away with anything. I was downright miserable. I tried to sleep, honestly. But I couldn't. At 3:15am I was done. I couldn't stand it anymore. I woke Nick up and told him I was going to the hospital. He offered to come along but I wasn't sure what was going on and I didn't want to wake the kids up or anything. So I drove myself in.

I got to the Labor and Delivery unit at 4 am. They got me checked in and admitted and I was hooked to the monitors by about 4:30. The nurse was asking me lots of questions while I was getting settled and asked me if I was feeling any contractions. I told her no, I was just in constant pain. They started an IV, drew some blood, and took my vitals. Around 5 am, I told her I could feel contractions. Shortly after I started feeling them, they got stronger. And stronger. And my head was still pounding...

Around 5:30 or so, a resident came in and talked to me. I was contracting every 2-3 minutes at this point. She checked my cervix and said I was 1 cm, 50% effaced and at -2 station (goes from -5 to 5, 5 is when you are pushing the baby out). She started me on fluids and gave me medicine for my headache (which worked for about 4 hours, thank goodness) and told me she'd be back in an hour. Around 6:30, she came and checked me again and I was the same. So that was good. I was not in active labor but the contractions weren't stopping. And the other abdomen pain wasn't gonig away. She started me on procardia to stop the contractions, or hopefully stop the contractions.

My new nurse came on around 7:00 and had me sign all kinds of paperwork. I had already signed an admission form but with all the contractions, they had me sign a consent for a c-section, a consent for circumcision if I have a boy, consent for blood transfusion if I would hemorrhage. I started to get nervous. I called Nick and told him to come in when the kids got up. Then I called my parents and told them what was going on. I was getting a little worried.

Luckily Nick got there shortly and the contractions were spreading out. I don't remember the time, but the on-call doc came in to talk to us and gave us unexpected news. She told me that since the pain was constant and in the upper middle part of my abdomen that didn't seem to find any relief, she thought it was one of two things. 1) a hiatal hernia or 2) that my abdomen muscles (from c-sections and pregnancies in general) had stretched and were actually coming apart. Both of these things are very painful and neither have a solution...at least not until the baby comes and they can repair the problem. So she gave me two options. 1) Go home. Deal with the pain and maybe (probably) come back. or 2) Stay the night in antepartum. Let them do a trial and error on some pain meds and try to get me home in the morning.

I told her I wanted to talk to Nick about it. She left and Nick and I talked. I wanted to go home. But we were both afraid that I would get home and be in constant pain and end up coming back. So after a long talk, we decided I would stay. After a few hours, Nick left and then I got moved from Labor and Delivery to Antepartum. I had a nice afternoon. Stuck in bed but I had a TV and they give you a laptop to use while you are here and I felt ok. Still in a lot of pain, but ok since I was in good hands.

My mom came up to visit and that was nice. Even though I had only been in the hospital for a few hours, I was already lonely. So she stayed for a few hours and then she left. Nick came back up with the kids around 7:30 and that was kind of a disaster. :) The kids were hyper and crazy and couldn't stand being in a room and confined. So Nick only stayed for about 30 minutes. I told him to go home and I'd be home in the morning...

How wrong I was.

I received some pain meds and ambien to help me sleep and I slept great. I was feeling decent when I woke up this morning. Still in pain, but convinced I could handle it at home. I ordered breakfast and met my day nurse and was having a decent morning.

Then the contractions started again. And wouldn't stop. They put me on the monitor and I ate breakfast and waited for my doc. She came in and gave me the bad news. No way was she letting me home while contracting like this. So I got more procardia and told I would probably be spending the night. Again.

I'm not going to lie. I cried. I called my sister and cried. She talked to me for a bit and calmed me down. Then I called my parents and told them and I cried. They calmed me down, then I talked to Nick and told him, and I cried. I know it's what's best for me and the baby. I know that. But I want to go home. I want to be in my bed. I want to see my kids and my husband. And even that darn dog. :)

I'm trying to look at the brightside. While I'm here I have someone to help me with everything. I get to hear the baby's heartbeat twice a day. I get to order whatever food I want and someone brings it to me and then cleans up after me. Sounds pretty good right? I still miss my family and still want to be able to get up and walk around (I'm still on strict bedrest except to go to the bathroom).

I haven't had any contractions since the second dose of procradia. Hopefully I don't have any more and can go home tomorrow. I know I'll probably be on bedrest when I go home and I think I can handle that. I'm eager to talk to my actual doctor (I've only seen his colleague and not him yet) and see what he says. I know now that I probably won't get to VBAC. Especially if they are having to repair a hernia or separated muscles. No point in pushing a baby out and then having surgery anyway. But I'm wondering if he'll do the c-section early now that this is going on. If he does the c-section at 37 weeks, that's just a week from Thursday. I can handle bedrest until then. If he waits until 40 weeks, that's a month from tomorrow. Obviously I'll do whatever I have to do but would rather have this baby earlier than later.

Oh well. I know I'm in good hands and luckily we have wonderful family and friends. Hopefully Nick can get some help while I'm out of commission.

I'll let you know when I know more, but as for now, I'm holed up in the Antepartum unit waiting for those magic words that I get to go home. :)