Picking up from where we left off in the previous
post…
I went in to the doctor to be checked out for my
cramping. I saw a midwife that I had
never seen before, and she was great!
She had the foresight to swab me for some protein before she checked my
cervix. If this protein is present, then
the odds of preterm labor are high…if it isn’t there, chances are you aren’t
going in to labor. The thing is, once
you have your cervix checked, you lose your chance of testing for the protein
because touching the cervix messes it all up.
After she checked my cervix, she was very proud of herself for swabbing
for the protein…as she should have been J
So I talk to her about my cramping, she checks my cervix,
and then she looks at me and says, “I am going to send you to Northside.” And my reaction is…Really? No nervousness, no worries, just really? She proceeds to tell me that I and dilated one
centimeter, and that I need to take the swab and head down to the
hospital. She says there is no reason
why I can’t drive myself, so I hop in the car and head down the highway. I call Jonathan, and he meets me there while
I am waiting in the lobby.
I am first put in a very small room because they think I
will just be there for a few hours. The
first thing they do is hook me up to the monitors and start an IV for
fluids. The baby sounded great, but one
thing I didn’t know was that I was having contractions…and some pretty big ones
at that! I had absolutely no idea. The nurse would ask, “did you feel that one,”
and I would say No. Come to find out,
the tightening of my stomach was a pre-water breaking contraction, and I just
didn’t know it. I could feel them. They didn’t hurt. And there was a lot. About every 8 minutes or so.
The first thing they gave me was a shot in the arm. I forget the name of everything now (except
magnesium, I will never for get that stuff, but that comes later), but it made
me extremely jittery. Hands shaking,
heart racing jittery. That did not stop
the contractions, so I have another shot a few hours later. Jonathan sleeps in the chair, me and my mom
watch Dance Moms, and I continue to have contractions. They then decide they will keep me overnight
and monitor my contractions. They give
me a sleeping pill, and off I go to sleep in my tiny room with Jonathan
sleeping in the chair.
We wake up Thursday morning, and I am still continuing to
have contractions, and I had plenty of them throughout the night. They then decide that I will need to stay and
have some steroids to help Mac’s lung grow just in case he is born early. Also, I have had more cervix checks than I
would like to count, and they are all about the same. So, we get a bigger room and settle in for
the long haul and lots of TLC and HGTV which Jonathan was super excited about. I get one steroid shot, and I will get the
next one in 24 hours. In the mean time,
since my contractions have not subsided, they start me on magnesium. May you never have to have magnesium. It is not a pleasant experience, and I had to
have it for 24 hours. The entire time, I
felt like me eyes were swimming, just my eyes.
I couldn’t focus on anything and it made me nauseous for the ENTIRE 24 hours It was awful, and, by far, the worst
medication I was given while I was there.
So, here I am on my second “stop the contractions” medication, and I am
still having them, but the silver lining is Mac was sounding great, moving a
lot, and doing well.
After my second steroid shot, and the completion of my
magnesium (hooray!!) on Friday morning, I was still having some contractions. They took me for an ultrasound, and
everything was looking great. They estimated him to already be 5 lbs...which will turn out to not be the case. Mac was the constant in this whole process. He was doing awesome J So, I have taken two medications, and I am
still having contractions, but not dilating any further, so they decide to try
one more medication. A pill that I can
take home with me and take until 35 weeks.
They decide to keep me overnight again just to make sure, and then I can
go home on Saturday if everything goes well.
I wake up on Saturday morning still having some
contractions, but still not dilating anymore, so I get to go home! After three days of hospital food, an
uncomfortable bed, and more medicines and cervical exams than I care to
remember, I am on my way home! The only
downside, I don’t get to hear Mac’s heartbeat all day anymore…guess I will just
have to settle for feeling his kicks J Personally (and based
on how things progressed from here), I think this was just how my body was
going to do things. I continued to
dilate very slowly over the next few weeks, so I think my body was just readying itself and was going to take it's sweet time.
However, I have a beautiful, healthy boy now, so I wouldn’t change a
thing! Also, I was never nervous,
anxious, or worried the entire time I was in the hospital. It was like deep down I knew that everything
was going to be okay, and I had nothing to worry about. I am sure prayers helped too J
And now, it is on to bed rest…
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