I made it through most of my pregnancy with nary a problem - some heartburn, some sciatica, but nothing major. Not so these last few weeks. Now I'm completely falling apart!
This week we went on our tour of the labor and delivery unit at the hospital where we'll have Studs. That was on Tuesday night. It was very exciting. Brian wheeled me around in a wheelchair, as walking and standing for extended periods of time are not my strong point lately. Also, wheeling me around in a wheelchair is not Brian's strong point. I kept thinking he was going to run my other foot into something. So anyhow, we saw the laboring rooms (nice!) and the postpartum rooms (not as nice!) and the nursery, which had a few little tiny babies in it. Holy crap - we're going to have to take one of those home with us in 7 weeks or so. And of course, we learned about how to check into the hospital and all that.
Well, on Thursday night we got to PRACTICE checking into the hospital. I started to feel sick at around 4pm that day. My stomach was really crampy and sore and I was having some... GI issues. I just wanted to go home, but I didn't feel like I was going to be able to drive myself, so I hung around at work for a while. I struggled with trying to decide whether I should call the doctor or not. I was having some major stomach cramps and some other possible symptoms of preterm labor, except I wasn't really sure whether these were contractions or just stomach pains. Like I know what contractions feel like! I have no idea. I decided to call, and the doctor said I should drink a few glasses of water and lay down for a while and call her back if it didn't get better. By this point it was 6:30, and I REALLY had to go home to let the dog out (Brian had to be at a dinner for work, so he wasn't coming home), and also to do this whole laying down thing, so I managed to drive myself home.
When I got home I drank my water, laid on the couch and starting taking notes of how frequently I was having the severe stomach pains. I did this for about 45 minutes and then I started throwing up, so I figured this was a stomach issue and not a baby issue. I called the doctor back and gave her all this information, but since the stomach pains had been coming at fairly regular 4 minute intervals, she told me to come in just to make sure I wasn't having contractions. Brian was on his way home from dinner, and we went to the hospital as soon as he got back - about 9pm. We registered (we hadn't gotten to our pre-registration form yet) and they took us up to labor and delivery. The nurse hooked me up to some monitors to check on the baby and to check for contractions. Well, luckily it wasn't contractions and the baby seemed fine. I tried to drink some water and threw up some more. They had given me one of those little kidney shaped basins, but that was not big enough and I ended up overflowing all over myself, more than once. Poor Brian was trying to empty out the basin and keep up with me, but there was no chance. So yay, now I am sitting in the hospital bed covered in puke. The call button wasn't working or something, so no nurses came. Brian was digging around in the cabinets in the room trying to find some new sheets or something - he ended up finding some towels that we spread over the wet spots on the mattress. Finally a nurse came back in and helped us out. They gave me some anti-nausea medication and some ginger ale, which I was able to keep down, unlike the water. We stayed there until about midnight when I asked to go home. They let me because I hadn't thrown up for about 2 hours and had kept down some fluids, so they sent me home with some more anti-nausea meds and instructions to call back if I continued to not be able to keep any fluids down - the biggest concern being that I was really dehydrated which can trigger contractions.
So I'm glad it wasn't a baby-related issue. I hadn't planned on being back at labor and delivery so soon, but the nurses and all were really nice and I felt better knowing that the doctors err on the side of caution and wanted me to come in. I was still sick for the rest of the night and spent most of Friday sleeping, eating saltines, and drinking ginger ale and gatorade. Brian was suppossed to be at UNC giving a seminar, but they were really nice and rescheduled it so that he could stay home with me. I guess it was some 24 hr stomach bug? Or something I ate? Who knows.
3 comments:
Not that everyone hasn't told you this already, but you will KNOW when you're having a contraction. I thought it felt like really bad period cramps - it's low down and sort of hot, or at least it was for me. And utterly bearable, that's the good news! If you can handle getting those purpley little toes, you can TOTALLY handle labor.
Are you planning on working up until the big day? With the month you've had, I think I would pack it in and take a leave for the next couple of weeks.
Did you cross Murphy and his law or something?
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