by Jessica on December 20, 2009
I was officially released from the hospital at 8 this morning. I cannot even begin to describe how happy I was to get out of there and walk into our house again. The doctor checked my cervix and said that I was still at 1 cm and having about two contractions an hour, which is normal for this stage of the game. Honestly, I am fairly sure the majority of the contractions were brought on by moving around so much during the night. Hospital beds SUCK worse that you can even know, especially the L&D beds which are made for “working” not sleeping. I got a total of about 6 hours of sleep in the three days I was there. No matter how many pillows I piled up, nothing helped. I just cried a million times and was so ready to leave this morning. I was especially excited to have that darn IV removed. I swear, that thing was HORRIBLE and burned like fire. I went through at least 20 ice packs while I was there.
The first thing I did when we got home was crash on the couch, although I still haven’t gotten more than a few hours of sleep at a time. It was very unnerving that Knox hadn’t moved since I went off the mag sulfate, so I was getting a little worried. Luckily, he seems to have gotten some rest, too, and is moving more, now. I hope he is feeling okay in there, he’s had a rough few days. I know all this was for him, but it’s hard to feel comfortable with having your body pumped full of medicines when you’ve been conditioning yourself to take as little medication as possible in pregnancy.
I am on Brethine, now, only as needed. I took one this evening because my stomach was so tight whenever I moved. It felt more like BH than the real ones I was experiencing the other day, but it seemed to help. The bed rest is modified, so I can do some things, but the majority of my waking hours (at least 8 to 10) are to be spent laying down. I can spend no more than one hour on my feet, so no working for the duration. The doc gave me the clear to go to our family Christmas celebrations, but I will definitely be a couch potato at each one! It’s hard to lay around and have other people help me, I am so used to being in control and doing everything myself. Trevor has been wonderful, refilling my water, making sure I am comfortable and getting rest. I just love him so much. Our parents and my siblings have been visiting us since we got admitted, and MIL brought us a few groceries this morning and my mom is bringing a chicken pot pie for dinner tomorrow. Our best friends have been there for us, visiting each day since all this started. Lindsey even brought me dinner and a bag of bed rest goodies including my favorite ice cream, a Cosmo magazine and doughnuts for Trevor, she is the best! Everyone already cares so much about Knox, and it is so sweet of them all to help us out. Let’s hope the bed rest goes well and Knox is in there for at LEAST five more weeks.
I’ll be going back to the doctor next week to get checked out, as well as the following week. Let’s hope we make no further progress until it’s actually time for Knox to come. At least we got both steroid shots for his lungs in case he were to come early, but I would prefer that he wait, of course. Thanks for keeping up with all of this drama, it means a lot to us that so many people have been thinking about and praying for us. Ya’ll are great!
In the midst of all of our preterm labor craziness, some friends of ours had their baby girl, Reese, today and she is just gorgeous. Congrats Trey and Casey! I hate that I can’t visit tomorrow, but I am sure she is just as precious as her picture shows!
by Jessica on December 16, 2009
Warning: This is going to be ridiculously long. If you have mega staying power, go forth and read.
They’re back. The Braxton Hicks contractions from Hades. Not that they were ever really gone, but let’s just say they’re back in full force with a venegeance. I started to notice them getting more frequently yesterday. After a couple of hours with the contractions getting increasingly closer together (we’re talking every five minutes or so), I took a Brethine/ Terbutaline pill. I haven’t taken one at all since my doctor told me it was unnecessary since my cervix wasn’t changing, but I thought having so many warranted this particular course of action. It seemed to work to slow them down, so I just chugged a bunch of water and hoped they’d stop. Later that night, I ended up taking another pill because they came back.
Tuesday morning, I wasn’t having any, but by the afternoon, they were every few minutes and lasting for a long time, probably three to five minutes each. The prolonged nature of these contractions is what had me freaked out. I obviously took another pill and put a call into my doctor’s office to get their advice. This was around 4:00. The receptionist took a message for the nurse on call, saying “everyone is really busy right now.” Uhm, okay. She didn’t even ask what was wrong, which I thought was insane. By the time 5:30 rolled around, I was royally pissed off that I had not gotten a return phone call and borderline hysterically crying because I was just so worried about these contractions. I called the on-call doctor and ended up talking to a nurse that didn’t seem overly bright and failed to reassure me at all.
Around 6, I got a phone call from the doctor’s office. Apparently, the skank receptionist didn’t give the nurse the message until they were about to close, and I could tell this nurse was NOT happy about that. She asked who took the message, and luckily I remembered. I told her she didn’t even ask what was wrong with me, and the nurse said this message should have been given to her immediately. I felt somewhat vindicated.
She told me that I should definitely take the Brethine in this situation, which I figured. I was worried about Knox being affected by all these frequent, long contractions and she said he would be fine as long as it wasn’t hours and hours of back to back contractions. I felt like it was hours and hours of contractions, so I still worry about that. She did say if my cervix is not being affected by the contractions, then they’re probably not strong enough to affect him, either. She said I may need to come in and get checked more often (apparently I am moving into the doctor’s office since I am there weekly as it is) because we don’t want to miss it if these do start to change the cervix. I have to call the office in the morning and talk to them again about this. I think I am going to insist on being monitored in the afternoon, when the contractions seem to be the most frequent and strong.
As of right now, 10:30 pm, I am STILL having contractions, even on the Brethine. Not as many, but still every 15 minutes or so. This is just so abnormal. AND I accidentally took the pills five hours apart instead of six. Please, self, let’s not do another thing to freak me out.
I feel like the biggest psycho calling the doctor every other day, but it’s not like I am making this up or just seeking attention. I am having contractions pretty consistently, here. Every time they have monitored me (twice) they haven’t picked up but one or two contractions total. This makes me feel like they think I’m some hypochondriac or making it up. I almost hate to say my name when they ask who is calling, I feel like saying “It’s me, the frequent flier. Just let me come in, check my cervix for the thousandth time, and send me on my way.” So frustrating.
I just want Knox to be okay. I try to tell myself that calling too much is better than not calling and having something be really wrong. What if I ignore these contractions and they turn into preterm labor? Or they start to affect the baby and I’m sitting at home trying to ignore them? I cannot let anything happen to this little guy, so if that makes me a psychotic hypochondriac pest, so be it. I’ll update tomorrow, but hopefully these contractions hit the road by then.
by Jessica on October 27, 2009
After yesterday’s appointment, I was hoping that the Brethine/ Turbutaline would help stop the BH contractions I was having. No such luck. I had more last night and this morning, and I started to get a very odd discomfort near my cervix. Of course, I started to panic that I was dilating. I called my doctor’s office this morning and told the nurse what was going on and she put me on hold. In a couple seconds, my doctor got on the phone and wanted a recap of what was happening. She said for me to go up the hospital to the maternal assessment ward. She wanted to figure out what was going on. This is where I started to freak out even more. Trevor was gone attending a funeral (I wasn’t there becuase of the contractions and because this Brethine makes me extremely jittery and short of breath) so I couldn’t get him on his phone. So, off I went to the hospital alone.
I went in through the ER entrance, per my doctor’s instructions, and a nice old man wheeled me up to the third floor. Let me say, you know you have bad motion sickness when riding in a wheelchair makes you want to throw up. As soon as I got there, they set me up in a room. I got in a gown and the nurse checked my cervix. She said everything felt closed. Then, they hooked me up to two monitors around my belly- one for my uterus and one for Knox. I had a couple light BH contractions, but nothing to be concerned over, said the nurses. I was there for about two hours laying there getting monitored. They did give me some different medicine to take with the Brethine that helps with the shakiness. Turns out I had a fever of 100 degrees when I arrived, as well, which was news to me. Knox was bouncing off the walls the whole time- they had the sound turned up on his monitor so I could hear all of his flips and kicks, as well as feeling them.
They didn’t see anything too worrisome, so they told me I could go home. I have to take the meds every six hours for a couple days regardless of if I feel contractions or not. The nurse said to wake up to take it. I am also on modified bedrest for a few days. Only laying in bed or on the couch is allowed- no prolonged standing to cook or going anywhere. I’m glad I am on vacation so that this is an easier feat to accomplish. This has been a really scary couple of days- I hope that we have no more drama and a nice, calm duration of the pregnancy!
by Jessica on October 26, 2009
Aside from the sickness I’ve been dealing with, this weekend also brought another stress: Braxton Hicks contractions. I’ve been getting these off an on since about 20 weeks in the normal way, a couple painless contractions a day. However. On Saturday, I experienced no less than 40-50 of them. I finally downed about three glasses of water and laid down on the couch and they stopped. I was still worried about it. Sunday brought more, though not as many. I called the doctor’s office this morning and told the nurse on call about it. She said that was way more BH’s than they want me having at this stage in the pregnancy and that I should come in.
So, luckily Trevor and I are on vacation this week and were able to go together. They did an internal ultrasound first thing to check my cervical length, which was great. They want it to be over 2.5 and mine was 3.8, which is average. Then, she checked on Knox, who was doing wonderfully. His heart rate was 161 and he has moved into a head-down position (who knows if he’ll stay that way). He was moving his little mouth a lot and had those tiny hands right in his face, as is normal for him.
I met with the doctor on call, who was AMAZING and had the best nurse ever, and she made me feel a lot better. She gave me a prescription for some meds that will stop the contractions if they come back, and I just take it as needed. She said that the contractions could have been caused by dehydration (even though I was drinking a lot- the sickness could have required more water than I was getting) or, it could just be normal for this pregnancy. I hope it’s not something that I deal with all the time! She said I should call if contractions start to hurt or if the medicine does not work in stopping them. I was supposed to go in Thursday for my regular appointment, but she rescheduled for next week so we could see if the pills were working.
She said that because of my cervical length, even though I am having preterm contractions, they are not worried about preterm labor, which is great. She did mention bedrest may be a possibility for me later in the pregnancy if the contractions become the norm- let’s hope they don’t! Chill out in there, Knox!
