Hospital visit - Week 34 & 35

My pregnancy complications began on the morning of April 6th, 3 days before my birthday. I knew it was a busy day at work and I needed to be there that day, however, I had a doctor’s appointment at 9:00 that morning. Scott was out of town, so I took Brendan to day care, went to my appointment anxious to get to work.

Our plans never go as planned. My blood pressure was higher than it had been at my previous appointments (probably due to the stress of the morning) and my doctor wanted me to go next door to the hospital’s Labor & Delivery ward (L&D) to be checked out. I knew it would make me that much later to work, but it had to be done. An hour later, I am still waiting in my doctor’s waiting room waiting for L&D to approve me to come over. Finally, I get approval, and wait in the Hospital’s waiting room for 45 minutes for them to process paperwork and send me down the hall. Once I get to L&D, they take my weight, have me pee in a cup and hook me up to machines. One monitor for the baby’s heart rate, one to monitor me, and one for my blood pressure. At this point I am just annoyed, I would like to go to work, I am all alone, and I hate being hooked up to machines. I am still thinking they need to hurry up so I can get out of here. I text my sister to let her know where I am, she immediately decides she is coming to the hospital to it with me. I tell her it is not necessary, I should be out of here soon, but she comes anyway. It was probably a good thing!

I text my husband to let him know what is going on. “I’m in the hospital hooked up to machines.” His response? “Liar.” Umm, no, pretty serious here. He tells me to let him know if he needs to come home or if I think I am okay. Of course I think I am okay, I am ready to go back to work people!

When my sister gets to the hospital, I confess to her, “just so you know, I’m having a few contractions, I haven’t told anyone yet because I don’t want anyone to worry.” Sure enough, the monitor is tracking my contractions at every 3 minutes. I realize, I am not going to work today, I will be lucky if I even get to go home. They continue to monitor me all day, I have ultrasounds taken to check on the baby, and eventually they hook me up to an IV to try to hydrate me enough and see if the contractions stop. Great, more for me to be hooked up to.

Around 2:00, my sister heads back to work and calls my husband in Vegas to let him know that he should probably start heading home; he is already on his way. The nurse tells me there is a chance I will have to stay overnight in the hospital, so we start arranging for someone to pick my son up from day care. They also give me a shot in the rear to help with the development of the baby’s lungs just in case he does come early.

Luckily, around 6:30 the contractions have pretty much ceased. They send me home, but tell me I am on Bed Rest for tomorrow, no work. I am also on “pelvic rest”, instructed to stay well hydrated, and have to come back to the hospital at 2:00 the next day to see where I am.

The next day I tried my best to sit with my feet up, my husband cleaned the house while I just sat around. I had no contractions while at the hospital for my check-up. I get another shot to finish the series for the lung development, and they tell me I can go back to work if I want to. YAY! (Still on pelvic rest).

I still have contractions every now and then, Monday at work they were coming pretty often, but I figure when my water breaks, I should probably head to the hospital!  Otherwise, I am doing well. I try to drink LOTS of water to stay hydrated, and I didn’t realize, but a full bladder increases contractions! Interesting! So I take more trips down the hall instead of holding it for when it is convenient to go. I do take it a bit slower and I sit with my feel up more often, you can defiantly see the impact this has taken on my house. But I’m not ready for a baby yet, so anything I can do to prolong the birth!