Baby’s fine and I’m fine but
I had a scary couple of hours last Friday night. Before I get to that I want to thank you all
for your advice and for putting my fears
about measuring behind to rest. I always
tell people to not worry until they have something to worry about and I need to
follow my own advice. I’m not going to
fret (too much) about it until my next appointment where hopefully things will
have evened out some. And thanks for the
advice on the bottles and other items.
It’s still so strange to be discussing these things with all of
you. But I’m very grateful that I’m at
this point. I put some bottles and a
pump on my registry and we’ll see how it goes.
If baby girl doesn’t like them then we’ll try another brand. I thought it would be wise to start with just
the essentials…a few small and a few larger bottles just to see how it goes.
On to Friday night:
Actually, it started
Thursday. BJ, the Little Guy and I went
to an outdoor event Thursday night that involved a lot of walking. It was very leisurely walking for the most
part but there were a couple of times that we walked pretty fast. I started getting some cramps so I slowed
down and then we took a break and sat for about 30 minutes. All in all I had been on my feet for over 3
hours. The cramps I experienced were
quite different from my usual RLP (round ligament pain) that I’ve been having
the entire pregnancy. These were sharp
and really low (like down by my pubic bone) and they extended into my lady
parts. They went away and I didn’t give
them much more thought as I just chalked it up to overdoing it. Friday at work I started to get them
again. The pains were really sharp, like
stop me in my tracks sharp, and they continued to extend to my nether
regions. I was sitting for about 3 hours
working on a project so I know it wasn’t happening because I was walking too
much. But again, they came and went with
no real pattern. Then I had them on the
bus on the way home. Then I had them at
dinner. Then I had them while relaxing
on the couch after dinner. BJ was a
little worried and thought maybe I should call the answering service. I debated on that because as always, I don’t want
to be the crazy infertile pregnant lady that has to go to the doctor for every
little pain. But then I started
wondering if the cramps were caused by my cervix dilating and then real worry
started to set in. I called the
answering service and the on call doctor (not mine) called me back almost
immediately. I described the pain and
was asked a bunch of questions about my activity, if I was coughing, if the
pains were at regular intervals etc.
After talking with him he thought it would be best to go to L&D and
just make sure things were fine. To say
that I had an out of body experience at that moment is an understatement. I told BJ that he didn’t have to come (it was
10:00pm, after all) but of course he insisted.
I was foolish to even suggest I go alone but like I said, I was not
thinking clearly and was feeling like it was a bad dream at this point. All the thoughts that were in my head were
all bad and on the short drive to the hospital I felt like I was floating along
completely out of control. I just wanted
her to be ok. I kept apologizing to BJ
about his truck getting dirty (it was raining and he had just washed it) and
just staring out the window not sure what to do with myself.
He dropped me off at the
entrance to the ER because that is the first step. I was worried that we’d be there all night
because the ER for our hospital is always crowded and always very slow. I was wrong.
After checking in at the front desk (and trying to explain to the lady
that we did IVF and that I had no idea when my LMP was but that we had
retrieval on 5/3 and my due date is 1/24 and I’m 23 weeks and 1 day pregnant…she
still did the math wrong and messed up the LMP date) we were sent straight to
L&D. We were a bit lost but found
our way and were buzzed in and I handed my papers over and was shown straight
into a birthing room and given a warm gown to put on. I changed and explained to the nurse what was
happening and why I was worried. She was
so nice and understanding and put us right at ease. I had to give a urine and blood sample and
was hooked up to the fetal monitor and the contraction monitor. Baby girl’s heart rate worried me because it
started out in the 130’s and then went up to her usual 140’s. The nurse looked at the print out and said
that it was perfectly normal for that to happen and that by judging from the
heart rate and her movements (which were constant) that I was carrying a beautiful
baby and that baby girl is very happy. That
warmed my heart. I had the pain again
and made note of the time so that I could tell the nurse upon her return. Then I had to pee again. BJ got up and went searching to find someone
to make sure it was ok that I unhooked everything. He was standing by the baby warmer and picked
up the little hat and showed it to me. He was smitten. He asked if that is where they put the baby
after I have it and I told him yes. I
said that you just stay in the same room to deliver and then the baby gets
checked out over there in the warmer and then we pretty much stay in that
room. He was confused by that because he
has never experience that before. The Little
Guy was a scheduled C-section so he had no idea. He thought it was pretty cool. The fetal monitor picked up everything baby
girl was doing. We had a good time listening
to her move and then BJ could hear her big kicks, of which there were
many. At one point the nurse saw my
belly jump when she kicked. Listening to
her and feeling her move around was definitely comforting to us.
Anyway, when the nurse
returned she checked the print out and at the time I had the pain I did not
have a contraction. Yay! And then my blood and urine came back all
normal (they never did check my cervix) and I was free to go. We were in and out in just over an hour. I felt so relieved that we went and that we
had a good experience and that everything appears to be fine. I told the nurse that I didn’t want to see
her again until January and she said the same thing.
It was very scary but it
turned out well and that is what I’m going to focus on. I had a good experience with the staff and
was comfortable and was not made to feel like I was overreacting. What could have been a very bad night ended
on the great high of knowing that as of right now, our baby girl is doing just
fine and everything is as it should be.
