First (and hopefully last until January) Visit to Labor and Delivery

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.