Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Labor & Delivery - 29 wks 5 days

What a day.  First of all, everything is fine.  Just decided to go visit the lovely ladies in OB triage this morning.  I haven't really had any cramping in about two months, and it came back off and on last week and some this week, but never stuck around long.  But last night it was kind of persistant and a little bit more noticeable.  So it was on my mind when I went to bed last night, and I was still cramping some when I woke up this morning, so I decided no work today, and a call to my OB was in order.

Aside from the overall guilt of not being able to protect Kayla, I don't have a ton of actual "I should have done this or that" guilt.  Except I waited three days till the cramping got pretty bad before I took action, and that is the one thing I have some what-if guilt over.  Wondering if I had gone to the hospital sooner, if they could have stalled my labor some, enough to keep her baking a few more weeks until viability. 

So the second my cramping got a little worrrisome this time, I decided to play it safe.  As expected, the nurse told me to go the L & D instead of coming in to the office.  I was supposed to get up at 5 for work but went back to sleep until 7 so I could call off work, and then again until 9 to call my doctor.  So it was nice to sleep in a little.  After I showered I woke up my husband and told him we had to go.  I wasn't super duper worried, because I was quite sure if I was in pre-term labor that this time we had caught it early enough to slow it down.  Plus I had just had a cervical ultrasound last week and things were good.

Turns out, it was probably a good thing I had to call off work anyway because when we went to go to the hospital, my battery was dead.  I could have taken my husband's car, but two of his tires were flat since he's been driving his truck lately so the cold kinda deflated his tires, but I wouldn't have woken him up at 6am to put air in the tires (he got home from work around 4am) and I certainly was not going to do it myself at that hour, in the dark, in the frigid cold (it's been about -15 degrees F with wind chills feeling like -30) and pregnant.  So I at the very least would have been very very late for work.

So we took his truck to the hospital, the drive was a little hairy because the roads were pretty icy today, we saw a lot of accidents.  We got there, got checked in and I was hooked up to the fetal monitoring.  Pretty cool, I didn't get it last time because I wasn't far enough along.  Her heartbeat was good which I assumed because she was kicking the crap out of me the whole way there.  The monitor didn't pick up any contractions, my urine showed no sign of infection, and both the speculum exam and pelvic exams were good, my cervix is closed.  Whew.  I think we were there for about an hour.

After it was all said and done I did feel a little silly for coming in, but everyone agreed with my history it was good that I did, especially since the monitor could tell us if I really was having any contractions.  So I'm thinking the cramping was due to lack of water.  We've been insanely busy at work the past few weeks and I just haven't gotten a chance to really breathe, so I've been forgetting to drink my water, most days not even getting half of what I should be drinking.  So, more water for me.

The ironic thing of it all is the very reason I went to the hospital, and the exam to make sure everything was ok, will likely now make me spot and cramp some over the next few days.  But at least I'll know why.  The exams weren't pleasant, I squeezed my husband's hand when it was really painful, but they were very quick at least.  I was starving because my nurse told me it was probably wise not to eat anything, just in case.  So we get out of there around 1pm and I hadn't eaten since about 8pm the night before.  Not so good for a diabetic. 

So we went on a hot date to the hospital cafeteria.  When we got home, my husband tried jumping my battery with this jumper pack he got for Christmas last year, but it wouldn't get it going.  He tried for about an hour, and in the meantime I called Onstar and had someone on their way.  He went out one last time to try, and just then the roadside guy showed up two hours earlier than anticipated, yay!  He jumped it with his super heavy duty jumper pack and it started right up.  We figured with these frigid temps, if your battery was good you were fine, but if you were due for a new one anyway, than the extreme cold did it in.  I could never live someplace that has temperatures like this all the time.

So then we were off in search of a new battery.....Sears was all sold out, so we went to Sam's Club.  They had some, but it would be quite a wait, so we walked around the store a bit, and ate in their little cafe area.  Wow, the hospital cafeteria and Sam's Club in the same day, we sure dined in style today!  After we ate we shopped a little more and then went and got our car.  Whew, long day.  But my baby is good, I am good, and in a weird way it was a nice day.  I don't really care what we do, it was nice to spend the whole day together.  I'm off to snuggle on the couch with my kitty, and chug some water.

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