Wow, it's been a week, that's for sure.
My mom and her husband (Grammi and Popi) arrived in town on Monday afternoon. They had a few days off so they decided to take a trip on their motorcycle and come down to see us. Around 1pm I started having a bit of cramping down in my lower uterus, however, I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. By 6pm, we had dinner and were headed out for some dessert. The cramping continued as the evening went on and progressively got worse. By 8pm I was in so much pain that I really didn't feel okay with it continuing. I was scared because I couldn't get in a comfortable position and I was cramping so much. I was worried that something was wrong with the little man, regardless of the fact that he continued to romp around like normal. When something like this happens, I really don't think it's possible to think rationally and pretend that everything is okay. You automaticly think the worst possible scenerio.
Even though I was in so much pain, I REALLY didn't want to scare my husband, my mom or my mom's husband. I was really worried that they'd freak out and have a panic attack. At that point, it's NOT what I wanted to do. I kind of secretly called my husband into the bedroom and when he came in I immediately just started bawling. I don't know how the heck he understood what I said but the conversation kind of went like this:
Me: My belly is really hurting.. I don't want to scare you but I'm really not comfortable with this amount of pain that I'm in. (while bawling my eyes out...)
Big J: Do you think it may be cramping because we just ate ice cream?! (I'm lactose intolerent & I have IBS)
Me: No. It's 100% not a digestable pain, it's like a constant muscle cramp and it's now starting to radiate around my back. It hurts so bad!
Big J: Well, let's just go to Urgent Care and make sure that everything's okay.
Me: Can we just call the Labor and Delivery ward and talk to the dr on call and see if this is normal?
Big J: If you're in enough pain to make you cry, I think we just need to go in.
Me: Aren't we supposed to go to Labor and Delivery or do we just go to Urgent Care?!
Big J: I don't know, let's just figure it out when we get there.
Me: I REALLY don't want to go sit in Urgent Care with a bunch of sick people, can we just call to make sure?
(after spending a whole 20 second looking in the phone book for the phone number.. I gave up and said:)
Me: Okay, forget it, we'll just ask when we get there.
We quickly headed to Urgent care and boy, that was interesting. We walked in and of course everyone was staring at me because here I am a huge 7 month pregnant woman who's walking into Urgent Care, bawling. I didn't want to sign in with the triage nurse, so I just told my husband to go ask the secretary who checks people in.. He proceeded to tell her that his wife who was 7 months pregnant was having some MAJOR cramping and he was wondering if I needed to check in there or just head up to Labor and Delivery... she didn't know so she called back to the doctor in the back. His response was if I was stable enough, I needed to rush over to L&D, but first, we'd have to go to the hospital's front lobby and check in to let them know where we needed to go. (The 5th floor (L&D) is on a security alert due to all the H1N1 going around, so you have to get a pass to go up)
We walked up to the lobby where approximately 5 million and 1 people were in line to get passes to visit people (at 9pm... who does that?!) in the hospital. Here's how this one went.. Oy!
Big J: We need to go up to Labor and Delivery.. can you tell us how to get there?
Lady behind counter: You need to wait in line for a pass to get up there.
Grammi: (While pointing at my belly and saying aloud, very sternly) This isn't reason enough?!?!
Lady behind counter: (After looking at my belly, then noticing that I was crying) OH!! Does she need to be admitted?
Grammi: That would be nice!
She promptly got on the phone to someone, somewhere else in the hospital and told them that they needed a wheel chair down in the lobby, STAT, to head up to L&D.
No more than 2 seconds later this lady who seemed to be in her late 50's to early 60's was RUNNING about 50 miles an hour through the lobby, headed in my direction. She grabbed me and asked if I wanted a wheel chair. I said no, I could walk. She then asked me what had happened and about 2 second into me trying to explain, I started bawling, so she made me sit in the wheel chair.
Got up to the L&D Triage room, got hooked up to a monitor, to monitor contractions as well as a monitor to monitor the baby. I also had to pee in a cup and have the nurse check my cervix. (holy hell, that crap isn't funny.)
After spending a couple hours there... me and baby were doing fine and they sent us home. I did have a few good contractions while I was there. The nurse was the one who said they were pretty good, not me, so I guess they were pretty good.
Turns out I was having some pretty severe Round Ligament pain. Dr said that once you make it to 30-31 weeks, the bottom of your uterus starts to stretch like crazy to make room for baby and delivery. He sent me home with instructions to get a belly support band and rest as much as possible.
Fortunately I wasn't dialated at all and baby was doing WONDERFUL in there. The nurse was cracking up at how much he was moving around while being monitored. He didn't like the monitor, at all, as he kept kicking it every few seconds and I mean he was KICKING the monitor.. it wasn't just movement.. it looked as if he was trying to kick it off.
After all of that... the pain, the visit, the contractions, the cramping, etc... you can bet that I am NOT looking forward to labor. If that, alone, wasn't labor.. I'm screwed.
That crap sucked royally. I'm not kidding.
That, alone, makes me want to ask for an epidural, now. Man, oh, man!
Stephanie-
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry you've had pain like that start up. Did you find that the pain eased at all if you lied down on one side, or pushed the baby's head up off of the sore spot?
I had horrible pain with my last 2 pregnancies after 30 weeks or so. The wonderful thing, though, is that as soon, (and I mean literally to the second) of when my babies were pulled out, the pain ended.
I hope the next 2 months go easily for you and that you're able to stay off your feet and rest some!
IVF babies born from embryos that are frozen and thawed are less likely to be underweight or premature than those conceived during fresh treatment cycles, research has shown.
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/OGquG
Wow that must have been so scary for you.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you and the baby are ok.
Stephanie - I had almost the same trip to L&D. Except we were heading in for our hospital tour that day so we didn't rush. When we got there, the nurse took one look at me and sent me in to get a bed. After 6 hours of monitoring and tests they sent me home. All was ok. And Bubble tried to kick off the monitor through the whole experience. Not looking forward to the big show either.
ReplyDelete