Boy did we have some awesome plans for the weekend. Saturday night we had a sitter lined up and were going to head to Athens to see the Fuzzy Sprouts doing Sergeant Pepper at the Ga Theater. We had worked all that day on the foyer (which is finished, by the way!) and were ready to enjoy our evening out. I took a shower, fixed my hair, was in a cute little sundress, and the boys were out of the house. But, before we could make it out the door to go to dinner, the contractions began.
I have been having a few contractions here and there, probably about 3-4 a day, for the past few weeks now. Friday, they increased and I had six within six hours. But, that's still not hitting my threshold of 4 in an hour. The doctor said if I reach 4 in an hour, to call. (I think for most people, it's 6, but for me they want to play it safe). Well, Saturday night I had them in a row.... four. I drank a bunch of water and laid down. Jeff went to get us some dinner (we were starving!) and I called the doctor to let him know that I was having more than usual.
While Jeff was gone to get burritos, I had #5. Sure enough, our evening plans were completely wrecked at this point as we headed to the L&D unit. Neither one of us were particularly scared that this baby was going to come that night, but we were a bit nervous that I may be put on bedrest or stuck at the hospital for all eternity. Being well seasoned in the ways of hospital time, we packed the car with a portable DVD player, a pillow for Jeff, our dinner, and a movie. After this trip, we have decided to bring more snacks and a sleeping bag next time. Those little L&D holding rooms are so tiny and only have a chair for Jeff. He usually curls up and tried to sleep on the floor, which is HARD tile.
We reached the hospital and, or course, my contractions had slowed. I was still having them, but it was more like one an hour at this point. We waited for a room. In the waiting room, there was a woman who was obviously having painful contractions. No doubt, she would be leaving there with a baby in her arms. Her husband was on the phone with various people giving updates. Jeff and I absolutely cracked up when we overheard, "Well, she's not making no noises yet or nothing, but..." I could tell from across the room that the poor girl would have smacked him if she hadn't been silently trying to cope with the pain.
We were sent to our little room where they hooked me up to a contraction monitor and a fetal heartrate monitor. I had been amazed with how insane this baby has been all day. I think the contractions were making him/her mad. The kicks were fast and furious, and didn't seem to stop. When you put sound to it, it is even more impressive. That sucker kept kicking and squirming to the point that Jeff had to figure out how to turn the volume on the monitor down so we could hear our movie.
Much to my surprise, the L&D department could not do a cervical length check. What? Really? They said that they let Maternal/Fetal Specialists do those when they come in each day. So, instead of just looking in and seeing if all was well, they checked my contractions and then gave me the fetal fibronectin test. This test basically tells if you are truly in preterm labor. There are proteins that they look for that are only found when the baby starts to break loose and get ready for an exit. Without going into gory details, the test is performed with a swab. The results would be back in an hour or so (which in hospital time means 2 or more), so we knew we were stuck for a while. Jeff laid down and went to sleep... somehow. Didn't look comfy to me.
When the tests results came back, they were positive. However, the nurse asked me a question that she should have asked me before wasting the time and money on that test. Again, without too much detail, she was asking me if anything could have made the test invalid. The answer was 'yes', so the test was deemed inconclusive. We could have known that two hours prior, but again, hospital time is warped.
This leaves us with an old fashioned cervical check, which showed that I was still closed and the contractions weren't causing labor to progress. (Again, why couldn't we have done this forever ago??) The nurse said that my contractions did show up on the monitor, and that even when I am not contracting, my uterus is very irritable. Boy, do I remember those words... irritable uterus. I was hoping only one baby would make my uterus a little more content than two!
Now, I wait to go to maternal/fetal on Wednesday for a real check. I'm hoping they don't put me on too many restrictions... I have a lot to get done in the short time we have before this baby comes. Plus, I have to try to catch that show we missed!
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