On Pins and Needles

The new anti-contraction prescription, Procardia, did not work so well, and we ended up back in the hospital at midnight on Friday for contractions. The doctors told me to call if I have more than four in an hour, and I was having six an hour for several hours in a row. They were irregular but some of them were pretty intense, and even though I was pretty sure they were just false labor contractions, it seemed to me that it would be irresponsible not to go to the hospital when I was having so many. I was awfully glad we went, because even after I got there and they started pumping in fluids, the contractions got even more intense, closer together, and lasted longer. After two shots of terbutaline and two bags of fluids, they calmed down but didn't stop completely. The doctor said that normally they would have gone ahead with the c-section in that situation but since we knew Isabella was still immature it was better to try to keep waiting.

Apparently I'm just one of those people who is going to have lots of contractions, which really puts me on pins and needles because every time they start up, I have to start trying to figure out if they are real or false and get ready to go to the hospital. Supposedly the false ones aren't strong enough to make me dilate, but the real contractions are strong enough, and it's really hard to figure out when it's real and when it's false when so many are coming on. Even at the hospital, they aren't able to figure out for sure whether they are real or false. They hook me up to a monitor that times them, but the only way to really find out is to do a cervical check, which can't be done in my situation because it could rupture the blood vessels on the placenta right over my cervix. Soooo things are not too much fun right now. Since I was not bleeding, they let me go home after a seven hour stay, but last night the contractions started up again. I decided to switch back to the previous medication I was on, terbutaline, before they got out of hand, and so far that seems to be working better. I'm crossing all my fingers on this.

Even though it's never fun to spend the night at the hospital, there was an up side to being there Friday night. There are two hospitals in Athens, both competing heavily for the maternity patients, and being newbies in town we didn't know which was really the better hospital. Even after we took classes at both and toured both of them, we were undecided about which to have the baby at since they both seemed good to us. The last time I went in for bleeding and contractions, we went to the hospital where I was already registered, but I really wasn't happy with the experience we had there, so after asking around a little we decided to deliver at the other hospital and did our pre-op there last week. Our contraction episode Friday night gave us a chance to really check out that hospital before delivering there, and I feel really good about it now. Everything was so much better than at the previous hospital we went to. We had the best nurse I could ever hope to have and I wish I could put her on reserve for our c-section! Everyone was super nice and professional, the room was much more comfortable (Stephen even managed to fit on the bed with me to catch some sleep), and even though I got another busted IV, the nurse recognized it right away instead of leaving the needle in for hours like they did at the last place when I had a heparin lock (my arm is still black and green even though it's been two weeks since that happened!). We also got to see lots of cute sleeping babies in the nursery as we were leaving, which helped to cheer me up. I can't wait for our baby to be here!

Speaking of pins and needles, we also had a good experience with the amniocentesis. The illustrations of amnios in pregnancy books make the needle look gigantic, but the doctor used a thin flexible needle that didn't hurt at all. Isabella is a very active baby, and I was so worried that she would be in one of her somersault spells during the test and get hurt by the needle, but she stayed perfectly still while the needle was in and I was very proud of her for being so good! They withdrew an ounce of amniotic fluid in 10 seconds, and I thought it was super cool to see what the fluid looked like. It's crazy that something can be taken out of my uterus so easily!

We have everything ready for the baby, except for strapping in the car seat. My mom has arranged to stay with us for a week after the surgery while Stephen has to be at work, then his parents will come to help a few days while he has to work the following week. We tried to time things so that the baby would come after the semester was over, and her due date was actually the day after Stephen would be completely done with the semester, but obviously things have changed since she'll be delivered three weeks early. Life is going to be pretty hectic for a few weeks while he finishes up the semester and we are adjusting to having a baby around, but that's just how it's going to be and we're trying to make the best of it. All we care about is having a healthy baby!