I started feeling tightness and pain in my lower abdomen and back about 2 weeks ago. I thought this was the stretching of my uterus to accommodate my growing baby, but as this pain continued and started getting worse, I realized that I was actually having contractions. Yikes! A 21 weeks, this is definitely NOT a good thing. My mom suggested that I call the midwives to get their advice. I called late last Thursday and they immediately called me back early Friday morning. The nurse told me I needed to get to the office as soon as possible. So, instead of heading to work, I headed straight to the medical center.
Once I got there, one of the midwives, Diane, checked my cervix to see if it was dilating. Luckily, I was not dilating, but the midwife thought my cervix seemed short, which could mean I was going into pre-term labor. The next step was an ultrasound to measure more accurately the length of my cervix. Baby Christian (we finally decided on his name!) was very active, once again, during the ultrasound. This made me breathe a sigh of relief. At least the baby was doing well! The tech measured my cervix and said it was not shortened. Yay! One hurdle crossed! But, the tech said she could see that my uterus was contracting and of course, I knew that because I could feel it.
After the ultrasound, Diane put me on a monitor to watch the patterns of my contractions. At this point, the contractions were coming every few minutes. They were not very painful contractions, but extremely uncomfortable. After 30 minutes or so, Diane said that I was having labor patterned contractions, and I needed to go to the hospital to be under observation. I was not expecting that at all! But, I knew that she knew best. So, the midwives office is actually in the hospital, I just had to make my way to the labor and delivery floor, where another midwife, Dawn was delivering a baby. She would be the one to observe me.
On my way to the labor & delivery floor, I called my husband and my mom to let them know what was going on, and they immediately arranged to come to the hospital to keep me company.
Once at the hospital, I was given an IV and was out back on the monitor. My contractions were still pretty steady for the next few hours. So, the midwife, Dawn, gave me some medicine to stop the contractions. It didn't completely stop the contractions, but it made them much less frequent. Next, Dawn wanted to do another ultrasound to make sure my cervix was not changing. Again, my cervix was fine. At about 6:30 in the evening, Dawn gave me 2 prescriptions of medicine and released me from the hospital. But, she told me I had to go home and be on bed rest for the next few days. She didn't want me lifting, cleaning or walking around. Basically, she wanted me to stay in bed and rest. So, ALL weekend I was a complete bum! Ugh! No fun at all! But, the contractions went away almost completely! I only had a few of them on Saturday and a few on Sunday. I did notice that when I was on my feet like taking a shower and blow drying my hair, that I would start contracting. Once I was back on the couch, they eased up.
Dawn wanted to see me again yesterday (Monday). I was expecting to get the okay to go back to work and back to my normal routine. However, that was not the case at all! Even though the contractions have eased up a lot, Dawn fears that if I go back to work that my contractions will start back up again and I could go into pre-term labor. So, she wants me on bed rest this entire week! Ahh!!! I'm going to go crazy! But, for the sake of baby Christian, I will do what she says. It is WAY too early for him to make his entrance into the world! I can't wait to meet him, but he needs to stay put for at least another 15 weeks.
Giff & I are staying positive and we are praying that everything turns out okay.
Here is the newest pic of Christian. He finally cooperated and we got a great profile picture of him! I love him so much already! :)
1 comment:
wow...take care of your self and take it easy!
Post a Comment