no babies today

Things are better today, so perhaps your good thoughts and prayers are helping! I was released from the hospital late last night after a less-than-stellar stay at the hospital.

The fall was rather unremarkable- I literally tripped over my own feet in the parking lot falling on one knee and landing on my side, after trying to break my fall with my hand. It was hard enough that I knew I'd need to head into the hospital, but nothing close to my fall down the stairs so I didn't completely freak out. After a few minutes, though, I realized that the baby wasn't moving at all, and my hands were shaking as I dialed the emergency number for my ob/gyn. The baby refused to move for the whole drive to the hospital, and I was in tears by the time we pulled up in front of the hospital and checked in at the desk.

We were pulled straight into triage and set up on the monitor, and at that point our little troublemaker decided to give me some reassuring kicks. I started to relax, up until the contractions started. I've had braxton hicks contractions for the last month or two, but these were different. The contractions felt like mild menstrual cramps, with the monitor showing that the contractions were coming every 2-4 minutes apart, although I felt them less regularly than that.

We stayed in triage for a couple of hours, waiting to see if the contractions stopped or slowed down, but were transferred to our own room for the night to continue monitoring. Apparently, a fall followed by contractions is one of the warning signs for placental abruption, and continuing contractions moved us into a higher risk category. I had blood drawn, and an iv put in, just in case dehydration might be contributing to the "cranky uterus". To be honest, as far as discomfort goes, the iv was the worst part. It hurt going in, and it was bothersome and uncomfortable the whole time it was in, particularly when they turned the flow up. The attending did cervical checks and although the contractions were steady, they didn't seem to be doing much in the way of dilation.

The night was long and tiresome. If the baby strayed from the monitor at all, a nurse would rush in and readjust the monitor. I wasn't sleeping much anyway, I was so stressed and nervous about the baby. We felt fairly well-informed all night, however. It wasn't until the morning that we started to actually worry. At around 6am, the nurse woke me up to tell me that they were concerned because the contractions hadn't stopped yet and they expected them to be over by then.

Shortly thereafter, Josh went down to grab a coffee and a newspaper, and a medical student walked into my room and brightly informed me that she would be observing my c-section that morning. After I tersely informed her that I was NOT having a c-section, she ran out of the room and never came back. When Josh got back, I nervously told him what had happened and he insisted that I ring for the nurse to get more information. It seems that the medical student had gone into the wrong room, and was mortified that I'd gotten upset. But she never came back to tell us that she'd been mistaken!

This was only the beginning, though. At 9am, the attending came in and began really scaring us. She told us that the risks of placental abruption were higher now because it had been 15-16 hours since the fall and the contractions were continuing. Then she started talking about emergency c-sections, and then she started talking about how the baby was breach. But, umm, the baby is not breach. And hasn't been breach for 6 weeks! Which was not the most comforting thing she could have said. The ultrasound of the night before had shown that the baby was decidedly not breach, and it would have been nice if she had actually, ohhh, I don't know, read the chart? She ordered more labs and sternly told me not to eat or drink anything just in case my emergency c-section took place.

The rest of the day was downhill from there, because no one would let me eat (even though I'd eaten only an apple and a yogurt the day before), and no one would tell us what was going on. We asked to speak to a doctor a few times, yet no one had time to stop by. At 3pm the nurse walked in and told me that I could eat and could order whatever I wanted so I scarfed down a turkey sandwich. A few hours later, she unceremoniously walked in and told me that she was taking out my iv because I was being discharged. No explanation, no instructions, no assurances, no nothing! The nurse told us to call our doctor in the morning to get explanations about what type of rest I needed or whether I could go to work the next day. Needless to say, I cried on the drive home. Partly out of relief that the ordeal seemed to be over, and partly out of anger and fear that we didn't know what was happening now.

This morning, though, my doctor was very reassuring. I won't be on bed rest for now, and she isn't worried about my needing to have the baby any time in the near future. I'm resting today and tomorrow and staying off of my feet, but as long as the contractions continue to lessen in time and severity, everything should be fine. So we're all very relieved in the halloweenlover household, and we're thanking our lucky stars that baby decided to stay inside for a few more weeks. We're not quite ready to meet him or her yet, although we're looking forward to it.