Thursday, April 23, 2009

Trip to Labor and Delivery

So after my craft fair last Saturday I started noticing this weird discomfort in my lower abdomen, kind of like a pressure and cramping sensation. I decided it was probably from sitting all day at the craft fair on an uncomfortable metal chair and decided to just ignore it. Well, the cramping sensation kept happening on and off for the next couple days, but I just chalked it up to being tired and getting bigger. Well, on Tuesday around two in the afternoon, the cramping sensation got much worse, and now it actually hurt. So after about an hour of these tightening cramps coming and going I decided to call my doctors office. Afterall, I have no idea what's normal and they're the ones that deal with pregnancy all day everyday. Well the nurse told me that she couldn't tell me that I wasn't going into pre-term labor. So I asked, what does that mean? And she said "that means you have to go to labor and delivery right now, how close are you?" Well, I work at the hospital so not very far actually. Okay, so I leave work a bit stressed. As of Tuesday I was barely 31 weeks (I turned 31 weeks on Tuesday) so preterm labor would mean 9 weeks early. So on my way over I call Joel, me: "Hi Honey, how are you?" Joel: "I'm okay, I'm getting ready to go take my final soon. How are you?" me: "I'm okay. I'm actually headed over to labor and delivery right now." Joel: "Why?" me: "I might be having surges." (Surges is what we call contractions, we're taking a natural childbirth class and they don't call them contractions, they call them surges, and braxton hicks are practice surges). Joel: "Do you want me to come?" me: "No, I'm okay, just go take your test, I'm hoping to be back to work by 4:30" (At this point it was around 3:30). Well, by the time I got to Labor and delivery the "surges" had stopped completely, now I just feel like a silly pregnant lady with moniters on my belly. So they checked me out and it turned out that the pressure was because the baby is really low and pushing on my pelvis and sitting was causing the pressure. The "surges" were likely from being dehydrated (I had drank like 5 glasses of water right before going to L&D which is probably why they stopped). So they let me go home about 5:30 that night, but said I couldn't go back to work that night (I asked). All in all it was a very exciting trip. Poor Joel was pretty stressed out during his final and showed up at labor and delivery as I was walking out. The labor and delivery floor at Utah Valley is really quite impressive. The room I was in was huge, though I was a bit discontcerted about being covered only in a hospital gown with the windows facing 500 W wide open, and the nurses were very nice. Baby's heartbeat was nice and strong, fluctuating between about 145 bpm and 179 bpm. Hopefully we don't have anymore scares for at least 7 weeks.

2 comments:

Leslie@leserleeslovesandhobbies said...

The same thing happened for me with Bryany. Stupid dehydration. They should warn pregnant ladies about such things. Now we both know to drink lots of water. Although I'm done having kids, but whatever. Drink lots and stay hydrated. At least for the next year, or however long you plan to breastfeed.

Kathleen said...

Don't worry it has happened to me too. I did that with Kaylee!