July 28, 2011
We had a bit of a scare yesterday- and just so you know going into the story that everything is good and Togglebuttons is still baking away in my belly. So, on Tuesday night I had gone out with some girlfriends and stayed out way past my bedtime. I started having some pretty bad lower back pain, but didn’t think too much of it because, well, I’m almost 35 weeks pregnant, and because back pain has just sort of become a daily occurrence for me since my spinal fusion in 2002. So, I get home and take my concoction of vitamins and things that help me sleep, but by this point my back is hurting extremely bad, so I take a warm bath to see if that helps. It did get me nice and relaxed, but as soon as I got out of the water the pain started right back up again and wouldn’t lighten up – I tried icing, heating pads, elevating my feet, laying on my right side, laying on my left side, etc, etc, I just couldn’t get the pain to let up. And I wasn’t getting any sleep. At all.
I was feeling a lot of tightness in my belly, but it was about 4:00 am at this point and wasn’t exactly what you would call ‘with it’. (Not thinking enough about it at that point to time them or figure out how long they were lasting) I called the L&D ward at the hospital and the nurse said to drink three big glasses of water and see if the tightness lightens up, I drank all that water, and my belly did loosen up. Finally around 6:30 am on Wednesday morning I managed to find a somewhat comfortable position sleeping sitting up, propped up by pillows on all sides and I slept for about two hours. Paul left for work and I just sort of kept moving around all morning to try to get into a comfortable position, but I was feeling mighty grumpy at this point. Fast forward to around 1:00- Paul had just left to go back to work (he was home on his lunch break) and a few minutes after he left I started feeling really bad- like, really, really bad. I started timing the contractions and they were only 4 minutes apart and were lasting between 60-90 seconds each time. So, I called my doctor and they told me to come in and get on the monitor for a little bit to see what was going on. They had me monitored for about 15 minutes before they realized that this was, in fact, labor.
They gave me a shot of Terbutaline, which gave me the shakes awfully bad. They checked my cervix and I was starting to dilate, so it was good that I came in when I did. They watched me for a few hours and then sent me home, on modified bed rest, which basically means that I don’t really have to stay in bed, but I shouldn’t be running around doing too much, and that I just have to take it really easy for the next few weeks. No heavy lifting, no long walks, nothing that could potentially kick-start my labor again. I also get to take this fun medication that makes me all lightheaded and dizzy, and I get to take it every four hours for the next seven days. They’re not sure what caused me to go into pre-term labor, but I sure am glad that they’ve got ways of stopping it once it starts! The GOOD news is that he is still measuring bigger than average, so even if he does decide that he’s ready to come before he’s supposed to, things are looking pretty good. We’re hoping he decides to stay in there until at least 37 weeks, if not longer. Hopefully this was a one time deal and he won’t try to escape again until we’re good and ready for him!
Posted by Ali Tong in Baby, Pregnancy
Photo from Effie’s Photography
