Well, it's been an eventful last couple of days. For the last 2 weeks I've had this overwhelming fear that I'm going to deliver the baby super early. It seems like I've been hearing a lot of stories about that recently and now I've learned my lesson! I think it has to do with the fact that I know that my baby could survive if she's born now (though she still doesn't have a very good chance and there would probably be several complications). So, please don't tell me any more baby or birth stories unless it only involves healthy, happy babies and mothers and I'm going to stop reading about them too!
Tuesday at about 3:00 I had some bleeding and called the nurse. It scared me, but for 2 months in my 1st trimester I bled every week for a day or two each week and I was told that that was pretty normal. But, I haven't had any problems with that since then, so I wanted to see what the doctor wanted me to do. I figured he'd say something like if it continues after a couple of hours or if there is any pain w/ it to call them back. But, when I talked to the nurse she said the doctor wanted to see me right away! I was trying to avoid going in there and I was asking her if that was necessary and if she thought that something was wrong. She said well, you shouldn't be bleeding at this point in your pregnancy, so you should really come in and get it checked out. Luckily for me, Jason was on his way home and only like a block away from the house when I called him so he brought me there.
Again, I thought the dr. would just check me over quick, tell me he didn't think anything was wrong and then send me home. He did an exam and said that there was still some blood and he didn't know why so he wanted me to get admitted to Labor and Delivery and have them monitor me for a little bit to see if I was having any contractions. That's not what I wanted to hear, but again I figured they'd hook me up to it for a few minutes and then we'd be able to go home. I got wheel-chaired to labor and delivery by a little old woman that looked like I should have been pushing her around! It made me nervous to go there b/c the last time I was there was about a year ago when Chase was born! It didn't feel right being in a birthing room having Venily's heartrate monitored and having me monitored for contractions at only about 24 weeks. I had to lay in the bed for about an hour and a half. Then the doctor came in and told me I was having some minor contractions and that he was going to do an internal test to see if I was in labor or not. If it came back negative I was fine and could go home, but if it came back positive I was going to have to have some ultrasounds to see what was going on. He did the test and it was really painful and there seemed to be a lot more blood than last time. He told us that the blood would almost guarantee a false positive so he ordered the ultrasound. I was starting to get really scared and told Jason that he kept saying the wrong things from what he was supposed to. He was supposed to tell me that everything was fine and that I could go home! Then a nurse came in and hooked me up to an IV (my first ever, and it hurt worse than I even imagined! The back of my hand is all bruised today!). And then as soon as that was in, another nurse came and took my blood. And then a lady came with the ultrasound machine that she had to wheel up from Imaging (they don't have one in L&D!). She did a regular ultrasound first and we got to see our gorgeous daughter again (the only good thing about this whole experience!). She looked really good, as usual! This woman took all of her measurements again and said that she was very photogenic! She also confirmed to us that she's definitely a girl! :) Based on her measurements at 23 weeks, 5 days, she was measuring at 24 weeks, 5 days! She's growing very well and is now in the 81st percentile! They estimate her to be at 1 lb, 11 oz. Her heartbeat was also really good at 140bpm, which is right where the monitor was keeping her at too (between 135-145). I had to have an internal ultrasound also which showed that my cervix was long (which is what the dr. was hoping for). Her fluid levels and stuff looked good too. The dr. was happy w/ the ultrasound results, but wanted to keep me overnight just to be sure. He called a high risk pregnancy specialist in Milwaukee and told him what was going on w/ me and that dr. said that he wanted to see me immediately, but my doctor told him that he wanted to hold off on sending me b/c he was pretty sure I wasn't in labor. My doctor isn't sure but thinks that my placenta just shifted a bit, allowing some blood to come from behind and that the blood on my cervix was irritaing it, causing it to contract. When Jason talked to Cathy Kotrba, she thought the same thing so that makes us feel much better.
So, we spent the night in the hospital and it was not fun at all! I haven't spent the night at a hospital before since I was born! Jason is such a sweetheart and slept in the tiniest, most uncomfortable looking recliner I have ever seen even though I told him several times that he could go home and sleep and that I would be fine! He's the best! I didn't get much sleep either. The bed and pillows were uncomfortable and I was still hooked up to the IV, which made things difficult. The IV also kept beeping really loudly every time I would fall asleep and then I'd have to call a nurse in to fix the problem. I also had to go go the bathroom a million times and I'd have to drag the whole big IV thing in w/ me! Yesterday morning at about 9:30 the doctor said we could go home. I was put back on the contraction monitor for another hour or 2 that morning and it didn't show any more contractions, thank goodness! My test from the night before came back positive though, as the doctor figured, so I have to go back in a few days and hopefully then it will be negative! It it turns out I am in premature labor they are going to put me on medication and do everything that they can so that my baby can bake longer and come out healthy.
We learned a lot, though, through this experience about what it will be like to give birth here and neither of us are very confident about it. I told Jason that I wanted to deliver here as long as there weren't any problems, but now that there has been we are more than likely going to be switching over to Aurora in Kenosha. The nurses and doctor were really nice here, but didn't really know what they were doing. It felt to both of us that this was everyone's first time dealing with anything like this and even the whole atmosphere wasn't very good. The rooms are VERY small and in order to do anything, they have to take out all of the furniture and move it into the hall and go and find stools or lights or things from other rooms to bring them in. They were also always looking for outlets and stuff and running in the bathroom to get paper towels. It just didn't seem very organized at all. Plus, here at Burlington there are 2 rooms you go to. The birthing room where you stay until about an hour after birth and then you are moved to an even smaller post birth room. At Kenosha, you get a really nice birthing suite that you stay in the whole time and it's so much nicer and also fully equipped with all of the necessary things (no furniture moving into the hall necssary!) and it has the feel of a nice hotel room rather than a cramped hospital room from the 80's. They are also remodeling the rooms here at Burlington, which is good, but no matter what, there is going to be construction going on in at least one set of rooms when we're ready to have the baby. They are supposedly set to start the post birth rooms in August and they will take 2 months. They should be done by the beg. of October, but you know how that goes! Then, when they finish those, they are going to work on the birthing rooms. Sooo.... if we thought things were disorganized now and no one knew what they were doing or where anything was, it's only going to get worse! So, that's what is going on! Jason said he could get me to Kenosha in 12 minutes if necessary! :) Lol, and if we have any more problems, I'm pretty sure Jason isn't going to let me have any more kids any time soon. He already said that we're adopting our next one, but I want to have a couple before we start adopting! We'll see!
Jason has limited me from doing almost everything because he doesn't want anything going wrong (which I understand). So, I've had to tone down my obsessive cleaning and there will be no more moving of furniture by me or lifting boxes or anything like that! I've definitely learned my lesson!
Oh, also, we might have a few changes in where and when we have the baby shower, so I will let everyone know when it's figured out. It'll probably still be the same weekend, but maybe a different park.
Here's some good pictures too of what my baby looked like at 8 weeks, what she looks like now, and how she'll look at 40 weeks! Jason gets freaked out by these, but I find them facinating! :)
8 WEEKS
24 WEEKS
40 WEEKS
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