Pregnancy | Goddess in Progress

Archive for Pregnancy

Save the drama for your mama

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (10)· February 24th, 2011

Oh. Wait. I am the mama. Well, crap.

I know I’m “only” 37+ weeks, but holy shit am I all done being pregnant.

I feel bad about it. I want to relish the time I have left. I know I won’t get to do it again. And, despite its discomforts and inconveniences, I have not hated this pregnancy. Parts of it have been really cool, and even most of the less-cool parts have been quite tolerable.

But I’m done.

These once-a-week ultrasounds and non-stress tests? Despite the fact that they’ve largely all pointed to “just fine,” they are not making me feel better. They are not keeping me calm. Tuesday all but pushed me over the edge.

Arrived at the OB’s office on Tuesday morning for the non-stress test. Thankfully, my mom was in town for a visit, so she could hang out at home and play with the kids while I was at the office. Sat in the waiting room an unusually long time, and the first thing the medical assistant told me when she called me back was, “we still haven’t heard from the maternal-fetal medicine office about an ultrasound for you.” I was a little confused. I already had an ultrasound scheduled for 3PM that same afternoon, but at one of the normal ultrasound offices. “Oh no,” she said, “you’re supposed to go to MFM.” At which point the other medical assistant chimed in with, “oh, she may not know about that yet.”

THAT’S REASSURING.

OK, so it turns out that my last ultrasound showed a slight increase in fluid volume (which I knew), and because of that, they wanted me to have my next ultrasound at the MFM (high-risk) office. I didn’t know because this was only decided late Friday afternoon, Monday was a holiday, and here it was, Tuesday morning. OK. Fine. Whatever. I’m well-acquainted with that office, that’s where all of my billions of ultrasounds were during my last pregnancy. Fine.

Non-stress test went well. Apparently a decaf latte from Starbucks is the key to a ridiculously reactive baby. I actually had to sit there a bit longer just to wait for her to chill out and do a nice, even baseline heart rate. But ultimately, test went great. Yay. Nurse practitioner comes in (because why would I ever see my own OB?), I’m measuring a whopping 7 weeks ahead. Honestly, I think that’s what I measured when my twins were born. No wonder none of my shirts fit. She mentions the ultrasound with MFM (which they managed to schedule for the same afternoon, thankfully), and says we’ll just have to see if he recommends any… change of plans.

I’ll just go home and make sure my hospital bag is packed, thankyouverymuch.

Headed to the hospital with my mom and my kids in tow, since (assuming all is well) we have to take my mom straight to the airport post-appointment. The receptionist and ultrasound techs remembered me, couldn’t believe how old my kids are, and despite not seeing him in over three years, remarked how much my son looks like my husband. Nice to be back.

Ultrasound went well, all parts where they should be and seem to be doing their jobs. For the third time in recent weeks, the ultrasound tech remarked that the baby seems to have a lot of hair, very unlike my older kids. Fluid volume, while a very subjective measurement on ultrasound, does not appear quite as alarmingly high as previous measurements. And then… the baby decided it was a good time for a nap. One bit of criteria for passing these biophysical profile ultrasounds is seeing movement. This kid? Totally asleep. We poked, we jiggled, I ate a snack. Totally still except for a perfectly nice heartbeat and some lovely breathing motions. Sound asleep. Great. She sleeps like her father and brother. I’ll appreciate that later, but not now.

High-risk doc came in, said everything looks totally fine. No need to change plans and move up delivery, it’s just one of those things. Except…. do I usually feel the baby move? Well, sure. She moves just fine, I think. Well, I think we’ll just send you down to Labor & Delivery for a non-stress test. No. No. No. Had one this morning, it was great. Please, not another hour on the monitor with my mom and my kids to deal with. He put the ultrasound wand back on my belly, she finally waved her arms around, and I was free to go.

And now?

I’m back to being completely freaked out and paranoid about movement. All day, every day. Half the time, I’ll have a snack or dinner, lie down, and she’ll throw a little party and make me realize how foolish I am. The other half of the time, I get distracted by life and kids. I’m not paying attention. I can’t remember when she last moved, or moved much. I panic. She naps. I lie in the dark, still as I can, while the seconds tick by slower than ever. Eventually, of course, she moves. But I’m wound up. I can’t sleep, I’m in a near-constant state of panic. If I get busy doing something else for a few hours, I panic all the more when I realize how long it’s been since I last panicked.

Lack of sleep, crazy hormones, and a serious case of anxiety over the one-in-a-million terrible what-ifs is making me a total basketcase. (Having the kids home from school for February vacation and bored is not helping, sadly.) I’m bursting into tears over everything and nothing. I’m fried. I’ve got nothing left in the tank.

I am so freaking done with this part. I’m so sick of the worry and the blind wonder. I want to be able to look at her and see with my own eyes that she’s breathing. Yeah, I know that if my doctor was really all that worried, I’d be seen a lot more often than once a week. But that week between appointments kills me. Some days it’s easier. I notice more movement, I feel less pain. But so many days aren’t. I’m busy, I forget to “listen” to my belly. I do three kick counts a day, I eat extra snacks to wake her up. She always does what she’s supposed to, ultimately, and it never quite gets to the point of calling the hospital and going in for a check. But it never calms me down for long.

I’m not an especially anxious person by nature, but is there anything that gets us more worked up than worrying about our own kids, whether they’ve been born yet or not?

Two weeks. Maybe less. I know I’ll soon be looking back on this with detached amusement. I’ve almost made it.

I just hope I’ll have a little bit of sanity left when I get there.

Comments (10)

Categories : OB Appointments, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

More than ever before

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (15)· February 16th, 2011

Last weekend, I passed another personal pregnancy milestone. On Saturday, I was 36 weeks pregnant – the day my big kids were born.

I am now more pregnant than I have ever been.

And, clearly, the rest of the world knows it. Total stranger at Whole Foods remarked that I must be counting down the seconds. The kids’ preschool teachers are almost laughing at the sight of me. Most maternity shirts are providing woefully inadequate coverage, and even the full-panel pants don’t want to stay up over the belly, resulting in what I call “the inadvertent midriff.” And believe me, I don’t have one of those cute bellies that is begging to be shown off. It’s just… pudgy and jiggly, with residual stretch-marks, and hanging out there. Just what I want to put on display for the world to see.

But, hey. I’m here. I’m glad. Baby seems to be happy and growing (we’ll see, more appointments this week, of course). I get to meet her sometime in the next three weeks, and I am psyched. I’m as ready as I’m going to get. Her room is ready. I bought a pack of diapers and packed a bag for the hospital. As of this weekend, the van is getting rearranged to accommodate a new car seat. My mom is coming for one last visit. I will be officially full-term.

Yeah, yeah, I know an extra week or two would be a good thing and would make a difference as far as sleepy late-preterm babies and all of that. And while I’m convinced that I won’t make it to my scheduled c-section (at a whopping 39w4d), I also do not feel like labor is all that imminent. But hey, if I become one of those urban-legend, go-into-labor-at-the-full-moon women this weekend? I’m not gonna stress about it.

It’s nearly time.

Holy shit.

Comments (15)

Categories : Pregnancy

Just Swimmingly

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (5)· February 10th, 2011

Much to my shock and amazement, my non-stress test actually went off as planned yesterday afternoon. No last-minute cancellations, nor did the doctor have to bolt from the room after a call from the hospital (yes, that has happened to me, too).

As expected, this little girl was quite tricky to keep on the monitor. There’s supposed to be a mostly-continuous squiggly line of the baby’s heart rate. Not occasional dots and dashes. Unless maybe she’s trying to send me a message via morse code? (The steady line on the right is me, for once, not having any contractions. Troublemaker is on the left, or should be, at least.)

Not only was she feeling particularly active, but it turns out she’s got plenty of room to get away from the monitor, because she’s got the fetal equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in there.

I was thankfully able to sit with my doctor for a little bit after the monitoring. She walked into the room, smiled and gave me a sideways glance, and said, “you’re going to pop!” Yeah, it’s not “just a little” excess fluid. The normal range in the 3rd trimester is anywhere from 5 to 25cm. This overachiever right here? THIRTY-FIVE. She remarked that, not only would she plan on wearing the super-size booties during my c-section, but that I should be prepared for quite the gusher if my water happens to break before I go to the hospital. Delightful. I guess that explains the sensation of walking around with a gigantic water balloon in my abdomen – that’s pretty much what’s going on here.

Since I passed my glucose test (with flying colors, apparently), the likelihood is that this is, simply, just one of those things. Sometimes it happens, no known reason. The only very rare thing they’ll keep an eye on is that it can theoretically be caused by the baby not swallowing properly, which can be the result of a few different conditions or abnormalities. She thinks that would most likely have been picked up on ultrasound before now, but they’ll have the neonatologist check her out after delivery, just in case.

And, in the meantime, I am on the every-week rotation for non-stress tests and ultrasounds. Tricky to schedule around preschool pickup and naptime, but at least it’s only for a couple of weeks.

I’m feeling… well, both better and worse. Initially, I was feeling a lot better. And that’s probably the most rational way to feel. My OB did not seem especially concerned (except for the safety of my mattress in the event of my water breaking). Yes, she’s monitoring me, but I know those checks could be a lot more frequent, or if she was REALLY worried, they’d send my butt straight to the hospital.

But I can’t help feeling anxious about the rare what-ifs. I can’t help but worry about the complications that can arise with excess fluid (I won’t list them, but look up polyhydramnios if you really want to). I know those complications are rare. I know that the much greater likelihood is that everything is and will be just fine. But I’ll breathe a little easier (literally and figuratively) when she’s on the outside and we can see that everything is in the right place, working like it should.

Less than four weeks to go…

Comments (5)

Categories : OB Appointments, Pregnancy

Tags : excess fluid, non-stress tests, NST/BPP

Non-Stressing

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (10)· February 8th, 2011

My lower-risk pregnancy seems to be stressing me out way more than I remember feeling during my higher-risk one. How messed up is that?

On many levels, everything is just fine. Baby is moving regularly, though I still get paranoid and may have woken up at 4am and had a snack just so I could do a kick count. Blood pressure is still nice and low (this time last pregnancy, it had spiked to 150/100 and they almost delivered me on the spot). Blah blah, boring pregnancy stuff.

But I’m still measuring 1-2 weeks “ahead.” Still carrying around, it would seem, a slightly larger kid and a bit of extra fluid. So, not surprisingly, my OB ordered another ultrasound and a non-stress test. Heck, I had already consulted Dr. Google, I knew this was coming.

So why is it freaking me right the hell out?

Intellectually, I know this is no big deal. I know that minor amounts of excess fluid happen, and hey, somebody’s kid has to be greater than the 50th percentile, right? As for the testing, I had the ultrasound/NST combo twice a week at the end of my last pregnancy. It’s old hat.

Maybe it’s because this seems to be more of a surprise? Last time it just seemed par for the course. Yes, I knew they were watching Rebecca because she was so small, but she always checked out just fine, and I don’t remember feeling that concerned. This time, everything was so quiet, that to have a slight change in plans makes me nervous. (And yes, it’s possible I’m mis-remembering my own stress levels from my last pregnancy – it was, after all, 3.5 years ago, and I’m well aware that everything turned out fine.)

Additionally, I feel like there’s a lot less feedback when working with the OB’s office, as opposed to the maternal-fetal medicine specialist. In my MFM days, the women who did the ultrasounds were particularly chatty, telling me everything they were seeing, and always making me feel pretty reassured. The ultrasound was followed within minutes by some feedback from the doctor herself, so I knew right away where we stood. Now, the “regular” ultrasound folks are friendly but a lot more tight-lipped about what they’re really looking for, and then I have to go hang out for a day or two while I wonder if my OB is going to call me and say anything at all about what she saw.

This week is one of those times when I’m feeling oh-so ready to be done being pregnant, if only so I don’t have to play these games anymore. I had a routine check-up last Friday morning (with the nurse practitioner, because why would my actual OB ever be available?), and then a call at 5:30pm saying that my OB did, in fact, want to order a non-stress test. But that the scheduling people were already gone for the day, so I should hear something Monday. Great, that doesn’t make for an anxious weekend or anything (hence, the 4am kick count).

Got the call at 11am Monday from the office, basically saying my only available appointments were 1pm Monday (i.e. 2 hours from the phone call) for an ultrasound and 2:15 on Wednesday for a non-stress test. Super. Naptime. Great. I’ll come with my non-sleeping entourage.

Had the ultrasound, got to see the baby playing with her toes and get a case of the hiccups. Lovely. And then the ultrasound tech finishes and says, “I’ll just call the doctor with the preliminary results and see if she wants you to stay or if you’re OK to go.” Um, hello. That is NOT reassuring in the slightest, and yet gives me no specific feedback whatsoever. Five minutes later I was happily waved out of the office, but I still have no further information. Still just excess fluid? Anything else of concern? No freaking clue, but it only serves to make me feel like there is something specific they’re keeping from me. Paranoid? Maybe, but I have no reason not to be.

(Even though M constantly reminds me that, if they were actually concerned in any real way, they’d send me straight to Labor & Delivery… still…)

In the meantime, with the rotten timing of Wednesday’s non-stress test, what made the most sense was to have M take a vacation day so I could go without the kids. Except, of course, the scheduling coordinator was kind enough to let me know that my OB was actually covering the hospital that day, so she may get called away and have to reschedule. I’m already prepared with my shit-storm of a response if that happens – they will have to send me to the goddamn hospital and hook me up there. I am rearranging my life for this appointment, they will accommodate me. Period.

Non-stress my ass.

Comments (10)

Categories : OB Appointments, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : excess fluid, non-stress tests, NST/BPP

Contingency Planning

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (8)· February 1st, 2011

My c-section date is on the books. It’s a strange thing, putting your child’s birthday on the calendar before she shows up.

Of course, I’m well aware of the saying, “we make plans, and God laughs.” Especially when it comes to childbirth. I know perfectly well that I could go into labor on my own before the appointed time of delivery. It happened last time – my kids were born six days ahead of schedule. And, as my husband points out, I am someone who is chronically early for everything, so what are the chances I’ll actually make it to that day?

And, so, it’s time for some contingency planning. Last time, all I had to worry about was letting the dog out before we went to the hospital. This time, of course, I have the whereabouts and well-being of two preschoolers to be concerned with.

I know that labor and childbirth are not like the movies. It doesn’t move all that fast (unless you’re Kristen, of course). If contractions get underway, or even if my water breaks, I know that I don’t necessarily have to drop everything and bolt for the hospital. But I do have to make sure there’s someone to take care of my kids, since I want to avoid dragging them with me at nearly all costs.

This is one of those times when I feel, very acutely, the lack of family nearby.

My sister-in-law is in the area, but as a medical resident, it’s not like she can drop her patients in the middle of the day and come running out to the ‘burbs. I have an aunt who lives about 45 minutes away and would probably love to help, but if something starts to go down at rush hour, do I have an hour and a half to wait for her? And there are, of course, my local mom friends. We’re always willing to help each other out in a pinch when we can, and I know the kids would be comfortable hanging out with their friends. But they have their own kids’ needs to attend to, first and foremost, not to mention their own cars already crowded with carseats.

Anyways, I’ve contacted all of them, and they’re all on the list. If and when anything happens, I’ll start making calls and figure something out. Obviously, if it came down to it, M could take care of the kids while I’m at the hospital. But I’d rather he was there with me to, you know, witness the birth of his child and all.

Let’s just hope that, by talking to all of these people and typing it out, I’ll make it to within a few days of of my date at the hospital, when my in-laws will be here. Sound good?

And, no, don’t even get me started on the possibility of going into labor during Snowpocalypse 12. Seriously, it’s completely out of hand. Just look at my driveway (and yes, that’s BEFORE our current round of 12-18 more inches):

Comments (8)

Categories : Pregnancy, Preschoolers

Ain’t No Stopping Me Now

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (10)· January 29th, 2011

My head is full of different milestones I wanted to hit during this pregnancy. The 8-week ultrasound. The end of the first trimester. The big anatomy ultrasound. Viability.

Today I’ve hit one of my favorites: 34 weeks. The point at which, if I go into labor, the doctors won’t go to any great lengths to stop it, nor will they bother with steroid shots for her lungs. The point at which I can comfortably deliver at my local hospital instead of going downtown to the one with the Level-III NICU. The point at which, 32 years ago, I was born.

Don’t get me wrong. Uncomfortable and cranky though I may sometimes be, I don’t want this baby to show up this week. It’s still too early. I want at least three more weeks and two more milestones (36 weeks – when my twins were born; and 37 weeks – officially full-term), if not the full five-and-a-half weeks to my scheduled c-section. And it’s not as though I’m completely relaxed. I’ve become a little obsessed with kick counts and wondering if she’s moved enough on any given day. I’m still having contractions, though not as close together as the night of irritability, and still painless.

But, still, it’s nice to be that much closer. Nice to feel that much more calm that, if she decided now was the time, she would have every likelihood of being just fine. I’ll still worry about the one-in-a-million things that could go wrong, of course, but it’s a little easier to focus on the other 999,999 chances that she’s practically perfect in every way.

And yes, that photo is from this morning, as dressed up as you will ever see me during pregnancy. We were going to brunch at a friend’s house, and I was even wearing earrings! Look out!

I then came home and crashed for an hour-and-a-half nap. What?

Comments (10)

Categories : Milestones, Pregnancy

Tags : 34 weeks

Sugar, free

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (9)· January 25th, 2011

Last Friday, we had YET ANOTHER snow day. Another day for the kids to stay home from school, be bored, and generally wreak havoc in the house. While I am generally tired and wishing for the nap that won’t come. So I decided to shake it up and do something a little crazy.

I took the kids with me to do the 3-hour Glucose Tolerance Test.

What, that’s not how you like to spend a snow day?

Look, I know that sounds completely insane. But I can’t complete the test while they’re at school, it goes just a bit too long for me to squeeze it in. So I’d have to get M to take a day off of work, one of those precious vacation days that we’re trying to save for when the baby comes. I didn’t want to wait for these results, I wanted to get the darn thing done. And what were we going to do at home that would be so enriching? A whole lot of nothing. So while M cleared the driveway, I packed up a bag with the DVD player and headphones, the fully-charged iPhone, and snacks (sadly, not for me).

And there we sat, in the lab across the hall from my OB’s office, for three hours. I worked on a quilt and was baffled by daytime TV. The kids were fully engaged in a movie for almost two of the three hours.

It was absolute night and day compared with the horror of last time. Instead of a crowded hospital waiting area, a quiet office. Taken in for the first draw as soon as I arrived, and it was the phlebotomist who kept track of the time and told me when to come back. The drink was the same nasty orange stuff as last time, which is even worse on an empty stomach. But the woman who does the blood draws at this lab now has a devoted follower in yours truly.

She got me on the first try. Every time.

Hungry and dehydrated, she still didn’t have to go searching. She didn’t go anywhere near the back of my hand. I barely noticed the pinch, and have only the teeniest spot in the crook of my arm to show for it, unlike my usual gigantic bruises that stick around for a week. Seriously, she was so awesome, I feel like I need to send her a present. At the very least, I need to write a glowing letter to her supervisor. Because, damn, I know a good phlebotomist when I meet one, and she is spectacular. I wonder if I can ask her to come to the hospital when I deliver to do my IV?

At any rate, the test was done, as well as it possibly could have gone. The kids were spectacular, killed the last hour of waiting with some iPhone games, and earned the compliments of everyone who came into the office. We grabbed a late lunch (which I inhaled faster than anything I’ve ever eaten before), and hung out at home for the rest of the day. Whew.

Oh, and I finally got a call back from the office this morning (is it so hard to just call with the results? Why did I have to wait so long?). I do not have gestational diabetes, and we have scheduled no further testing for the time being. We’ll just see how I’m measuring at my next checkup. Hallelujah.

Pass the cookies?

Comments (9)

Categories : Pregnancy, Preschoolers

Tags : 3-hour Glucose Tolerance Test, snow day

Large and in charge

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (7)· January 20th, 2011

First, a big thank you to all who commented on Delurker Day! 89 comments, that’s definitely a new record for this little blog! Those of you who read regularly, please click through and say hi more often, it totally makes my day. And, that means I just donated $90 to Crickett’s Answer, so give yourselves a big pat on the back.

And, once again, we’re back on pregnancy talk. I swear, I’ll say something about my challenging-yet-delightful 3-year-olds again, soon.

Went in for my 32-week checkup yesterday, and I am suddenly measuring a few weeks “ahead.” Of course, during my last pregnancy, I always measured absurdly far ahead. But, that time, there were two kids in there. This time, not as much. Three weeks ago, apparently, I was measuring right on target. Additionally, I learned that I passed the 1-hour glucose screening by the skin of my teeth – a single point under the threshold. (Last time I failed it by a single point, though…) Between measuring large and my barely-passing score, my OB is wondering if I may, indeed, have gestational diabetes.

First order of business: ultrasound. Stat. Never have I gotten an appointment so quickly, literally 24 hours later. And, joy of joys, I got to drag my 3-year-old entourage with me. Thankfully, they were well-behaved and the ultrasound tech was good-natured.

One thing I miss about my high-risk days? The instant feedback. All of my ultrasounds were in the high-risk OB’s office, and not only were the techs pretty talkative and forthcoming about what they were seeing and measuring, but the doctor then came in immediately after the ultrasound and told me what was up. Now, in low-risk land, the tech doesn’t want to say much, and I have to wait for results and the return phone call.

Anyways, turns out the baby is measuring pretty average, but there appears to be more fluid around her than normal (the likely cause for my larger-than-dates measurement, not to mention the old irritable uterus). And additional fluid is another potential indicator of gestational diabetes. You know what that means… the Three-Hour Glucose Test!

If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you might remember how well the three-hour test went last time. To sum up: very very not well. There were lots of needle sticks and lots of crying. It was bad. And seriously, what good can come of a hungry and dehydrated pregnant woman? NO GOOD AT ALL.

I have a marginally better attitude about it right now. For one, obviously, if I do have gestational diabetes, I want to get right on that and make sure it’s managed properly. Much as I hate going low-carb/low-sugar, I’m not messing around with this baby’s health (or mine, for that matter). Plus, there is now a blood draw lab right across the hall from my OB’s office. Not only do I not have to sit in a crowded hospital waiting room, but the phlebotomist at this lab is nothing short of spectacular. Honestly, I’m a phlebotomist’s nightmare. My veins are awful, I’m a terrible stick. But this woman has gotten me on the first try every.single.time. I am going to her. Period.

It will all probably have to wait until Monday, when M can take a vacation day to be on kid-duty so I can sit in a lab for a few hours. But if you see a bunch of hysterical, starving, dehydrated tweets on Monday morning, you’ll know why.

Comments (7)

Categories : OB Appointments, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : 3-hour Glucose Tolerance Test, blood draw, gestational diabetes, measuring large for dates

Delurker Day – For a Cause (Insomnia Edition)

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (89)· January 14th, 2011

Hello from 4:30AM! Why yes, I’ve hit that lovely point in the third trimester at which I want to punch anyone in the throat who dares to say something foolish like “enjoy your sleep before the baby comes!” Because, of course, I’ve slept horribly for weeks.

Anyways, here I sit, reading blogs in the wee hours of the morning, only to find out via Sarah that it’s DeLurker Day! Whee!

But I want more than just comments. I’m going to blatantly steal a page from Kristen and turn this into something positive. There is an awesome blogger and scientist and mom, WhyMommy, who I met very briefly in passing at the Nikon Party at BlogHer in August. She was all but bouncing, because she was cancer-free. It was a wonderful thing to behold. Well, cancer is a bitch, and has returned. UNCOOL. FUCK YOU, CANCER. But that will not stop the wonderful WhyMommy from getting the word out that there are women out there dealing with the effects of cancer treatment who need lymphedema sleeves and can’t afford them, and their insurance doesn’t cover them (Fuck you, insurance!).

So, here is my request to you: please leave a comment today! For every comment I get on this post, I will donate $1 to Crickett’s Answer (up to 200, if I get anywhere near that far).

Leave a comment today, even, ESPECIALLY, if you have never left one before. While it is gratifying to talk to someone I haven’t seen in a while (or meet them for the first time) and have them say, “oh, I read your blog!”, it can also be a little strange. Because unless you leave a comment, I have NO IDEA you’re there! Please, shed your anonymity and say hello. It gives me a warm fuzzy, and today, it will do even more than that.

At a loss for what to say? Tell me what you do when you can’t sleep, or share a funny sleepless-related story.

While I will get out of bed, I otherwise sort of keep up the pretense of it being nighttime. I don’t turn on a lot of lights, I mostly just putz around on my computer. I could turn on the TV and catch up on the episode of Top Chef that’s waiting for me, but for some reason I never do. Not in the middle of the night.

Have fun, share stories, and let’s use the magic of the internet to turn comments into something real.

Comments (89)

Categories : Blogging, Pregnancy

Irritable

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (11)· January 11th, 2011

The contractions started last night around 7:00.

I had gone to the grocery store and it wiped me out, so I laid down for a nap while M fed the kids and got them ready for bed.

They were painless. I remember what the contractions felt like when I went into labor, and these weren’t them. These are the subtle kind. A tightening you might attribute to something else. The feeling like your stomach is dropping as when you drive over the crest of some rolling hills. I’ve had them off and on for weeks, now. No big deal.

Except, there’s another one. And another one.

Better go drink some water. Two quarts in an hour. Tightening still subtle, but still there. Watched the clock. Three minutes apart. OK, fine, I’ll call the OB. Contractions at 31 weeks? Don’t mess around. Get your pregnant ass to Labor & Delivery.

Off I go, 9:30 at night, by myself since they frown on leaving two sleeping preschoolers at home alone. Hooked up to the monitors, baby girl is hard to track because she’s having a raging party in my belly. She looks great, happy as a clam. Contractions are showing up on the monitor, not big, but 2-3 minutes apart. If I’m distracted and talking to the nurse, I hardly notice them, but there they are.

Pee in a cup, swabs, internal exams (dammit). Shift change, waiting for labs to come back. Group B strep and fFN negative. No UTI. Cervix of steel is in full effect, no changes. Doc is delivering a baby or two, wants me to stay on the monitors for a while longer. Baby is hard to keep on the monitor since she keeps moving around (so much space in there!), so I’m stuck in an odd position, trying to hold on to her tracing. Uncomfortable bed, warm room. Back is killing me. 2:00 in the morning, tired and want to go home. Finally, doc comes back. Another exam, all is well. I can leave.

Diagnosis: Irritable Uterus.

Treatment: None. Stay hydrated. Take it easy. Tell us if they turn into real contractions. Most likely course of action? Suck it up, see you in March.

Oh, I’m irritable, alright.

Comments (11)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy

Tags : braxton-hicks, contractions, irritable uterus, preterm labor