Labor & Delivery... Take Two.

Around 2 pm today, I got lunch for me & Bransyn. I started eating my noodles, & couldn't even eat more than a few bites, cause I just wasn't feeling very well. I layed down for a while, thinking that it was maybe just a stomach ache, or something & that it would pass. I tried to not say anything, or act sick, but Brans is so sweet & said to me 'Aw, mommy you sick?' Not sure how he could of known that, but I thought it was so cute! After about 15 minutes or so, I started to get a crampy feeling in my lower abdomen. It would slowly start moving all the way up my stomach, & turning into a sharp pain more towards the top. It would stop after a minute, then come back a few minutes later. I layed there for a while, trying to see if it would pass. Brans could apparently tell I was in pain, even though I tried SO hard to not let him notice & he asked me 'you okay, mommy? what's wrong, mama!' haha, so sweet! Anyways, It started getting worse, so I decided to call Ryan, cause I didn't know what else to do. He told me to call my Dr to see what it could possibly be & what I needed to do, then call him back. I didn't know what to say to the receptionists at my Dr's office, so I called my mom & explained to her what was happening. She told me to do the same thing. So I called into my Dr's office & luckily they had a new recording machine that gave me the option to talk to a nurse, instead of a receptionist. (I HATE explaining things to receptionists... they always tell me they're not sure what I should do... uhhh, how bout you do your job & ask the doctor, or someone else who knows?!) BUT, the nurse did not answer. I did leave a message though. I realized that it was a possibility that it could be contractions, so I decided to time them to see if they were regular at all. By this point, I was only getting the cramp feeling, it wasn't going up my stomach anymore. But, I also started getting lower back pain every time it would happen. After timing them for about 20 minutes, I realized that I was definitely having contractions & they were only 6-8 minutes apart! I called my mom back & told her that I was pretty sure it was contractions & she said that's what it sounded like. I got one when I was in the middle of talking to her & couldn't even talk through it! I told her I was gonna call Ryan to come home, & call into Labor & Delivery to make sure I wasn't jumping to conclusions by just showing up there. After I hung up with her, I called Ry, told him I was prettty sure I was having contractions & he told me he was on his way. I called into L&D, explained everything & they told me to come in right away. Ry called Amanda on his way home to see if she could come watch Brans while we went in & they both got to the house at the same time. I got another contraction as soon as they both walked in the door & they could definitely tell I was in pain, I couldn't talk to either of them, or stand up to go out to the truck yet. After that one ended, me & Ry headed out. I had one more on the way there. Once I got there, I went to the front desk & told them they told me to come in. One of the nurses just looked at me & was like 'You look like you're in pain!' ha, well yes I was. They sent me into one of the rooms to get hooked up to the monitors. The nurse was telling me to undress & put the hospital gown on, but right in the middle of her explaining it, I got another contraction. Luckily there was a chair right next to me, cause I wouldn't not of been able to stand much longer! After that was over, I went & got changed & gave a urine sample for testing. I got into the bed, she hooked me up to the monitors & took my blood pressure, vitals & temp. She said that I couldn't of had better numbers! It took her a minute to turn the monitors on, & I had one right as she hooked me up, but it didn't register since the monitor wasn't on yet. She asked me a bunch of questions, then told me they were just gonna watch the monitor for a while & see how everything went from there. Luckily, I'm pretty familiar with how the monitors work & what everything means, since I was hooked up to them a lot with Brans. I KNEW I was having contractions, but they didn't seem to be showing up on the monitors. But I did pay attention to baby girl's heart rate when I was done having each one, & it always stayed steady which was a good sign. After a while, a new nurse came in & asked if I was still having pains cause nothing was showing up. I told her yes, so she adjusted the monitor a bit to see if it would help. Sure enough, my next one showed up. Ry kept telling me 'it's at 20... now 30... holy cow, it's almost to 40', as I was almost breaking through the bed rails cause I was squeezing them so hard! We just kind of hung out in between the nurses coming in the check. The contractions did start to slow down a bit, I went from having them every 6-8 minutes at home & when I first got there, to only having about 3 an hour. I'm not sure why they suddenly started slowing down, but I was JUST FINE with that! After a while, the nurse came back in & did the fFN test. (A test they do to see if there is a chance you could go into labor within the next 2 weeks. A negative is a negative, but a positive could be either positive or negative) She said that she talked to Dr. Lunt & that's all he wanted to do at that point, & we would figure out what to do after the results came back for the fFN. That took for EVER. After about an hour & a half, a new nurse came in (shift change) & told me that the test came back negative, which is exactly what we wanted! She also said Dr. Lunt was on the floor & was going to come in & talk to me. When he got in there, he went through the fFN results with me again & explained more of what it was. He decided to check if I was dilated, just to be sure everything was okay with that. I am not dilated a single bit, so that is really good! He explained what I should do if it happened again & we talked about some things for a little bit. He said that it's hard to say WHY I was having contractions, there are a number of things that can cause them. It's really frustrating to not know what causes something so serious. Kind of scary. I definitely know it wasn't from being too active, or over working my body, since I am on bed rest. I know it's not from dehydration, since I drink PLENTY of water. I'm just glad I did not go into full-blown labor. He told me I was good to go home, but do not ever hesitate to call or go back in if it happened again, or if I had any other concerns. The nurse told me she was going to get my discharge papers & be right back. As soon as she came in with the papers, I was having a contraction, she looked at me & walked back out. She came back a few minutes later with the papers for me to sign, & told me that she could tell how much pain I was in so she was having Dr. Lunt get me some medicine before he left. I am always VERY hesitant to take any kind of medication when I'm pregnant. I haven't even taken a tylenol this whole pregnancy, it's only been prenatals & iron supplements. She asked me if I was okay with taking a loritab. At first I was like, eh no I'll just deal with the pain. Then she told me it would help me relax & that should help stop the contractions. So I gave in & told her I would take it. She asked me if I wanted 1 or 2... I told her 1 would do, don't want to take more than I need! haha. So I took that, then went to get changed back into my clothes & left the hospital! I still had a bit of cramping & a bit of pain in my lower abdomen, but not nearly as bad as it was when I was having contractions. Not sure if it just wasn't very intense in the first place, or if the pain medication helped with it, but it was nice to not have to hold my breath to get through the pain! haha. Everything has been okay since then, I am just praying it doesn't happen again, cause who knows if it could put me into labor next time! I swear my kids just like to stress me out! I was soo relieved after my Dr appointment yesterday, she just had to give me another scare. Such a little turd, but yet again, I am glad she is not making her big debut yet!
Nine more weeks, baby girl. I know you can't wait to meet your mama, but you gotta keep cookin'.... and STOP SCARING MOMMY!!!

She has been doing amazing since we left the hospital. She was moving around pretty much the ENTIRE time we were there (didn't like the monitors on her, just like her brother) so I'm sure she was worn out & slept for a while after we left. But she has been moving like a crazy girl for the past few hours! I'm hoping she will finally decide to FLIP! (: (:


So there's my 2nd L&D story for this pregnancy. I am reallllly hoping my next one will be her birth story in May! I won't be upset if I don't go back to that place for 2 more months ;)