Well...we had quite a weekend. It started out great with a yummy dinner at Carrabba's with Russ and Cyndel, but in the middle of dinner my normal Braxton Hicks contractions became regular (as in 5 minutes apart). I called the doctor's office, where they paged the on-call doctor to call me back. She suggested that I go home, lay on my left side, and drink lots of water. If the contractions didn't subside, then I was supposed to go to the hospital for monitoring.
Guess what...they didn't subside!! By 10:35, we were getting ready to head to the hospital. Cyndel went with us, and we were all really nervous. They took me into triage for labor and delivery and asked every question in the book except for "What's your favorite color?" They hooked me up to monitors for Bentley's heartrate and my contractions. The nurse checked me and said she would say I was about 1/2 cm dilated. My cervix was still long, thick, and closed near the baby, but it had changed a bit with all the contractions. Within about half an hour, the nurse noticed the regularity of the contractions (which still felt like Braxton Hicks but a little stronger), and she contacted the doctor for a plan. They decided to give me injections of Terbutaline. Let me fill you in about that drug...imagine you've had an entire POT of coffee. The jitters, racing heart, body shakes...that's what it was like. They gave me two injections (about 15 minutes apart), and the contractions stopped completely. We were in the clear. They discharged me with instructions to drink lots of water and lay on my left side if I had more contractions later. We got home about 1:30 AM and went straight to bed.
Surprisingly, I was able to sleep okay (not great, but okay) until about 9:00 AM. I woke up and felt totally fine. I started the day with my cup of decaf coffee and a bottle of water. Shortly thereafter, guess what.....You guessed it...more contractions. I thought to myself, "Really, I expected them to wait at least a week or so!" I laid on my left side, drank two bottles of water, and in two hours the contractions had subsided from every 3-5 minutes to every 10-15 minutes. Since everything subsided, I rested most of the day except for a quick trip to Home Depot to pick out paint colors for Bentley's room and a dinner trip with Russ, Cyndel, and Coen. The contractions stayed regular at about 15 minutes apart all day, but they were still just a tightening feeling...it wasn't painful at all. We went back to Russ and Cyndel's to watch a movie, and that's when the contractions became much closer together, more regular, and stronger. We started timing them again about at 8:00, and by 9:30 we decided to go back to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors again, and decided to do a urinalysis to rule out a urinary tract infection, and they did a Fetal Fibronectin test that tests for risk of pre-term labor. The urine test was good, and the other test was negative, which means that there is a 99% chance that I will not go into labor in the next 2 weeks. During the time it took to get the results of the tests back, my contractions became much stronger and more intense. They were right at 3 minutes apart, and they were starting to actually hurt. I was feeling way more than just a tightening. I told the nurse, and she immediately gave me another injection of Terbutaline. That calmed the contractions immediately. The nurse said the doctor wanted to keep me overnight to continue monitoring me and Bentley, and she gave me another injection and a pill by mouth. Daniel and I were moved to a room at about 1:00 AM, and we attempted to sleep. At 4:30 AM I got another dose of Terbutaline by mouth, and at 6:30 the doctor came in to see me. She checked my cervix again, and it didn't seem to have changed since Friday, but she said that Bentley was really low. She said he was laying as if he was ready for delivery. Overall, she couldn't come up with a reason for my contractions, but she recommended that I take off work on Monday to go to the office for an ultrasound of my cervix to make sure everything was okay. We got home about 7:30 AM, and I felt sick all day due to having no sleep. After 3 spells of vomiting, I headed to bed at 7:30 PM....I slept SOOO good.
Ahhh...it's Monday! I woke up at 6:45 AM to more contractions...woohoo! (Not really!) We got our appointment with the doctor for 9:15 where they did an ultrasound of my cervix. We got good news. It looks like it should, and all the contractions I've had since Friday haven't caused any change. The doctor changed my medicine to a blood pressure medicine that should take care of the contractions. The only problem is that my blood pressure is usually on the low/normal side anyways, so it may make me loopy or dizzy if it lowers too much. She also suggested that I be on "bed rest" until next Monday when she'll see me again. (That really just means lay around and be a lazy bum...something I'm not really good at doing!) So, I've taken one dose of the new medicine and it doesn't make me feel like I had an IV of coffee, but it gave me a horrible headache. I told Daniel tonight that if this is the only way we can have a healthy baby, I'll do it, but it sure isn't fun right now.
Overall, we are okay. I'm still having contractions on and off, but they aren't painful at all and they don't have a real pattern. Also, Bentley is great!! I've felt him more in the last few days than I have the entire pregnancy I think. He's saying, "Golly, Mom! Enough with all the hugs!" (I read that contractions are like bear hugs for the baby.)
Keep us in your prayers, and I'll keep you updated. I know this is a really long post, but I wanted to get all the details out there!
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