After getting my Kindle and talking over what might happen with the hospital stay with Dennis. I headed off for the hospital. On the way, I stopped at McDonalds, since I knew that I probably wouldn't get fed in the hospital if they thought I was in labor. I didn't want to be extremely uncomfortable the entire time I was there, so I settled for two fish sandwiches to tide me over.
I parked in the visitor parking off of State Street, since this is the main entrance and the one that I was most familiar with. I walked in and asked the lady behind the counter for "Labor and Delivery." She asked if I needed a wheelchair or any help, but since I wasn't feeling any real pain, just some pressure, I told her that I would walk. The walk seemed longer than I had planned. I think this was because I wasn't used to doing much activity being pregnant and being so far along.
When I reached the 3rd floor, I punched the button to get into the floor. They asked whom I wanted to see, and I told them that I was checking in, "I guess." The lady said, "you guess? you're not sure?" She told me to come on in, and I walked to the check-in desk. It took them a bit of time to find me a room. I guess they were rather busy. It was about 12noon. The wait wasn't horrible, and soon I was taken to room 540. I got undressed to my bra and socs and pu a green gown on that opened in the back. I came back to the bed and sat down. I wouldn't say I was in pain, but the monitor revealed that I was having contractions. Also, since I stopped to get some food before coming in, I wasn't hungry either.I sat there on the monitor for a few hours. I was alone, so I brought my Kindle to do some reading. Overall, I was content just to hang out alone, since I didn't have much in the way of downtime being a stay-at-home mom. My mom and sister didn't know why I hadn't asked them to come up and stay with me, but it just didn't seem necessary to waste anyone else's time for a false alarm. Besides, I was just in a triage room, and it didn't seem very serious for now. I had been in a room just like this one with Andrew, but during that visit, I was alone the entire time.
I was alone when I went into the room, but shortly thereafter, they brought in someone else. I was in the second bed in the room, Person B. The other lady seemed to be having similar issues from what I could hear the nurse say. She actually wasn't there as long as I was either. I got there at about 12noon and left the room around 6pm. I didn't even hear when she left, which was weird. I just noticed that a cleaning lady came in at one point to clean up, so I knew that she was either dismissed or placed in a permanent room. I never heard anything about her after she left, but while she was there, I heard more than I needed. Apparently, her husband was away on business, so she called to talk to him. I heard the entire conversation, since she had the phone on speaker. Who does that? I mean, I was in the same room for the same reasons as she was, and it just was rude for her to have to talk on speaker. I didn't understand the conversation because she was of some type of Asian background, and she talked to her husband in their language. I mentioned something to the nurse, so more or less just shrugged. Since it was a triage room, most of the times, they (the nurses) didn't say anything in these cases. I just really hope that I don't have her as a roommate when it comes times to recover from delivery. Last time, I had my own room for that, but I have a feeling that I won't be as lucky this time around.
The second person in the room was a young girl. I heard her say that she was in her early twenties. It just made me feel old. She was in the her part of the room with her parents. They spoke English and quite a bit. When I finally left the room, I was surprised to see two white people in there 60s and a young, black girl. I guess you get certain images in your mind when you are behind a curtain from ther other person, but I wasn't expecting them. They seemed nice enough people, and I hope the girl was going to be okay. I think she mentioned to the nurse that she was as far along as I was. Yet again, I have no idea what happened to her after I left the room.
While I was in the room, I was made to drink up as much water as possible. Occasionally, I could fee the contractions, which looked to be all the time and at a pretty good force. The monitor told me more than my belly did, so I didn't hesitate drinking whatever was put in front of me. The room was rather hot, so that helped me want to drink more. Dr. H was on-call, and she wasn't convinced that drinking would help alone. She issued them to give me an IV at 1:30pm. I knew the extra fluid would help, but I wasn't expecting to get up and go to the bathroom every half hour. It was so uncomfortable to have to unplug myself from the monitor and wheel my IV into the bathroom everytime. I hate needles, and having something like an IV stuck in me was unsettling. I also had a sore hand from the first attempt. The nurse used a needle that was too big for my little vein, and it was so painful. I cringe when thinking about it. She tried again to do it, but found luck in my wrist. I need to remember this for next time. They shouldn't even bother to try my hand. Wrists are much more comfortable anyway.
Drinking and reading were my only activities. The baby was pretty active the whole afternoon, which was good, and I guess that having to pee every 30 minutes could have been worse. At least, it got me out of that extremely uncomfortable bed. They gave me another IV bag at about 2:30pm. The labor seemed to be going strong from the reading on the monitor, and the fluids didn't seem to help much to get them to calm down. The nurse then gave me a shot in my lft buttocks, which was a steriod for the baby's lung development. It burned like crazy, and I accidentally kicked the nurse when she was trying to give it to me. Oops! Note to self: make sure that someone holds my legs down for the next shot, which was scheduled for 24 hours from now. These shots were also given to me with Andrew in case he came out early. This way, his lungs might have the chance to develop and lessen the risk of him having to go to the NICU.
The nurse also gave me two pills to help stop the contractions. She said that they may cause rapid heart rate because they are often taken for blood pressure. The side effect would be to relax the uterus. It was weird to take a pill for the side of effect, but I was willing to get these contractions to stop. (Later the next week, my doctor told me that they don't actually stop contractions, but just relax the uterus. I was a bit surprised that I was taking them instead of something else, since it seemed that my labor was moving right along. My regular OB/GYN didn't think they were that important to take. Weird.) The pills were called Procardia, and once I go home, I am supposed to take them every 6 hours until 3:30pm the next day when I get my other steroid shot in the butt (other cheek). I will have to come back to the hospital for it.
I had to wait an hour after the pills to get my cervix checked before I could go home. Two nurses checked me at about 4:45pm. Ouch!! They said that I was still just 1 cm dilated, which was good considering all the contractions. I was worried that it was much worse, so this news was reassuring. They said that after talking with Dr. H, they'd get me ready to go home. When the nurse came back in, I had just been monitoring myself on the computer. Those peaks were so high and so frequent; they made me nervous. I also started to get much more back pain and told that to the nurse (Alicia). She contacted Dr. H again, who said to just admit me overnight for observation. This completely took me by surprise, because I was mentally ready to go home. Though I felt uneasy about going home with such intense contractions, I thought it was okay since I didn't really feel much of them or any pain. The only time I've ever stayed overnight in the hospital was when I had Andrew, so this was a weird thing to experience. I still didn't believe that I was going to have the baby now, but I didn't want to rule it out in any case.
It took my nurse, Alicia, close to an hour to find/get cleaned a room for me. As I said beofere, they were really busy today. I went in a wheel chair directly across the hall to room 539. This was a labor room much like the one I was in when I had Andrew. It was also private which was nice, since I'd be staying alone. Dennis and Andrew were just now getting home from picking up Anette from the airport, so he'd be at home tonight instead of staying with me in the room. I didn't think much of that, since I wasn't worried about being alone. I quickly texted my sister and Dennis to tell them what was going on. THe bed was much nicer in my new room, but the monitor was harder to see. I couldn't tell what was going on with my contractions except for what my body was telling me. Since I was staying at the hospital, I didn't have to take those pills every 6 hours.
Instead, they gave me magnesium sulfate in my IV. Boy o boy, did it bun. It also made me feel very hot and flushed all over! The nurses said that I could feel dizzy and vomit, but I was okay. I startd to get a small, pressure headache just before moving rooms and starting the medicine. It felt more like allergies, though. There's a hurricane in New Orleans working its way north, so my sinuses probably felt it. The first hour of the MS was the hardest, because It burned in my IV and it made me very warm (nurses gave me ice chips and cool, wet wash cloths.) It was relentless. It was almost to the point of being unbearable, but once the bit jolt of medicine was in, I only felt a light sting in my IV after that.
By this time, I was getting hungry. 7:30pm came, which is when Dennis and Andrew came up with my Southwest Black Bean Salad from Beef-A-Roo. Yum!! I really wanted a piza, but the nurses told me to stay away from greasy foods while I was on the magnesium sulfate. I opted for a sald and some Nutrigrain Bars. The nurses actually said that I was responded remarkably well to the medicin given my small size and all.
Andrew was a bit unsure at first when he walked into the room. I smiled and said "come here, buddy," and he came right to me. I think that my being "okay" made him feel easier. I'm sure the size of the hospital was overwhelming to him, and he just didn't know what to expect having never been in this position before. He wanted to sit on mommy's bed, so daddy lifted him up. We had as much hugs and kisses as we could given that I had an IV in my left wrist, a pressure cuff on my right arm and 2 monitors on my belly. Luckily, all the cables went to the right, so he sat with me on the left side of the bed. He was his normal, wonderful self! :) He got down and wanted to sit on the different chairs in the room, and he also looked around a bit. The lights were off except for the bathroom, so there might not have been much to see. Dennis helped me get my glasses on, since my eyes were dry, and I ate my salad while Andrew was occupied with the chairs. Andrew, of course, seemed to immediately sense what I was doing and wanted some of mommy's food. Luckily, I still had the red peppers on my salad, that I forgot to tell Dennis to order without, so I gave all of them to Andrew. I dove into my salad, and I was over half-way done when Andrew wanted more food. Dennis confessed that he might not have eaten much today, so I told him to give Andrew one of the Nutrigrain bars from my bag. I had one too! :) Andrew still seemed hungry, so I told Dennis to feeld him more food when they got home. Anette stayed home because she was tired and also because she wanted us to have some family time. She figured that she'd see me later.
The boys left after 8pm, since Andrew needed to get ready for bed. I was also feeling sme fatiue from the MS, but my mind wouldn't shut off. I watched TV for an hour and then asked the nurse to give me some sleeping pills. It seemed that when I pushed my buzzer around 9:30pm, the nurse who answered didn't tell my nurse (Heather) about the sleeping pills, so when Heather cme in to check on me, she was surprised about the order. She quickly went to get the medicine, but she had to go out again to get me some water. It took the pills a bit of time to kick in, so I laid on my left side to pass out. I got up as normal to pee about 3 or 4 times and finally woke at 7am.
SATURDAY
To start, I have to admit that I'm a bit concerned. My insurance ended yesterday, and today is my first day on Dennis' insurance. I hope all goes well. I'm also so hungry, so I open up one of my strawberry Nutrigrain bars. I texted Kim and Dennis to let them know that I'm awake and feeling okay. I'm pretty clueless as to what's going on with the baby and contractions, since I need to get checked by the doctor. I notice that the NG bars are gone, so I open up some peanut butter and cheese crackers. I only eat a couple in case they bring me a good breakfast. Breakfast comes at 8am and is 2 pancakes, 2 sausage links, a bowl of oatmeal, OJ, milk and coffee. I eat all of it except for the sausages. Not bad. I put half the maple syrup in the oatmeal as well as squeeze the orange slice that was used to decorate my plate into the bowl. It was really pretty good. I keep the OJ for later, but drink all the milk. I'm feeling pretty good, but VERY groggy. I'm not sure if it is because of the sleeping pills or the magnesium, but I"m a bit unfocused.
Dr. H is making rounds and comes to check on me. She says that I am at least 1 cm dilated, 80% efface and that she can feel the baby's head. This came as a huge surprise. The doctor said that I'd be checked again around 3:30pm when I got my second steroid shot for the baby's lungs. She'd determine what to do after that. Until then, I just needed to hang out on the monitor. I sat in my bed talking to mom or texting Kim or Dennis on my phone. Poor Dennis! His inbox for texts must be full!! :) hahaha I got a little worried about what the doctor said, so I texted him all that needed to be packed for Andrew in case I delivered, since he was either going to Mom and Dad's or Kim's. I know he felt overwhelmed too, since I'm here, he's home as a single parent, and his sister is visiting. Where was the right place for him and what was he supposed to be doing? I understand if he felt somewhat confused about what is role as husband was in this situation, but if I was just going to sit in the hospital and wait, he might as well be doing other things. If we didn't have Andrew or Anette visiting, I would want him to be with me more, but we'd been down this road of false alarm before. He was fine to stay with Andrew. Some might have wondered why he wasn't with me, but I didn't feel bad about it at all. Andrew also had soccer, and Dennis had to get groceries. What sense would t have made for him to sit here? None! I was fine! There wasn't much he could do anyway.
Shortly after 9am, they took me off the magnesium. The bag was still on my IV cart, so I hadn't realized right away that it wasn't being pumped in me. The nurse came back in my rom at about 11:30am. I was in desperate need of wash cloths because my skin still felt really hot. My cheeks and chest were bright red. It looked like I spent yesterday in the sun instead of in the hospital. Also, I needed more water. She brought me in 2 Procardia pills, which were the smae pills I had last night to help with the uterine irritibility. She also told me that my last contraction was about 1/2 hour ago, which meant they were slowing down from yesterday. This was good news, and hopefully, could go home at 3:30pm after my second, steroid shot.
At about 12noon, I started to feel a really strong contraction, so I wasn't so optomistic. I just wanted my lunch to come, soI could take a nap. Ilaid down for about 15 minutes knowing the food would come at 12:30pm. I didn't want to miss it. Sure enough, at 12:30pm, the food lady was there, and it took me a total of 5 minutes to eat a grilled cheese sandwich, a bowl of tomato soup and a cup of mixed, tropical fruit. I kid you not. I inhaled it! :) It was good food, probably because I was starving and pregnant! :) I went slower with my lemonade, peed and went to sleep comfortably on my left side. My noon contraction was a single. No Worries!!
Dennis showed up around 2pm. We talked and slept on and off until the nurses came in to give me my second, steriod shot at 3:30pm. Dennis and the nurse, Carly, held my legs down, while Cherry (nurse) gave me the shot in my right butt cheek. There was much less pain this time around, because Cherry was an excellent nurse. She said to put the alcohol swab on it first, but then to wipe it off so that I didn't have any burning from the alcohol when she actually gave me the shot. How clever. I also didn't have as much desire or reflex to kick, which was good for all involved! :) We waited until 4p when Cherry checked my cervix and gave me 2 more Procardia pills. I need to take them every 6 hours, which means every 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock. I'd have to set my alarms to make sure I didn't forget. Cherry thought that I was definitly 1 cm dilated, but she would say that I was more 50% effaced. It was hard to know whom to believe, but being any percentage effaced still meant that I needed to take things easy.
They released me then from the room, and Dennis and I were escorted down the elevator and to the car, which Dennis pulled to the door for me by the two nurses. I was pushed in a wheel chair the entire time. The nurses were great in the hospital. I would say that they only bad experience would have to be when one of the nurses from Friday couldn't get the IV in because the needle was too large. Ouch!! A week later, my hand still hurt from that. Everyone else was wonderful. They were very supportive and also very nice. They said many nice things to me during the entire process, which seemed odd. I appreciate it though. It was nice to be taken care of even if I wasn't leaving with a baby this time!
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