Weekend at the hospital

I'm very glad to be leaving week 22 behind and moving forward to week 23 tomorrow. I spent much of the weekend at the hospital after my contractions really began to pick up in frequency and intensity yesterday. A day later, I am happy to be home. Yesterday while I was lying on the couch I began to notice that I was having a pretty decent contraction. Less than 10 minutes later I had another, and then about 5 minutes later another. I grabbed my husband, and off we went to the hospital (the same one I work at). On the car ride there I noticed my husband was really clipping along on the freeway and I jokingly said that we needed to arrive in one piece! I think he was kind of nervous for one of the first times. I was just trying to cover up the fact that I noticed these contractions were much different than my typical ones that only involve tightening and hardening, and the occasional discomfort. These contractions now actually hurt.

At the hospital we took the elevator up to the third floor and made the couple of turns until we were in L & D triage. I had walked that path so many times coming from the OR to do an epidural for someone in labor I could have done it in my sleep. But this time, those familiar hallways seemed to take so much longer to travel through. I was happy to be greeted by one of nurses I was familiar with. I gave a quick urine specimen in the bathroom, before settling into one of the rooms to change into a stylish gown and to be hooked up to the monitors. Usually I'm a pretty good aim, but I managed to pee a little in the cup, and a lot on my hand, LOL! I think I was more concerned with trying to make sure I kept it a sterile specimen, and instead I was a little off my game in the peeing on target mission.

Once hooked up, the monitors confirmed what I had started to notice since my arrival at the actual hospital. The peaks and waves on the monitor screen confirmed I was now contracting every couple of minutes regularly. My nurse said - ah yes I have paged your OB already and I'm going to get started on this IV to get you some fluid, draw a CBC, electryolytes, a couple other things and get you some terbutaline. My OB was on his way in when I received the terbutaline that I have heard so many lovely things or effects about (ahh, good times). I only joke about the terbutaline, but in reality I was delighted to receive anything that was going to stop these frequent contractions. A few moments after receiving the shot - I got that flushing and head rush feeling that some have described. Funny enough, what it actually reminded me of was one of the only times I had done a couple of shots of alcohol close together when I was on spring break in college. (During my dumb years - in other words.) My heart raced a bit from the med, but that part wasn't too bad I thought. The jittery and head rush floaty feeling was the part that made you say, "now that was weird." Pretty quickly I noticed a decrease in frequency and strength of the contractions.

Little girl Spot was happily content throughout with her beating along at 145 per minute. She must had thought the monitor I was wearing across my belly was similar to how it feels when my dog sleeps with her head on my stomach. Usually Spot will kick where she feels my dog's head - and now Spot was kicking directly under the circular monitor. When they moved it more to my left side (due to my left unicornuate) to pick up the contractions better, Spot moved her kicking as well :-) Just like she does when the dog repositions her head.

I was so happy to have the nurse I did, who helped shield my husband and I from the herd of intern and residents. (Not that I mind people learning on my case - I just get a little territorial over Spot and my cerclage lately for some reason. Plus triage was packed and they wouldn't miss one more patient. Please don't think poorly of me!) Instead the only person coming close enough to do a manual exam of my cervix and cerclage, was one of the nurse midwives and my OB once he arrived. In the past, I had worked with a couple of the nurse midwives quite a bit when I was assigned up to L & D - but the one stepped in to see me was a new face to me. Soon, I quickly feel in love with her, as her bedside manner and experience was awesome. I think she's a gem and the floor is fortunate to have her as one of the five midwives that practice at the hospital.

Luckily there was no drastic changes occurring with my cervix or cerclage. Just the same old characteristics of having a short, soft and squishy cervix. Now that my contractions had quieted down, my mind was already thinking forward. I was getting slightly hopeful that I would be out of there and home shortly since my cervix was it's old ugly self - but not breaking out any new shenanigans. I soon realized it wasn't going to be quite as quick in and out because my contractions once again picked up, quickly becoming every few minutes. My heart sank a little bit then, and glancing over to my husband I noticed he wasn't having much fun either. I just wanted them to be able to make them stop. Usually a shot of terbutaline is all most people need. I wanted to be in that "most people" category.

I guess I wasn't going home right now like I had hoped. Instead I needed more terbutaline to get things to go down to a dull roar. After spending the remainder of the weekend in my spiffy hospital attire - I am delighted to now be home tonight. It'll be nice to sleep in my own bed - it's hard to get much rest at the hospital - as I'm sure many of you know. I think my husband is delighted to be rid of the hospital as well. We both concluded that the theme for the weekend in triage must had been women in labor (wailing while they were being whisked away to a labor room) or pregnant women vomiting who had gotten desperate enough to make the trip in on the weekend. The latter of the two caused my husband to turn slightly green himself, which made me giggle a bit - but quickly felt sorry for the poor guy (the one good thing about being used being around vomiting women at work, hehe!)

So while I had originally planned to catch up on everyone's blogs on a boring weekend - that didn't quite go as planned. Instead I may celebrate the beginning of week 23 tomorrow by doing a little bloggy reading marathon. I am so ready to leave week 22 behind me that started off with spotting and ended with a hospital stay, contractions and terbutaline. Good bye and good ridance week 22! But hey - on the bright side...tomorrow is a whole new week and a whole new beginning. Maybe this will be the week my husband and I actually have a real name for our little Spot - we're getting closer to making that decision.