Strict Bed Rest

Alternately titled: "Labor and Delivery, Take 3"


I jinxed myself at my doctor appointment yesterday.  The first thing Dr P always asks me each week is if I've been experiencing any bleeding, cramping or contractions...so when she walked in yesterday I proudly announced to her, "I've had the perfect week- no bleeding, cramping or contractions!"  She lit up with a big smile on her face, did her measurements, answered some of my questions, and was on her way.

Cue 8:00 pm when I start having contractions, but don't really think anything since I've beed dealing with daily contractions for about 10 weeks now.  I laid down, drank 2 liters of water and just watched TV while waiting for Matt to come home.
9:00...start timing contractions.
9:30...realize they are about 4 minutes apart
9:45...Matt comes home and I tell him what's going on
10:00...call Dr P
10:05...Dr P calls back and tells me to go straight to L&D
10:10...I have a panic attack worrying about having a baby before he's full term
10:30...arrive at L&D

L&D was full so I was placed in triage, but still had my own room, Matt just didn't have a couch.  I felt so bad for him since he had bee awake since 5:00 and it was already past his usual bed time and had no where for him to rest.  I tried to talk him into bunking with me in my tiny hospital bed, but he wasn't having it, lol.

I had my same nurse from last time, Laurie, and she remembered me and took great care of me.  I immediately got changed and hooked up to the monitors and might have had another small panic attack when I saw what my contractions looked like on the monitor.  There was barely any time between contractions and they were so painful she was having to help me breathe through them.  Pre-Term Labor is pretty serious for me since I have my cerclage and the contractions could make me start dialating on my own.  If that happens, my cerclage will tear my cervix and they will have to perform an immediate emergency c-section.  Scary stuff.

So, of course what does she give me, TERBUTALINE!  Ugh, I swear if I could have walked at that point I would have run out of the room and gone home.  It hurt like a son of a bitch and immediately sent my pulse up to 125bpm.  It was pure torture and I made a mental note to thank Dr P for switching my medication off the Terb when she did several weeks ago.  Then about an hour later Laurie comes back with ANOTHER DOSE of the devil drug Terb.  Kill me.  At this point it's about 1:30 am and it doesn't look like I'm going to have the baby or be admitted into Anti-Partem so I send Matt home to get some rest.  He had to administer the STAAR test today so taking off work wasn't an option, and I didn't want him dosing off in the chair all night while I just laid in bed and cried.

After a third dose of Terbutaline (which she had to wait to give me because my pulse was at 130 bpm) my contractions finally calmed down enough that Laurie and Dr P were happy so I was able to just rest in my bed.  You are only allowed 3 doses of the Terb and after that you have to move onto Magnesium which I've heard awful things about.  I guess I should be happy I got the Terb and not the Mag.  Never thought I'd be saying anything good about the devil drug, but I am glad it worked and my body responded by taking me out of labor!

I ended up being discharged about 5:00 which worked out well because Matt came and got me before he needed to be at work.  Poor thing, he was so tired this morning once we got back to the house he looked like a walking mummy.  I talked to him this afternoon and he said his kid didn't show up for the STAAR test so he was able to just go to his classes like normal.  I'm sure he will crash when he gets home tonight.

I'm back on strict bed rest until 36 weeks.  :(  No more church, or trips to CFA with Matt or quick errands here and there.  I wasn't really getting out that much anyway, but at least having the option to leave my bed was nice.  I know I need to focus on getting this baby here safely and later rather than sooner, so you better believe I'm going to be the best bed rester there ever was.  I do have special permission to go to my baby shower this weekend (!!!) with strict instructions to stay sitting and have all presents brought to me and even opened by someone else, if possible.  Yay!

So for the record, yesterday I received:

• weekly progesterone shot
• steroid shot
• 3 shots of Terb
• an IV that took 2 nurses and 2 tries to stay in

So 7 shots altogether.  Good thing I'm not scared of needles, not to say that Matt didn't have his eyes covered while he was there with me.  Haha, wuss.  

Come on Carter, you only have to hold on 4 more weeks!  You can do it!