Trip to Triage

I didn't think we'd get to double check the gender of this baby for another 2 weeks, but we've verified that this nugget of love is a girl! Let me back up a bit...

Sunday morning I woke up and pretty quickly felt some low abdominal pain. I decided to watch it and go to work anyway, especially since I was precepting a new nurse and would be able to sit down most of the day. Well the pain kept coming and going all day--it was really dull, and maybe a 2/10 on a pain scale. TMI warning: I also seemed to be having more vaginal secretions, and while I knew it wasn't urine, I couldn't tell if it was just normal secretions, sweat, or the more scary option- amniotic fluid!I wasn't sure if I should call the OB or not, but finally decided to give her a call around 2pm when I was still having pain. Of course, she wanted me to come in, and since it was Sunday I needed to go to the hospital, up to the triage section of Labor & Delivery. Yikes! I was feeling pretty nervous driving up there, but baby girl was kicking away the whole drive up which did reassure me.

The nurses there were great. Go nurses! Smart, professional, caring. They hooked me up to 2 monitors-one to monitor baby's heartbeat, and one to monitor contractions. Baby was doing great--nice strong heartbeat, and still active. The other monitor didn't pick up any contractions at first, but after repositioning me, it started to show uterine activity (i.e. contractions). They said the contractions were not Braxton Hicks contractions; they were "real" contractions. The nurse gave me a medication to stop the contractions, and warned that it would make me feel like I'm shaky, with a racing heart beat. And boy, did it! I felt terrible after a few minutes--very, very shakey. I had forgot that she said it would do that to you, and I was thinking, "gosh, i'm getting nervous!" But then I remembered it was the med. Ugh, no fun at all! It did stop the contractions though. They also did a cervix check, and swabbed me to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid. Cervix looked nice and closed & felt long, and my fluid was not amniotic fluid. Whew. They also had sent some urine to the lab, and it came back with showing some blood in it. So the OB thought that most likely it was a UTI, or kidney stone, or that it could be preterm labor. Since the contractions stopped and everything else looked ok, she decided to give me some antibiotics, send me home, and have me come into the clinic Monday am for an u/s to look at baby, my cervix (to make sure it wasn't shortening-a sign of preterm labor), and my kidneys (to check for stones) and then over to see my regular OB.

Todd and I left the hospital--feeling pretty shaken up, and only partially reassured. We both had these images of a 26week baby being born, and all that that would mean, and were anxious for my u/s to make sure that my cervix was looking ok.

So then Monday, I called to schedule my u/s and dr appt, and was able to get in at 10:30. We had an intern doing the u/s first, and when she checked my cervix it was 3.something cm long...The triage RN had said that if it was under 4, the doc's would probably be concerned. So I felt a little nervous about that, but knew that the experienced tech would be coming back in to recheck her work in a little bit. When she did come back, she remeasured it, and it was over 4cm! Whew!

Everything else looked great. Baby looked fantastic; moving all over the place, waving her hands at us. There was this great moment when we were looking at her profile, and she opened and closed her mouth 3 or 4 times--Todd thought it looked like she was smacking her gums! It was really cute. We asked them to double check gender--and they think more certainly that she is a girl! We also got an estimated weight of her--2lbs, 1 ounce, which is right on target.

My kidneys looked ok too. They couldn't see any stone, but the radiologist said it doesn't mean that there isn't one there. Ultrasound isn't the best technique for visualizing stones, but it doesn't expose the babe to radiation, and so it's the preferred way for pg women.

Off to the clinic we went to see our regular OB...She was super nice, and reassuring. She said we did the right thing by coming in on Sunday and was glad that the baby looked great on u/s. We don't have a definitive answer as to why I was contracting, but the pain is better, and we know it's not the scary possibility of preterm labor. So I'll continue to take my antibiotics, and hopefully we'll get the culture report from my urine back today.

We laid low the rest of the day yesterday, and I"m taking it easy today as well. I'll see if I can get some of our new u/s pictures posted so you all can see how cute she's getting. :)

Thanks for checking in,
Love,
Julie

Belly movements

Yesterday I was taking a nap, with my arm resting over my belly. Baby girl decided to give me a swift kick, and I felt my elbow move! I told Todd about it and wondered if I had been watching my belly, if I would've seen it move. I've heard about how alien-like it is when you can see your baby move from the outside, but we had yet to witness it.

So last night, before bed, I pulled the sheets down to uncover my belly as we talked. She started kicking, and I looked down, and could see my belly move up and down! I could feel her kicking (or maybe head butting, or maybe pumping her arms) on both sides of my tummy, and we could see all of those movements from the outside! It was so strange and bizarre, and wonderfully exciting at the same time.

There really is a babe in there! :)