my labor and delivery adventure

I will preface the post with this: I hope the next time that I spend any number of hours hooked up to monitors on the labor and delivery floor of the hospital, 1. doesn't come for several more weeks (like 10 or more!) and 2. I get to come home with a baby. And sorry, this is another long one.

Lets rewind to Sunday morning. I woke up feeling rather chipper. I had slept until 7:30am (which most people who know me really well know that I struggle to stay asleep until 6:15am most of the time) and was feeling incredibly rested. The nesting instinct has really been kicking in and I couldn't wait to get up and do a little cleaning and organizing. I merrily waddled my way into the bathroom and did my business. However when I wiped I caught a glimpse of bright red blood on the toilet paper. Not a ton, but enough to make me take a couple more swipes and come up with a few more bright red streaks.

Now spotting in pregnancy can be perfectly normal. Lots of things can cause it. But its not supposed to be bright red. So then I was a little bit on edge. I debated waking Chris up and even telling him, but ended up doing it. Of course it freaked him out and the two of us spent the next 20 minutes on google seeing what all it said about spotting during the third trimester.

Ultimately I decided I would just take it easy that day (which means, park it on the couch!) and if I didn't have any more I would just call in the morning. I quickly learned that I would be horrible at bed rest :o). It hadn't even been two hours before I was getting incredibly antsy about sitting around, and really wanted to get up and do something. Somehow I managed to make myself stay on the couch for the majority of the day, and luckily I didn't seem to be having any more issues. I thought we were in the clear.

Around 9pm I decided I wanted to go into the bedroom to watch TV and fall asleep. As I was walking towards the bedroom my lower back slowly but surely started becoming incredibly painful. By the time I reached the bed I could barely breath my back hurt so bad. I tried to lay down and get comfortable, but that wasn't working. I tried to walk it off. No such luck. Around 9:45 I took some tylenol and made myself lay still hoping the pain would just go away. I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and when I woke up my back was still in extreme pain.

I was pretty convinced that I wasn't having any contractions and didn't really think I was going into preterm labor, but Chris was worried that I possibly might have a kidney infection, or something might be going on with the baby. So he made the decision that we should head to the ER around midnight. The drive to the hospital SUCKED. Being cold and shivering made me 1000x more uncomfortable and I was starting to get really freaked out about what was going on in my body.

When we arrived at the ER we didn't really know where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to do. Everyone staff person would ask are you hear to have your baby? Um, I hope not! Finally I was wheeled up to labor and delivery and hooked up a couple of monitors. Baby's heart rate was good, and I wasn't having any contractions of significance. But I was still in pain! After some more tests it was determined that I didn't have any infections, and was most likely just suffering from the pain of having a small human being growing inside my body. I suppose that is good news, but it made me feel pathetic, like I couldn't handle being pregnant.

I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor today, and based on everything they did at the ER, combined with my great blood pressure and what not today she agrees that there isn't really anything going on that shouldn't be. Most likely our baby girl just had a big growth spurt, and that combined with my smaller torso = my muscles and ligaments are literally being stretched beyond their limits. Doctors orders? 20 minutes in the morning and at night with a heating pad on my back, stretching after that, followed by a back massage. I may be uncomfortable, but at least my doctor is prescribing that my husband give me a massage. I think I can handle that :o).

Hopefully with some stretching and massaging I will start to feel a little bit better. If not, I guess it is just going to be a long 12+ weeks!