Sun & Shower

After two days of rest, I spent today cleaning and taking care of things on my To Do List.  I don’t know if the burst of energy and motivation is the fabled nesting that comes shortly before labor or if I just got bored with sitting on the couch watching TV.  I didn’t do anything crazy like scrubbing floors.  It was really just a typical Saturday doing laundry, clipping coupons and watering the plants while watching college basketball.  I guess we’ll see if I go into labor soon. 

I’m still feeling contractions here and there but nothing with a pattern.  I thought maybe the snow coming through last night would trigger something but no such luck.  Or maybe I was lucky - chances are slim now that I’ll have a Valentine baby.  Phew!  I’ve never really had much luck with this holiday so I’m happy my kid won’t have it for a birthday. 

My original guess months ago was that I would have the baby during the Illinois-Indiana game on February 15th.  So my next guess for an inconvenient time to go into labor would be sometime around 11:00 tomorrow morning.  Go Illini!

Nothing new to report.  I have signs that it’s coming soon but soon could be considered weeks in labor terms.  I’m hoping soon means just a couple more days.  There’s snow coming after midnight tonight and tomorrow is Valentine’s Day - the one day I don’t want to have the baby - so we’ll see if weather and Murphy’s Law have an effect on childbirth.

The twinges got within 5 minutes last night so we went to triage to be safe.  The good news is that I’m not crazy - I was having contractions.  The bad news is that I’m not any more dilated than I was the day before.  After about an hour of monitoring, they sent us home.  No baby yet.

I’m still having contractions today but I’m not even trying to keep track of them.  I’m just resting and relaxing after the last two days of drama. 

With one week left until my due date, today is my last day of work.  YAY!  We have two holidays (Thursday and Monday) so I figured I may as well take two vacation days to get the entire extra week off.  It’s such a relief to not have to worry about going into labor at the office and who will take over my unfinished work.  Everything is done so there are no more worries.

As far as labor progression goes, I’m still trying to figure out what a contraction feels like.  I think they might be pretty steady in the 8-10 minute range right now because I feel a small, sharp twinge in my lower stomach about that often.  I was feeling it about every 20 minutes this morning.  Very easily could be nothing though.  If I notice these twinges getting closer together tonight, I’ll go to triage.  If not, I’ll see what’s going on tomorrow and maybe call my doctor.

I wish I could give a more definitive picture of where things are but I might just have lucked out and gotten the good birthing genes.  Thanks Mom!

Well that was interesting.  I went in for my weekly doctor appointment this morning and wound up spending 3.5 hours in triage before finally being sent home.  My blood pressure was high and my urine tested positive for protein which are two key signs of preeclampsia.  I’ve also had swelling in my hands and feet for weeks.  Typically the swelling comes on quickly and there’s a large weight gain when caused by preeclampsia and mine has been gradual so my doctor wasn’t 100% sure about it.

The hospital is in the building next to my doctor’s office so I walked over (outside because the weather was so nice today!) to triage and checked in.  I had to do another urine test on an empty bladder and change into a gown.  They hooked me up to monitors for blood pressure, baby’s heart rate, baby’s movement and contractions; and they drew some blood.  Then all I could do was sit and wait for the test results.

About an hour and a half later, I got the lab results.  Everything looked good except there was still some protein in my urine.  Because everything else looked so healthy and my blood pressure had dropped in the time I was there, they wanted to do one more urine test… with a catheter!  Yikes!  Turns out it wasn’t so bad.  It hurt a little but for the most part I laughed.  I have no idea why it made me laugh but it did.  The nurse said that’s the first time anyone has ever laughed while having a catheter inserted.  Anyway, that test was clean - no protein - so they checked with the on call doctor and decided to send me home.

The monitoring showed the baby is doing fine and I’m having contractions even though I’m not feeling them.  They’re not all that strong yet though.  The doctor also said I’m 2cm dilated and I think I heard her say to a nurse that I’m 70% effaced.  I don’t know who else she would have been talking about because she had just examined me so I think that’s right.  I’m hoping I can get through my last day of work tomorrow and then that kid is free to join us any time!  The sooner, the better!

Today’s experience was good for me.  I got to see what happens when I get to triage so I’ll be prepared for the real thing.  I also got a chance to mentally prepare myself for the delivery to not go according to my birth plan.  Had they induced, everything would have been thrown out of whack.  I had to rethink the entire plan on my walk from the doctor’s office to triage - call Brian, call work, make sure someone can pick up my unfinished work where I left off, where did I leave off with my work?, tell Brian what to pack in my hospital bag (I still haven’t pack it), will I get to eat something?, I’ll have to have an epidural if I get pitocin - it was not how I thought it would go.  By the time I got to triage though, I had let go of the picture I had in my head and was ready to go with the flow.  The nurses even commented that they were surprised it was my first baby because I was so calm.  I was in good hands though.  What was there to worry about?

Two weeks to go until my due date and the doctor says I’m not even close to delivering.  That can change very quickly but I was hoping I’d already be on my way.  I guess it’s time to get down and scrub some floors!  The good news is that the baby’s head is down, and has been for several weeks, and it’s finally stopped kicking me in the ribs.  I’ve also seen some contractions on the monitor at the doctor’s office but I can’t feel any difference between that and the baby kicking me.  Hopefully that’s a sign that I’ll be able to deliver without any drugs.  It might depend on when the little bugger decides to come out though - it’s estimated to be close to 8 pounds right now!