A Sunday Adventure

Yesterday, I took my muscle relaxer (as usual) at 9am. In general, I will not have any contractions for at least a few hours after I take it. But yesterday was a different story. I started having rather uncomfortable contractions around 10:45am. I started writing down the times and they were 4 minutes apart. Then after a few more, they were 3 minutes apart. I waited an hour. Then I called my doctor who said to come in. 

I knew that if this was the real deal, I would not get to eat for hours (or days) and I definitely wouldn't get a shower for days. So I ate and showered and we took our sweet time getting up to the hospital. My mom was already visiting for the weekend, so she stayed with the kiddos (Thanks, Mom!).

Here's the pic we took at the hospital
as the potential last preggo pic.

~ 34 weeks & 1 day ~

When we arrived (around 2:15pm), I was hooked up to the monitors and my cervix was checked (around 2:45pm). I was 2cm dilated (I had been 1-2 for the last few weeks). At 3pm, I took my muscle relaxer as per my usual routine. At 5:15, my cervix was checked again and I was 3-4cm dilated. And, I was still having strong contractions on a regular basis.

My doctor decided to give me an IV of fluids in hopes of stopping the consistency of the contractions and stopping the dilation of my cervix entirely. I had to wait another 2 hours to be checked again. During this time, there was a lot of talk about me being transferred to UVA (the hospital in Charlottesville that has a level 5 NICU and is more equipped at caring for a premature baby than the hospital in town). 

I know what you're thinking- "But you made it to 34 weeks! What the hell? I thought that was the "cut-off" for being transferred?" Well, that's what we were told. But, we were also told that at the end of the day, it was up to our baby's pediatrician. You see, if the pediatrician is not comfortable caring for a 34-weeker, then he/she will suggest a transfer. And, it's really up to the pediatrician from our practice who is on-call when labor is imminent. So, even if our specific pediatrician is okay with it, if there is a different pediatrician from our practice on-call that day who isn't okay with it, a transfer will happen. And, when the on-call doctor was called (who was not our specific pediatrician), he recommended a transfer. 

So there we were: waiting. If The IV fluids didn't work, I was going to UVA. If they did work, then we were going to have to make another decision.

Two hours after the last cervix check (around 7:00), my cervix hadn't changed. It seemed like the fluids were working. Another hour later, I hadn't progressed any more. 

Then there was one more decision to make: stay over night or go home. My doctor was comfortable with me going home (especially because we only live a few miles from the hospital), but she said we could stay if we wanted to. We decided to go back home. We got home around 10pm last night.

I was told to increase the frequency of my muscle relaxer, go back on strict bed rest, and drink plenty of water.

So here we are: counting and timing contractions, rating the pain level of each, and keeping the phone nearby to call my doc with any questions or concerns.