Hospital Adventure

The past couple of weeks have been interesting.

First of all I can't believe that the summer has come to an unofficial end. School is back up and running, and Daniel and I are (sort of) getting back into our school year routine.

2 Fridays ago, I hit my biggest bump in the road with my pregnancy. I woke up bleeding. Not spotting, but bleeding. I somehow stayed calm. It was 7:30, so I called into work and then waited until 8 when my doctor's office opened to call and see what I should do. I was cramping some, but James was moving around like a mad man, so I knew that for the time being he was okay.

My doctor decided that I needed to head to Springfield and be checked at the hospital. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with Daniel. Thankfully, I was able to reach Jacob, and he was able to leave work and come home. I honestly wasn't ridiculously worried, so I said I'd just drive myself over so he didn't have to entertain Daniel in the hospital.

I arrived and got checked in. I of course had to ride in a wheelchair up to the maternity floor, where I was put in a triage room to be checked out. One blood draw, one urine sample, one ultrasound and consult and cervical check with the on call doctor, and everything looked mostly okay, but the doctor was still worried since I was still bleeding. Plus I was hooked to monitors and the cramping turned out to be sporadic contractions. In my head I'm thinking, "Okay, well everything seems good. I'll probably be out of here as soon as the blood tests come back. Maybe some bed rest." Instead the doctor looks at me and says, "We're keeping you overnight for observation." Um, say what!?

Next thing I know, I'm being wheeled to my room. I had a raging headache, and hadn't eaten anything but a cracker. It was just after noon, so I was hoping to at least get settled and eat. They hooked me back up to monitors...which is when I was told I was going to be on continuous monitoring the whole time. Yeah. My bladder is the size of a pea, so that was a blast having to have the nurses unhook me every other minute to go to the bathroom!

For some reason the doctor had accidentally written down that I could only have ice chips, so that's what I got to "eat." The nurse thought it was stupid, so she went to call the doctor to see if that was really right. I FINALLY got to eat lunch at 3:00! Thankfully you can order room service 24 hours a day and they have a giant menu. I chowed down a side salad, cheeseburger, fries and chocolate cake! The nurse was in the room when it came and when I lifted the lid off the tray she laughed and goes, "Oh yeah! You're pregnant!"

The food was great and helped my headache some, but I could tell I was having a bunch of smaller contractions. Nurse came back in and said they were going to hook me up to an IV to get more fluids in me and hopefully get the contractions to stop. At this point I was finally feeling grateful that they kept me.

Jacob came to see me a bit later and to bring me my overnight bag. His dad drove over to watch Daniel so he could come be with me for a bit, which was nice and I was very thankful for!

Once he left, I finally called my mom. We'd talked through Facebook and texting, but it was good to talk to her. My night nurse came in and unhooked me to go to the bathroom and then said she'd let me stay off the monitors for a bit. Hooray! I had about an hour and it was lovely.

Finally ordered supper at 8, and by 10:30 I turned off my light to try to sleep. Ugh. Longest night ever. First off, awake or asleep, James was always moving and jumping off the monitor, so they'd have to come in and readjust...which could take awhile because he'd bounce all over the place! My night nurse was so nice though and would try to leave me alone as much as she could. I managed about 4 hours of on and off sleep that night.

The rounds doctor came in at 7 and said I'd be having a higher level ultrasound and then they'd determine if I was going home or staying. STAYING?! I was a bit worried, but had the ultrasound done and everything looked great. I was 27 weeks 1 day and he was measuring around 2.5lbs! He was rocking and rolling like usual! The "tech" who I found out later was a specialist doctor said she saw no reason I couldn't go home! Woohoo! The bleeding had stopped (no actual explanation for it) and other than a random contraction those stopped too.

The wait to be released began just after 9. I had to wait for the on call doctor from my office to come in and talk to me, and then wait on the discharge paperwork. The doctor cleared me to leave, but limited everything that I was allowed to do. Then my nurse re-lectured me on everything. She made me more nervous than the doctor, but I listened because she sees women in labor every day and she was like, "I'd better not see you again before 37 weeks because you over did it when you shouldn't have!" (She was very nice, by the way!)

And so, finally around 12:30 I walked out of the hospital. I'm so thankful for all of my nurses. They were all so wonderful. I'm also thankful for Jacob for watching Daniel when I couldn't be there for him!

Still taking it easy, but the rest is for another post!