The Big Scare

Beware: This is a long story with no fun pictures to help it along.

On Monday afternoon I was sitting on the couch with Stephen and I felt my uterus get really hard.

I thought it was strange but no big deal.

Then it happened again, and again.

I thought, “These can't be contractions; contractions hurt.”

But after an hour I started to get concerned.

So I texted my midwife (one of the many great benefits of having a midwife) and told her what was happening.

She instantly called me and said I need to go to the hospital and that she would meet me there.

Stephen and I obviously became really worried at this point.

We went straight over to the hospital and checked into labor and delivery.

They hooked me up to a contraction monitor and listened to Alice's heartbeat (which was great).

They also gave me an IV, which was a first for me.

I am not a fan.

My midwife came and she checked my cervix and said I wasn't dilated at all so that was a relief.

They continued to monitor me and after about an hour of regular contractions they gave me an injection of terbutaline to stop the contractions.

The midwife then talked with us about what might be going on.

She said that we could rule out dehydration since the IV didn't help and we could rule out any urinary infection because the test results were negative.

She said one of the possibilities might be a yeast infection and we should test for that.

She then talked us though worse case scenario.

Which is that I was in preterm labor in which case my cervix would start to dilate and they would send me in an ambulance to a large hospital called Columbia that is 2 hours away.

This hospital has a NICU and doctors who specialize in preterm births.

(The on-base hospital we were at is small and has no NICU and didn't even have a doctor there at night)

She also said that if I am going into preterm labor there is nothing that can be done to stop it.

But she reassured us that at this point I was just having preterm contractions and not labor.

The worse case scenario obviously freaked us out.

The prognosis for babies born at 24 weeks is not very good.

The injection they gave me worked for a couple hours but then the contractions started again.

They gave me another injection and said I would need to stay all night and see the doctor when he comes in in the morning.

So we had a long night at the hospital.

Stephen trying to sleep in the little pull out bed and me with an IV, a pulse monitor on my finger, a pressure monitor on my arm that went off every hour and the contraction monitor on my belly.

Needless to say we didn't sleep well.

The contractions came back again in the morning.

The doctor came in and did an ultrasound to check the cervix length and he said it looked good.

He also did a yeast infection test and some other swab tests which all came back negative.

He said he didn't know why I was contracting and he didn't know how to stop them but since I wasn't dilating that I could go home on semi-bed rest and come back Friday (this was Tuesday) and they would check again.

We did not feel comfortable with this answer.

We felt like he just didn't know what to do with me so sent me home.

Tuesday evening my midwife came over.

I had been contracting pretty regularly all day.

She said that though the yeast infection test was negative, she saw signs of yeast when she did the cervix check.

Since it wouldn't hurt to take it, she gave me the medication for the yeast infection hoping that it may just be that.

She said that if the contractions get really close together or are stronger that I should go back to the hospital.

Wednesday I was still having contractions so my midwife came over and checked my cervix which was still not dilated.

She was concerned because if it was the yeast infection that the medication should have started to make a difference by now.

She gave me a prescription for nifedipine which is a blood pressure medication that also helps with contractions since it relaxes the smooth muscles.

After that I went to an ultrasound appointment that I had scheduled before to recheck my low lying placenta.

I got my prescription for the nifedipine and took it right away.

It unfortunately made me very light headed and gave me a bad headache but those were common side effects.

I sat on the couch while Stephen made us dinner and I had noticed while running errands that my contractions were pretty close together and strong.

Now that I was sitting down I could really feel them and they were only a minute or two apart and stronger than before.

I tried to eat and relax to see if that would help but it didn't so we decided to go back to the hospital.

They hooked me back up to the monitor and checked my cervix which was still not dilated.

Last time we were at the hospital Stephen watched the contraction monitor a lot and it really stressed him out so this time he said, “I can't watch that thing.  It's like watching the stock market.”

Even in crisis, Stephen is still uniquely Stephen :o)

They monitored me for two hours and checked my cervix again and it was the same so they said I could go home and needed to be on strict bed rest.

We were getting frustrated with this because it didn't seem like they were taking it very seriously and they didn't even have a doctor see me.

We felt like I was just a time bomb that they were doing nothing to try and stop.

On Thursday I spent all day on the couch only getting up to go to the bathroom and the contractions still kept coming.

My midwife didn't feel comfortable either with the way the on base hospital was handling my case and thought we needed to see a specialist.

She also got the results of the ultrasound I had on Wednesday and said that my cervix was significantly shorter than it was in the ultrasound on Tuesday.

She called the doctors at Columbia (the big hospital) and they said that they wanted to see me right away.

So Stephen packed up an overnight bag, put the dogs outside with the hope they wouldn't escape and we headed to Columbia.

This was the worst drive ever.

Not only because of the stress but also because I already felt sick from the blood pressure medication and the first hour of the drive is a super curvy back road that made me car sick and while we were driving the contractions got stronger.

But we finally made it to the hospital, you could tell right away that it was a really nice, fancy hospital.

They put me on all the monitors and we got to see a doctor right away and he did an ultrasound and said my cervix length looked good.

They said they would keep me overnight to monitor the contractions and then I could meet with the specialist the next day.

They also changed my prescription to be a larger, time release dose and thankfully this had much less side effects.

We had a much better night at this hospital.  They didn't keep me on the heart or blood pressure monitor and they put the IV in my forearm instead of inner elbow which was much more comfortable.

Stephen also had a much nicer bed to sleep on.

In the morning they took me over to get an ultrasound on their fancy ultrasound machine then we waited until the afternoon to meet with the specialist.

The specialist was really nice and took the time to explain to us really clearly what is going on and what the plan is from here and answered all our questions.

He said that with the way my cervix looks there is almost no chance of me going into labor in the next 2-4 weeks at least.  (Praise God!)

He also said that there are just some women who have contractions during pregnancy for some unknown reason but as long as the cervix isn't changing it is fine and that I still had a good chance of going full term.

He said I don't need to be on bed rest but that I should take it easy and not do anything strenuous.

He wants me to come back in 2 weeks, right before we move, to check the cervix again.

If it is the same we have a green light to move and to fly Napa on the 9^th as we had planned.

I can't tell you how happy we were to hear all this, not only because of the good news but also because it was a straight, reliable answer rather than the shoulder shrug we were getting from the other hospital.

So that was our big scare, and hopefully the last.

I also have to say that Stephen was especially wonderful through the whole ordeal.

He was with me through the whole thing and took care of me when I was on bed rest and in the hospital.

He is a great husband.

Here are the only 2 pictures taken of this adventure.

My bracelet collection:

Stephen on his pull out bed:

I'll leave you with something funny to make up for this serious post.

When I was on bed rest Stephen was heating up a bowl of soup for himself (something I usually do for him) and it blew up in the microwave and spilled when he tried to take it out and I heard him say in frustration,

“I'm not cut out for this job!'