My 4day / 4night hospital getaway.

So the past 4 days have been quite an experience. I’ll try to summarize, as the details will make this entry FAR TOO long for my liking.

If you missed out on how this hospital stay got started, check out my previous entry: What a morbid trip.

After getting transferred to a new room in PET, I continued to get monitored. Contractions persisted. I had an fFN test done again and it came back negative, meaning no labor for at least another week. Supposedly.

I also had my cervix checked at 2pm and around 5-6pm and it was closed and firm. Come 9-10 pm, I was dilated 1cm and 30% effaced.

Me being the naive pregnant person, thought that meant that labor and delivery were imminent. The babies would be flying out at any moment now, right?? — yeah, no.

Anyway, labor was not imminent and the doc said she has seen ppl dilated at 1 cm last another 3-4 weeks before going into actual labor. Even ppl dilated to 3cm going that long. Apparently to actually give birth you have to be 10cm and 100% effaced. Effaced is the thinning of the lining. And the dilation is how open it is. You know, like when you get eye drops and your pupils dilate and look HUGE.

I had to be monitored a little longer, and was put on Procardia — a medication to help slow down contractions — if it worked i would be sent to a different area of the hospital that they call 4G - it is where they put pregnant women who are in stable condition and are going to ‘stay awhile’. If the procardia didn’t work, I’d be moved to labor and delivery — and well … we’d have babies soon.

The procardia DID work, and at around 3am I was moved to the 4G unit. Smaller room, no roomie … They don’t monitor you 24×7 here like they do in PET, since you are more stable. They only monitor twice a day. But in the meantime I was hooked up to an IV for fluids, then they added on some Ambicillin or something. It is an antibiotic.

They do this test around 36 weeks to check for some type of Strep that women can carry in their vajayjay’s and can have an affect on the babies if they come out that way. They swabbed me to do the test, never found out the results, but they put me on the antibiotic just in case I was going to have to deliver soon.

They also injected a lovely shot of steroids into my buttox that burned like a biotch, but was over quick enough. I would get a 2nd dosage 24 hours later. This would be used to help develop the babys’ lungs in case I had to deliver soon too.

After being moved to 4G, the contractions were still slow, but gradually picked up and I felt them every 2-3 minutes again. Every time they put me on the monitor they saw the contractions and since the procardia didn’t seem to be working, they had to go to Plan B – Magnesium Sulfate.

Now I’ve heard horror stories about this stuff from ppl who also experienced preterm labor issues. I heard it makes you feel like crap. The doc came in and basically told me the same thing. She said I’m going to feel horrible and there’s really nothing they can do about it. The nurses came in and gave me their sympathy too… Grrrrrreat. I couldn’t wait to take the stuff.

The procardia is in pill form, but the Magnesium (Mag) was going to be given to me in the IV along with everything else.

In the beginning, since I expected the worst, it didn’t seem so bad. Just some MAJOR hot flashes. Major Major…. I could deal with feeling hot, no biggie.

But as the day went on it got worse. I had to be on it for a minimum of 24 hours. Not only did I feel hot flashes, but my chest burned and my back burned. I thought I was having a heart attack. When I breathe it hurt my chest. It burned INSIDE. I couldn’t sleep. I thought maybe I was ODing on this stuff. But they came in and drew blood and took my vitals every 6 hours to check, and I was fine. No overdosing for me. This was just how it was to be. I also was EXTREMELY weak. When I would get up to go to the bathroom, my legs would give out. I was dizzy. I had migraine headaches. I didn’t want to talk to anyone or see anyone. But yet I didn’t want to be alone, b/c I was terrified about the way I was feeling.

The good thing about the Mag is that the contractions went from 15-20 an hour down to 1-2 an hour. So the shiz was working. It DOES work. Phew.

After 24 hours on that stuff they took me off. And I felt SOOO MUCH BETTER!!!! I was put back on procardia to see if it would work, so they wouldn’t have to put me on Mag for another 24 hours. The procardia took a little while to take affect but once it did, the contractions maintained 1-2/hour. Apparently it lowers your blood pressure and mine was averaging around 80/40 (normal is 120/80) each time they checked. So, instead of being allowed to go home b/c my contractions were being controlled, I am going to be here at least 1 more day to be monitored …

I got to shower on day 4, finally. It was the coldest most horrible shower ever, but after I got all dried off and warmed up again, I felt wonderful

The babys are doing really good. constantly on the move. heartbeats are strong. it’s all good … I can’t wait to meet them. I’m predicting they’ll be here in the next 2 weeks or so!!!

More to write about in my next post, about a new roomie I got while in 4G for 1 day and how amazing TH has been through all of this.