It’s been a rough week here at our house. I got home last night after spending two nights in the hospital. Call it a pre-game trial run for the big event that is still 30 weeks away.
Tuesday night after 3 hours of intense cramps that felt like strong menstrual cramps J made me get up and go to the hospital at midnight. I was reluctant at first, mainly because if I was going to roll around in agony I wanted to do it in the comfort of my own home, not the waiting room of a germy hospital ER. Thankfully, the ER was not crowded, and when they heard what was happening with me they worked quickly to get me back to see the doctor. I was still cramping pretty badly, and waves of nausea were coming over me. The nurse said she would take care of the nausea, so she put in an IV and gave me a fiery shot of phenergan in the hallway on the way to the ultrasound. It made my head spin and felt like lightning shot up my arm – VERY painful. I later found out that they are supposed to dilute the phenergan and give it slowly, but she just rammed it in there. OW. My left hand and wrist is still very swollen and feels like it was smashed with a sledgehammer. Note to self: Next time ask for oral phenergan. So that pain distracted me from the cramping, anyway.
It also made me very woozy and out of it, so while we were getting an ultrasound I was depending on J to make sure everything was ok. The nurse wouldn’t talk at all – she was scaring me the most. I asked if the baby was ok and she wouldn’t say anything – said the doctor had to tell me. Luckily J has been to every ultrasound already, so he was able to tell me exactly what was happening. He saw a heartbeat and the baby moving, and also pointed out my ovaries. Ha! I think he shocked the nurse. We briefly heard the heartbeat and I knew we were good. It was such a huge relief.
From that point things dragged very slowly. I slept intermittently under the fluorescent lights on a hard pelvic exam table in the ER until about 4:45 am when they finally got someone to take me to a room. I didn’t expect to be admitted to the hospital, much less spend an extra night there. The doctor called my OBGYN and the both agreed it was best for me to stay. I had an elevated white blood count and a fever, and with the location of the pain they were worried that I was suffering from appendicitis. I was glad they were so attentive to my needs and felt I was in good hands. I slept in the hospital room on Wednesday morning in between nurses and worried parents coming in to visit me. J finally got to go home at about 11 am and rest. He hadn’t had ANY sleep, so he was very worn out. Bless his heart I put him through hell that night and he was so wonderful. He kept telling me everything would be just fine, and it was. The doctors never did find out what caused the pain. He said that no news is good news, so I’ll take that. I am just so incredibly happy that the baby is doing fine. That was my 1 concern.
I had a regular OBGYN appointment yesterday at 1:00 so we just walked from the hospital room to his office. We got a great ultrasound report at my appointment. We saw and heard a strong heartbeat (173 bpm!). I cried as soon as I heard the heart beating. It’s one thing to see it, but to hear it just overwhelmed me. Especially after all we had been through. Baby has grown a lot over the past week – up to 3.3 cm now! He is still wiggling when I giggle. He looked to be sleeping and the nurse was getting me to cough and see if that would wake him up. Nope. Then I started laughing at something, and he immediately started waving his arms and kicking his legs. SO COOL. We saw ears, arms, legs, fingers, an umbilical cord and even the two lobes of his brain! At just 10 weeks along, it’s a real baby now- with all the right parts and pieces. It is simply amazing.
Please keep us in your prayers. This is such a fragile time. It’s hard to describe how scared I was on Tuesday night. I thank God for getting me and the baby through all of this. I hope it doesn’t happen ever again. I am going to get plenty of rest and try to focus on being as healthy as possible.
