My Week of the Unexpected

You may have noticed how quiet it's been around here for a few days. Remember how tired and sore I felt Monday? It didn't stop there.
Tuesday night I decided there were several things I could get done while hubby was taking a nap before work. About 9:20 when I was settling down, I began having back pain unlike back pain I had experienced before. I drank some water and moved onto my left side to see if that helped. From there I also began having tightenings in my stomache more painful than the braxton hicks I've had since 23 weeks.
I cranked up my water in-take. 40 ounces in one hour. The pain kept coming. I tried directed breathing to hopefully relaxe my back and stomache, finally I decided to go take a hot shower using the detachable part of the showerhead to bring relief to the "ouchy places". Nothing was helping, everything was intensifying. Finally it was about time for David to get up so I went to lie down in our bed. He was excited to see me and wanted to give me an enthusiastic kiss and hug. I had to put up my hand to stop him and barely got out "I'm in a lot of pain right now, take it easy." Imediately his countenance fell and I could see he may be on the verge of worry. I said "It's nothing, I'll be fine, I'm just trying to get things under control. 'Practice contractions' are normal." I was obviously in denial. While he was in the shower things got even more painful. I decided to call the after-hours nurse and see if she had any suggestions. She told me she would have a midwife call me back. By the time David got out of the shower I was timing these contractions, one minute apart lasting 2-5 minutes. I finally got off the bed, was standing and holding on to the bed post trying to practice all the awesome breathing I had been studying. When the midwife called back David had to talk to her because I really couldn't talk through the contraction I was having, I didn't even want to moan. It took the midwife 3 m inutes to give directions to David to get us down there as soon as possible.
David had to change twice... who knows why ;-) He was in rush/panic? mode. I was also feeling nauseas so he grabbed a bowl for me just in case, and we were off like a blueish-gray hyundai bullet.
Contractions stayed consistent. When I had a break I would hope that it was nothing, maybe I had food poisioning? My baby could just not be coming right now. We had just been to the clinic that morning for a check up. Everything was fine.
We got to the hospital. They were on baby delivery overload. Apparently while we were there someone had delivered in the ER waiting room. The room they put us in had just been cleaned after one woman barely made it out before dropping her blessing, and another woman delivered in there right before we came.
The monitors proved I was having actual contractions. I was dialated one centimeter. They began treating me like it was pre-term labor. The contractions lasted at this intensity for 4 hours. In that time they gave me three swab tests during breaks, of which 2 proved negative, which showed the baby wasn't actually set to come that night or even in the next two weeks. They gave me a steroid shot any way just to mature the baby's lungs and tummy to be on the safe side. The good thing is, the baby montior showed my son has a strong heart, the heart of a term baby, so even if he came early, though he'd be small, he'd be strong! The third test showed a bacteria that they believe could have contributed to the excitement, so they put me on antibiotics. They kept us overnight and I cleaned out three bags of saline for hydration purposes, which they credit to also helping control my contractions. I'm now on strict orders to drink exorbitant amounts of water.
I was told I could return to normal activities as long as I felt up to it and stayed aware of what was going on internally. Friday morning I decided I was ready to go for a walk... one loop around the neighborhood and I started having some mild contractions, I debated pushing myself, and then decided to play it safe and drink more water while putting up my feet.

I chalk this experience up to another lesson in "I'm not in Control". One of my biggest worries during that whole ordeal was how much we hadn't finished for the baby. The next day we had scheduled an appointment with a lawyer to officially name guardians, we had plans with a state trooper to have our car seat installed and inspected, we only had three outfits for him for when he first comes out, we didn't even own a receiving or swaddling blanket!!! I had checklists for what was to be done each week, and the baby was trying to come before it was all ready! We didn't even have our hospital bag packed!

Praise God, baby is still safe inside, growing a little more. This weekend we went to a huge consignment sale and went nuts on baby clothes, blankets, and hats. We now have several outfits for 0-3, 3 months, and 3-6 months. We have burp clothes. We have 5 blankets and 4 hats! I feel a little bit more like we some things ready for him. We packed a bag for us and started one for him, and I made a shelf just for his bath stuff in the bathroom linen closet.

Now to meet the state trooper... if they would onlly call back! Is 4 calls too many? Maybe I'll try one more time tomorrow.