A "tour" of Labor & Delivery??

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. One that I would rather not repeat but I'm glad I listened to my instincts...

Going back a little, Dustin and I were signed up to take a "Prepared Delivery" class, beginning this coming week. (This is supposedly the new term for Lamaze classes, with a tour of labor and delivery, etc). After thinking a lot about it and talking to Dustin, we decided to cancel the class. The bottom line, I just don't want to know. I have always been the type of person that is better off just doing things, rather than knowing everything there is to know about it first.

For example, if I buy something that has to be assembled, I will not read the instructions, I will try my best to figure it out. There is just too much information in those damn instruction booklets...kind of like how I felt these labor classes might be, too much information to freak us out.

That all being said, I had to register for my epidural, something this hospital requires. I cannot have an epidural without being preregistered. We decided to do the tour of labor and delivery with the epidural registration, which was just an hour of literally touring the unit where Lily will be born. Very simple, informative and not too in depth. We did this yesterday at 10:30am.

After the tour, I had some medical questions about some symptoms I had been experiencing for a couple of days. I had been experiencing some pressure and pelvic bone pain, almost to the point where walking was difficult. I assumed it was the baby "dropping" but it just felt weird to me. Although I had just had a doctor's appointment on Thursday, (which was also a bit stressful. I'll get to that in a minute), these symptoms seemed to pop up Friday and Saturday.

There wasn't really anyone available to ask during or after the tour so I just gave my doctor's emergency line a call. I really wasn't at all worried. Like I said, I expected him to say that the baby had dropped and that was it but I wanted to be sure.

Nope. He said, "At 33 weeks, we are not expecting symptoms like this yet. Go to triage in labor & delivery". Ummmm, ooook??!!

Very calmly, I turned the car around and went back to the hospital. I called Dustin to tell him, since he was on his way to work at that point. I also called my mom to give her the head's up. I really don't know what all of this meant, but I really wasn't afraid of anything.

To try to shorten this, I spent 5 hours on a stretcher in labor and delivery for preterm contractions, mostly caused by what I now know is a bladder infection (very common in pregnancy). I did not have any typical symptoms of a bladder infection at all, so I was pretty surprised.

They had to give me two shots and a pill to stop the contractions and an IV drip of antibiotics to shock my system. Thankfully, the baby is safe and sound. No dilation, no effacement, thank God. It's just a good thing I didn't ignore this because it could have actually caused me to go into full blown labor or a kidney infection which could be very bad for the baby.

Mom ended up leaving work to come and sit with me, which I needed. Dustin really couldn't get out of work and I was not liking being alone. We definitely figured out that I SUCK as a patient. I am way too much like my dad and have no tolerance for sitting around, unable to function. The shots themselves were horrible. They made my heart race and I was shaking really bad. Poor little Lily's heart rate also increased, of course. I know it could have been a lot worse but I'm going to go ahead and feel sorry for myself...it sucked.

I have a follow up appointment this Thursday to check on how everything is after all of that. I'm supposed to "modify my activity" until then, which is fine with me. I'm tired.

At my 32 week appointment last week, I was actually measuring 35 weeks! Nothing to worry about, but my doctor ordered an ultrasound to see how big the baby is. Measuring that far ahead either means a.) she is a big baby or b.) I'm retaining fluid. Either way, she may come a little earlier than expected! The stressful part of the appointment was when the doctor couldn't find the baby's heart beat! Turned out that the doppler monitor wasn't working and she was just fine. Needless to say though, I had a really hard time focusing after that scare.

Christ on a bicycle, pregnancy is so stressful. I guess it won't get any less stressful once she's here so I better get used to this, huh?