Twice thursday morning and again friday afternoon I had more "fluid" of unknown origin so I called my doc to see if I should get it checked. Of course, she sent me to L&D just to be safe. I was sure I'd be in for a quick check and sent home right away, so I told husband not to leave work early, that it would be no big deal and I'd call him if he needed to come up to the hospital.
Well, both tests were negative for amniotic fluid and an ultrasound was done to check fluid levels and that looked good as well. Doc said I'm probably noticing what she calls "cervical sweat". Nasty, I know. She said that as a cervix dilates, it secretes a lot of loose, wet discharge that can be very "fluid-like". She said since I'm dilating so much, so early, I'm probably experiencing more of what someone wouldn't experience until they are in the hospital in active labor.
So, you would think I would have been sent home right? Wrong. Per protocol, they hooked me up to monitors and checked vitals and "surprise" I have a temp of 101 and a slightly elevated BP of 147/95, so now I had to stay a bit.
My urine showed a UTI once again and grew more white blood cells than it had the previous week and Group beta strep. Weird. This is probably not actually in my urine, but rather a contaminate from the outside, which would mean I'm now carrying GBS although my original culture was negative. This is important to know because we don't want her born through GBS and getting sick. So, I had to stay 24 hours to receive IV antibiotics and have my temp monitored. UGH.
Also, I had some protein in my urine and with my BP being high, they worried I might be developing PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) so they drew my liver enzymes to make sure they weren't elevated. They came back normal, and my BP eventually came down, which is very good for my health, but I have to say I was kind of hoping things wouldn't have been normal so I could have delivered her that night.
I'm just about sick of staying in the hospital and not having a baby.
I had gone back to work on Thursday and was supposed to work Saturday, but had to call in "sick" because of this whole thing, which really upset me because that's more maternity paid time that I had to use again with NO BABY.
At 8:30 saturday night I was released home after 24 hours with no fever and a prescription for oral antibiotics.
In the meantime, my right ear is starting to hurt pretty bad and I realize I'm getting another outer ear infection just like I had a year ago. I have a kind of dermatitis in my ears that makes them itch terribly and if I scratch too much, the skin on the outside of my ear gets infected and swells shut causing LOTS of pain.
So, the next morning I call the on call OB who prescribed my antibiotic and ask her if it will cover the skin infection. She said no, that I would need a different one for that. I figured as much since I developed it while on the other IV antibiotics.
So, Sunday I made a trip to urgent care and got a prescription for my ear.
Now I'm on two abx- one has to be taken every 6 hours and the other every 8 hours for the next week. Which means I have to get up at night and carefully remember the times to take them during the day. This, on top of taking my blood sugars as scheduled got me thinking that working my last three shifts might not be such a good idea. In my job, it can be hard to get away from the bedside at exact times, and it's easy to get busy and distracted and not remember to do these things. I already have trouble staying on top of the blood sugars alone when I'm at work.
Also, I am now dilated to 4cm and still contracting about every 7 minutes (although still not painful) and the docs and nurses say that they can feel her head and amniotic sack bulging beneath and said it would be very easy to break it and that once it does, I need to get to the hospital quickly because they don't think it will take long for her to come and if I want an epidural I may not have much time and I will probably need to make it in time to get another IV dose of abx for the GBS.
This also had me worried about going back to work. I don't have the type of job where I can just run out if I need to. If my water broke, I would still need to finish up charting, figure out who can take my assignment, give report, get someone to come get me because I probably shouldn't drive myself at that point, wait for them and then make it to the hospital. This could take a long time.
Whereas, if I'm at home, I'm 7 minutes from the hospital, and if I feel it's necessary, my neighbor is home and has offered to drive me if I think I'm in a major hurry.
So, with all of this to consider, I decided that I should not go back to work anymore. I'm taking myself out one week early, which cuts down on my time with her, but I figure it's not worth the risks. Plus, I feel like my pelvis could shatter in to a million pieces with every step I take, which doesn't make for a fun work day.
So, I'm officially on maternity leave and should return to work in early october. Now, if she could just hurry up and come out so I could take advantage of this time off, that would be great!
Also, my new concern is that I'm on so much abx that I will develop a yeast infection, and I'm not sure if that will open a whole new can of worms concerning delivery, so it'd be nice if she would just come before I've been on these abx for an entire week. Everyone has been saying for three weeks "she'll be here any day, you won't make it much longer", but I'm starting to think this baby is very stubborn and won't be coming until we force her out. And at the rate I'm going of 1cm a week, I should be almost 6cm by the time we induce, which is a plus.
I'll just eat buckets of yogurt to try and build up some good bacteria in the meantime.
Hopefully I won't be making another trip to that hospital until I have this baby, but I also said that last week. We shall see.
Your low carb diet should help keep the yeast at bay. (you won't like this next statement) You might consider eating fairly low carb for a while after she arrives. Too many new moms, myself included get thrush (breast yeast) from all the antibiotics. That GBS stuff can come and go. I think it is weird that they take a sample at 36 weeks and not 39 or when you are in the hospital... Hang in there! Try to have patience. I had Leila at 42 weeks... :-)
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