Keflex- after my last trip to L&D which was thursday night June 14th, I had decided not to take the oral abx prescribed to me because I didn't really have any symptoms and the last "UTI" was actually negative anyway.
So Monday morning I called my OB office to see what the results of the urine culture were and they were in fact negative so I decided not to fill my script. But then Wednesday night June 20th I started getting horrible bladder spasms. It was the only symptom I had and knew it could've just been Owen kicking my bladder but decided to just fill my already written Keflex script after all instead of going back to L&D AGAIN. By the next day the spasms were better and it may or may not have been due to the Keflex, but I figure it can't hurt too much either way.
Glyburiede- Thursday June 21 I called my OB to report that my blood sugars had been really hard to control ever since I was placed on modified bed rest. I assumed it was because I wasn't getting any exercise at all. My OB wants my fasting blood sugars in the mornings to be 60-90 but mine were running about 100-110 which was making it difficult to control the rest of the days sugars as well.
I was already taking glyburide which makes your body secrete more insulin. I started out a few weeks ago taking 2.5mg at night, then increased to 5mg at night to control my fasting sugars.
Now she wanted to increase me to 7.5mg at night and 5mg in the morning. WOW. This seemed like a lot to me. I was worried I would get too much insulin overnight and not wake up or something. I took the 5mg friday morning June 22nd and got so sick! By lunch time I was shaking and weak and felt really low blood sugar. I was at my sisters house so that she could help me with Corynn, and of course I forgot my glucose monitor at home so I don't know how low I got.
I felt bad most of the day and did not feel the babies moving hardly at all so I called my OB and went in for an NST and the babies started moving and acting totally fine. She thinks it was just that my sugar got too low, so she said to try and take the same dose again the next day while I actually have my glucose machine so I can check and actually see what my blood sugar is and that if it gets low to call the on call doc and that maybe I should decrease my morning dose if it happens again.
I took the 5mg the next day and this time felt fine. Sugars were great and had no symptoms of hypoglycemia and then it dawned on me.... I had drank caffeine friday morning. I really wanted a frapuccino which has 34grams of carbs so I knew I couldn't have much carbs with breakfast if I also wanted to indulge in that treat (I'm allowed 45g in a meal). I had 13g of carbs from a whole wheat waffle with PB on it and an hour later went to get my frap and drank 2/3 of it. Well, I think the lack of food mixed with the caffeine is actually what the problem was, so I decided I better skip caffeine while I'm taking the glyburide or at least make sure I also have plenty of food to go with it.
After hesitating for a few days, I took the 7.5mg at night for the first time on sunday night June 24th but had a snack by my bed and my glucose monitor ready just in case and I had emergency orange juice in the fridge. I set my alarm for 1am just to check and make sure I was alive and sure enough, my sugar was just fine and my fasting the next morning was a beautiful 76! So, this new dosing is actually working out pretty good for now. Hopefully it stays that way. Seems like having two placentas has made GD a little more difficult to manage than in my pregnancy with Corynn. With Corynn I never went above 2.5mg at night of glyburide and I didn't have to be quite as strict with counting my carbs. I could go over by 10g or so and still be fine, but not this time!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
L&D 4: early labor, Edens cord flow
On Monday night June 25th around 8pm I noticed that my braxton hicks felt pretty crampy and were coming pretty regularly about every 6 minutes. I had already been to L&D a couple times for the same situation and it never turned into much, so I thought I'd just try to drink more water and get some sleep and just see if they would go away on their own.
They woke me up occasionally throughout monday night. I wouldn't call them painful, just uncomfortable. By Tuesday morning they were still every 4-6 minutes so at 7am I called my OB who told me to go to L&D.
I arrived at about 8:30 and told my nurse that I was pretty sure these were just BH contractions and that it was probably nothing, but thought I'd better check. I really thought I'd be there a couple hours and then go home.
Contractions showed up every 4-6 minutes on the monitor so they gave me vistaril (muscle relaxer) and wanted to just watch me for a couple hours. The nurse checked my cervix and I was dilated to 1cm and she could feel the amniotic sac of baby A (Owen). At first the contractions slowed down with the vistaril and just as they were talking about sending me home, they picked back up to about every 2-5 minutes so the OB wanted to check my cervix again. I was 2cm.
With the cervical change, people started to get worried.
I was told I wouldn't be going home for a few days. They started me on a magnesium drip, did a gbs test, started IV antibiotics and steroid shots to prepare for an early delivery (28 weeks).
The goal was to keep me on magnesium until I could get a full 48 hours of steroids in my system for the babies lungs. For the first 12 hours of magnesium I was not allowed to eat or drink or get out of the bed. Apparently it is a central nervous system depressant and it often makes you lethargic, weak and have flu like symptoms and can decrease your gag reflex and cause choking and aspiration, so they wait to see what your alertness level is going to be before you can eat. I was SO HUNGRY. This is also why you can't get up. Not even to use the bathroom. I became familiar with bedpans and sponge baths for the first time and I have to say I'm not a fan.
The magnesium can also cause fluid retention, particularly in the lungs, so I was fluid restricted as well.
I actually had very minimal side effects compared to most on the magnesium. I got a little hot and flushed and at some points it became difficult to breath and felt like my chest was tight. I was a little sleepy but not totally out of it. I was determined to show the nurses how alert I was so by midnight they finally let me eat!
The mag wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. The worst part was not being able to get out of bed.
WHile on magnesium, I really had MAYBE one contraction an hour. It worked like a charm! The steroids raised my blood sugar one time to 224, but it didn't last long so I never needed insulin.
On Wednesday they let me get out of the bed to sit in a chair and use a bedside commode instead of the bedpan. It's amazing how excited you can get about something like that! Those hospital beds KILL my back (not to mention peeing in your own bed).
On Wednesday I had a lot of spotting and think I began to lose my mucus plug. That night around 7pm, they decided to try to wean my magnesium from 2g/ hr to 1.5g/hr to slowly get my body adjusted to turning it off by noon on Thursday as planned. The contractions slowly started back up. First it was one every 20 minutes, then 10-15 and by the time they were every 6 minutes around 1am, they turned my magnesium back up to 2g/hr because it was most important that I got the full 48 hour effect of steroids before going into labor. I also got another vistaril at this time to slow things down. This worked and contractions went away.
At 9am on Thursday they turned the magnesium down again to 1g/hr but at the same time started me on an oral calcium channel clocker "procardia" which can be used to prevent muscle contractions just like the magnesium but without the side effects. It's less affective, but is good enough and I can go home on it.
It worked and I did not have any contractions during the weaning of magnesium or turning it off at noon.......... until 7pm. At this point they had allowed me to get up and use the restroom and take a shower. The contractions started to show up slowly again and progressively got closer and by 4am friday morning my nurse gave me an extra dose of vistaril which slowed them a little but not a lot and at 6am the OB ordered a fluid bolus and a cervix check.
On Tuesday my cervix was 2cm but had been very posterior and hard to reach (which was good). On Friday morning I was still two cm but no longer posterior at all. The nurse said that his head was very very low and engaged. She said she had to back off a bit because she was afraid she would break my water accidentally. She said she could feel his head squirming around and would be very surprised if they let me go home like that.
Well, surprise, an hour later the on call OB came in and said that since I live 10min from the hospital, that I could go home on the medications but with STRICT bed rest. I can not drive or walk around the house. I can not get on the floor to play with Corynn or go outside etc... I am only allowed to use the bathroom and take one quick shower a day and I have to go back to the hospital if I have more than 6 contractions in an hour. She seemed a little hesitant to send me but I think they were very busy with deliveries and needed the bed to be honest.
So now I'm home and doing my best not to move, taking meds every 6 hours and trying to keep these babies in as long as possible.
So that's the labor side of things.
Now for the health of the babies.
On Wednesday, the perinatologist came into my room to scan for the babies sizes and positions. First they looked at Owen and this is when we realized that he had flipped (which I had suspected about a week ago) and his head was now in my cervix, low and engaged in the birth canal. They said that the chances of him coming back out of that position are low because of how far he was and that his head was likely the cause of all this preterm labor this week. Otherwise he was perfect and healthy and measuring in the 44th percentile at 2lb 8oz which was up 10 oz from his scan two weeks ago!
So then they moved on to Eden who was still in a breech position. The tech seemed more quiet while doing her scan and I noticed while she was looking at her cord blood flow, she was staring at the same thing for quite a while but not saying anything. I got that bad feeling that something was wrong. The tech left and came back with the perinatologist who did the scan again. The peri told me that there was an issue with the blood flow in baby B's cord. I immediately started bawling so hard that I couldn't talk or breathe. I was so worried we were going to have another cord accident and this was the last thing I wanted to hear.
Once I could collect myself to hear exactly what was wrong, the peri told me that her placenta was aging too fast and causing a reduced diastolic flow in her cord. Basically as I understand it, it is normal for the placenta to age at the same rate that the baby ages. As the placenta gets older it becomes tougher which makes blood flow tougher but normally the baby is just as strong as the placenta and can handle the changes. Eden's placenta seems to be about six weeks ahead of her age and is considered a grade 2 placenta with 1 being the best and 4 being the worst. The flow in the cord is measured by what is coming from the placenta to the baby (systolic) and what's coming back from the baby and out to the placenta (diastolic). Since her placenta is older than she is, her heart is having to work extra hard to pump blood back out against this resistant placenta. This is burning her energy quickly and causing slower growth than her brother. She measured in at 2lb 5oz which put her in the 40th percentile. This isn't too different from Owen except for the fact that at our last scan two weeks ago she had been slightly bigger than him and she has only gained 5oz in that time compared to his 10oz. The plan is to scan weekly to evaluate the placenta, the cord flow and her growth. If at any time the diastolic flow becomes absent or reversed or her growth has dropped off, we would deliver the babies early. The peri said the best thing for this is simply bed rest. She said that me relaxing as much as possible and keeping my blood pressure down will make her resistance less and easier for her to pump blood. She actually recommended that I go to a pool daily and rest my upper body on a floatation device while letting my body dangle in the pool to take all pressure off and reduce resistance. But the OB told me not to leave the house, so I need to clarify which of these is more important.
At this point I think I am more concerned about Eden's cord than i am about preterm labor.
Keep praying for healthy and as close to possible full term babies!
They woke me up occasionally throughout monday night. I wouldn't call them painful, just uncomfortable. By Tuesday morning they were still every 4-6 minutes so at 7am I called my OB who told me to go to L&D.
I arrived at about 8:30 and told my nurse that I was pretty sure these were just BH contractions and that it was probably nothing, but thought I'd better check. I really thought I'd be there a couple hours and then go home.
Contractions showed up every 4-6 minutes on the monitor so they gave me vistaril (muscle relaxer) and wanted to just watch me for a couple hours. The nurse checked my cervix and I was dilated to 1cm and she could feel the amniotic sac of baby A (Owen). At first the contractions slowed down with the vistaril and just as they were talking about sending me home, they picked back up to about every 2-5 minutes so the OB wanted to check my cervix again. I was 2cm.
With the cervical change, people started to get worried.
I was told I wouldn't be going home for a few days. They started me on a magnesium drip, did a gbs test, started IV antibiotics and steroid shots to prepare for an early delivery (28 weeks).
The goal was to keep me on magnesium until I could get a full 48 hours of steroids in my system for the babies lungs. For the first 12 hours of magnesium I was not allowed to eat or drink or get out of the bed. Apparently it is a central nervous system depressant and it often makes you lethargic, weak and have flu like symptoms and can decrease your gag reflex and cause choking and aspiration, so they wait to see what your alertness level is going to be before you can eat. I was SO HUNGRY. This is also why you can't get up. Not even to use the bathroom. I became familiar with bedpans and sponge baths for the first time and I have to say I'm not a fan.
The magnesium can also cause fluid retention, particularly in the lungs, so I was fluid restricted as well.
I actually had very minimal side effects compared to most on the magnesium. I got a little hot and flushed and at some points it became difficult to breath and felt like my chest was tight. I was a little sleepy but not totally out of it. I was determined to show the nurses how alert I was so by midnight they finally let me eat!
The mag wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. The worst part was not being able to get out of bed.
WHile on magnesium, I really had MAYBE one contraction an hour. It worked like a charm! The steroids raised my blood sugar one time to 224, but it didn't last long so I never needed insulin.
On Wednesday they let me get out of the bed to sit in a chair and use a bedside commode instead of the bedpan. It's amazing how excited you can get about something like that! Those hospital beds KILL my back (not to mention peeing in your own bed).
On Wednesday I had a lot of spotting and think I began to lose my mucus plug. That night around 7pm, they decided to try to wean my magnesium from 2g/ hr to 1.5g/hr to slowly get my body adjusted to turning it off by noon on Thursday as planned. The contractions slowly started back up. First it was one every 20 minutes, then 10-15 and by the time they were every 6 minutes around 1am, they turned my magnesium back up to 2g/hr because it was most important that I got the full 48 hour effect of steroids before going into labor. I also got another vistaril at this time to slow things down. This worked and contractions went away.
At 9am on Thursday they turned the magnesium down again to 1g/hr but at the same time started me on an oral calcium channel clocker "procardia" which can be used to prevent muscle contractions just like the magnesium but without the side effects. It's less affective, but is good enough and I can go home on it.
It worked and I did not have any contractions during the weaning of magnesium or turning it off at noon.......... until 7pm. At this point they had allowed me to get up and use the restroom and take a shower. The contractions started to show up slowly again and progressively got closer and by 4am friday morning my nurse gave me an extra dose of vistaril which slowed them a little but not a lot and at 6am the OB ordered a fluid bolus and a cervix check.
On Tuesday my cervix was 2cm but had been very posterior and hard to reach (which was good). On Friday morning I was still two cm but no longer posterior at all. The nurse said that his head was very very low and engaged. She said she had to back off a bit because she was afraid she would break my water accidentally. She said she could feel his head squirming around and would be very surprised if they let me go home like that.
Well, surprise, an hour later the on call OB came in and said that since I live 10min from the hospital, that I could go home on the medications but with STRICT bed rest. I can not drive or walk around the house. I can not get on the floor to play with Corynn or go outside etc... I am only allowed to use the bathroom and take one quick shower a day and I have to go back to the hospital if I have more than 6 contractions in an hour. She seemed a little hesitant to send me but I think they were very busy with deliveries and needed the bed to be honest.
So now I'm home and doing my best not to move, taking meds every 6 hours and trying to keep these babies in as long as possible.
So that's the labor side of things.
Now for the health of the babies.
On Wednesday, the perinatologist came into my room to scan for the babies sizes and positions. First they looked at Owen and this is when we realized that he had flipped (which I had suspected about a week ago) and his head was now in my cervix, low and engaged in the birth canal. They said that the chances of him coming back out of that position are low because of how far he was and that his head was likely the cause of all this preterm labor this week. Otherwise he was perfect and healthy and measuring in the 44th percentile at 2lb 8oz which was up 10 oz from his scan two weeks ago!
So then they moved on to Eden who was still in a breech position. The tech seemed more quiet while doing her scan and I noticed while she was looking at her cord blood flow, she was staring at the same thing for quite a while but not saying anything. I got that bad feeling that something was wrong. The tech left and came back with the perinatologist who did the scan again. The peri told me that there was an issue with the blood flow in baby B's cord. I immediately started bawling so hard that I couldn't talk or breathe. I was so worried we were going to have another cord accident and this was the last thing I wanted to hear.
Once I could collect myself to hear exactly what was wrong, the peri told me that her placenta was aging too fast and causing a reduced diastolic flow in her cord. Basically as I understand it, it is normal for the placenta to age at the same rate that the baby ages. As the placenta gets older it becomes tougher which makes blood flow tougher but normally the baby is just as strong as the placenta and can handle the changes. Eden's placenta seems to be about six weeks ahead of her age and is considered a grade 2 placenta with 1 being the best and 4 being the worst. The flow in the cord is measured by what is coming from the placenta to the baby (systolic) and what's coming back from the baby and out to the placenta (diastolic). Since her placenta is older than she is, her heart is having to work extra hard to pump blood back out against this resistant placenta. This is burning her energy quickly and causing slower growth than her brother. She measured in at 2lb 5oz which put her in the 40th percentile. This isn't too different from Owen except for the fact that at our last scan two weeks ago she had been slightly bigger than him and she has only gained 5oz in that time compared to his 10oz. The plan is to scan weekly to evaluate the placenta, the cord flow and her growth. If at any time the diastolic flow becomes absent or reversed or her growth has dropped off, we would deliver the babies early. The peri said the best thing for this is simply bed rest. She said that me relaxing as much as possible and keeping my blood pressure down will make her resistance less and easier for her to pump blood. She actually recommended that I go to a pool daily and rest my upper body on a floatation device while letting my body dangle in the pool to take all pressure off and reduce resistance. But the OB told me not to leave the house, so I need to clarify which of these is more important.
At this point I think I am more concerned about Eden's cord than i am about preterm labor.
Keep praying for healthy and as close to possible full term babies!
Monday, June 18, 2012
L&D take three
So on Thursday at 26 weeks, I started having some low down cramping that was a mix between menstrual cramps and bladder spasms. With the UTI I had supposedly just had a few weeks earlier, I called my OB office and asked if I could come in to test my urine just to make sure I didn't have a UTI and we could catch it early.
Instead of letting me do this, they decided to send me straight over to L&D because of my short cervix. I guess I understand but I was slightly frustrated because their office was still open and right next door and the hospital is way more expensive. Better safe than sorry I guess.
I had contractions showing up on the monitor every 5 minutes or so but they weren't painful, just my usual crampy tight BH. My cervix was closed thank GOD!
But they didn't like the way the monitor looked for 26 weeks, so they kept me for a few hours. My initial urine dip came up with only trace leukocytes (white blood cells that show infection). My nurse wasn't even gonna send it to the lab because she said trace is pretty much the same as a negative. But then she decided to send it last minute just to cover her bases.
The lab simply has a positive or negative result so of course it was positive.
The on call OB came in and said that although it was positive, she read my last lab report and the UTI they told me I had and gave me abx for ended up being a contaminate so I never even had a UTI at all but no one ever bothered to tell me. No wonder I didn't have any symptoms.
The OB decided to give me fluids, a muscle relaxer and IV abx "just in case" to stop my contractions. What did the trick was the muscle relaxer. As soon as I got a little sleepy, they slowed down quite a bit. She gave me a script for oral abx as well but I'm waiting to fill it until my culture comes back. I have no other UTI symptoms other than an irritable uterus and since the dip was only trace and my last one was a contaminate, I don't want to pump myself full of abx I don't need.
Instead of letting me do this, they decided to send me straight over to L&D because of my short cervix. I guess I understand but I was slightly frustrated because their office was still open and right next door and the hospital is way more expensive. Better safe than sorry I guess.
I had contractions showing up on the monitor every 5 minutes or so but they weren't painful, just my usual crampy tight BH. My cervix was closed thank GOD!
But they didn't like the way the monitor looked for 26 weeks, so they kept me for a few hours. My initial urine dip came up with only trace leukocytes (white blood cells that show infection). My nurse wasn't even gonna send it to the lab because she said trace is pretty much the same as a negative. But then she decided to send it last minute just to cover her bases.
The lab simply has a positive or negative result so of course it was positive.
The on call OB came in and said that although it was positive, she read my last lab report and the UTI they told me I had and gave me abx for ended up being a contaminate so I never even had a UTI at all but no one ever bothered to tell me. No wonder I didn't have any symptoms.
The OB decided to give me fluids, a muscle relaxer and IV abx "just in case" to stop my contractions. What did the trick was the muscle relaxer. As soon as I got a little sleepy, they slowed down quite a bit. She gave me a script for oral abx as well but I'm waiting to fill it until my culture comes back. I have no other UTI symptoms other than an irritable uterus and since the dip was only trace and my last one was a contaminate, I don't want to pump myself full of abx I don't need.
modified bedrest
Last weekend at about 25 and a half weeks, I started having a lot of pressure in my butt and "down there" when I would stand up as well as an increase in mucus (sorry TMI). I went to work Monday and was so so uncomfortable with the pressure and the right side of my pubic bone felt like it was being stabbed.
When I got of work at 3:30 I called my OB to see if I could get in to check my cervix that week. I wasn't scheduled until the following week but felt I should maybe just see what the pressure was about.
She decided to bump up my appt for that Tuesday.
I went in and they did an abdominal US first and my cervix appeared short, so she sent me to empty my bladder so she could do a transvaginal US and get a really accurate view. And it was in fact short. They like it above 2.5 up until 32 weeks. After 32 weeks it's ok if it shortens. Up until this appt, I had been VERY long measuring from 4-6cm and my doctor had joked that my cervix was never going to soften and she was going to have to force these babies out.
Well last week, it had gone down to 2.4
My OB called the perinatologist to get his input and this is what was decided:
I have a 40% chance of going into labor before 35 weeks
I can no longer work
I have to be on modified bed rest. I can still move around a bit, shower and go places as long as it's not more than 30 min in the car and it's to a restaurant or house where I can immediately find a place to sit and stay there. No cooking, cleaning, shopping, lifting etc..
They did another Fetal fibronectin to see if labor was coming soon. It was negative!
Steroids were discussed. She decided that with the negative FFN, that she did not want to give me a shot at 26 weeks. She said that the effectiveness is not as good and doesn't last as long than if it's given after 28 weeks. So, she plans to give me a dose at 28 weeks. She said that the steroids can make blood sugar very hard to control so with GD, she wants to avoid excessive doses unless necessary.
STAY PUT BABIES!!
My first goal is 32 weeks and after that every week is icing on the cake.
My next goal is 35 weeks
and my BEST goal is 37 weeks. I would prefer they have no NICU time and are never taken from my room!!
When I got of work at 3:30 I called my OB to see if I could get in to check my cervix that week. I wasn't scheduled until the following week but felt I should maybe just see what the pressure was about.
She decided to bump up my appt for that Tuesday.
I went in and they did an abdominal US first and my cervix appeared short, so she sent me to empty my bladder so she could do a transvaginal US and get a really accurate view. And it was in fact short. They like it above 2.5 up until 32 weeks. After 32 weeks it's ok if it shortens. Up until this appt, I had been VERY long measuring from 4-6cm and my doctor had joked that my cervix was never going to soften and she was going to have to force these babies out.
Well last week, it had gone down to 2.4
My OB called the perinatologist to get his input and this is what was decided:
I have a 40% chance of going into labor before 35 weeks
I can no longer work
I have to be on modified bed rest. I can still move around a bit, shower and go places as long as it's not more than 30 min in the car and it's to a restaurant or house where I can immediately find a place to sit and stay there. No cooking, cleaning, shopping, lifting etc..
They did another Fetal fibronectin to see if labor was coming soon. It was negative!
Steroids were discussed. She decided that with the negative FFN, that she did not want to give me a shot at 26 weeks. She said that the effectiveness is not as good and doesn't last as long than if it's given after 28 weeks. So, she plans to give me a dose at 28 weeks. She said that the steroids can make blood sugar very hard to control so with GD, she wants to avoid excessive doses unless necessary.
STAY PUT BABIES!!
My first goal is 32 weeks and after that every week is icing on the cake.
My next goal is 35 weeks
and my BEST goal is 37 weeks. I would prefer they have no NICU time and are never taken from my room!!
general baby update
The babies look fantastic!! At our last ultrasound at 26 weeks, Owen weighed 1lb 14 oz and Eden was right at 2lb! They were both already doing practice breathing and passed their biophysicals with flying colors! Fluid levels are around 7ish for both of them. I think they said 5-20 is normal. We got a great 3D look at Owens face and I think he looks like me/my side of the family. Eden was not in a good position to get a look at her face :-(
Unfortunately they are both transverse. Both heads are at my belly button with Owen on my left and Eden on my right. His body curves down and goes across my lower abdomen with his feet on my lower right hip. Eden's body curves up and goes across my upper abdomen with feet closer to my left rib. They are positioned like yin and yang in there. It would be nice if they would flip head down but space is limited and I'm preparing myself for the idea of a Csection.
Unfortunately they are both transverse. Both heads are at my belly button with Owen on my left and Eden on my right. His body curves down and goes across my lower abdomen with his feet on my lower right hip. Eden's body curves up and goes across my upper abdomen with feet closer to my left rib. They are positioned like yin and yang in there. It would be nice if they would flip head down but space is limited and I'm preparing myself for the idea of a Csection.
Monday, June 4, 2012
L&D take two
I think it will be fun to keep track of how many trips to L&D I make this pregnancy. With Corynn it was a total of five between 35-39 weeks, so I'm already way ahead of the game this time ;-)
With my level of paranoia about preterm labor with twins, I'm sure I'll be in for a few more checks before the actual delivery day. I'm guessing I'm all the gossip at the nurses station "oh there's that crazy NICU nurse again, wasn't she just here last week?" Ha. I just hear so many of our preemie moms say that they didn't even know they were in labor. They all say they just had mild cramping or back pain and by the time they got to the hospital to get checked, it was too late and the baby was coming. So, I figure, if I have those symptoms and I go in right away, maybe they could get the labor stopped before I'm dilated to the point of no return.
This time it was a real reason though. Last Tuesday May 29 at 23 weeks and 6 days I started to have cramping and back pain around 4:30pm. It was pretty uncomfortable. It felt like dull period cramps but they didn't come and go like contractions, it was just constant. So I sat in the recliner and drank more water. I was guessing I was just overdoing it caring for Corynn all day and she had been particularly needy!
At about 5:30 they turned into more rhythmic BH that were uncomfortable enough that it would annoy me if Erik tried to talk to me during one.
I started timing them and they were every 5 minutes. Erik was urging me to call the OB but around 6:30 I decided I was just exhausted and if I could just take a quick nap, I'd be ok. At 7:30 I woke up and they seemed to have gone away. So I got up to eat dinner and the general cramping kinda came back but not timeable contractions.
We went to Target to grab a couple quick things we needed around the house which proved to be a bad decision. While walking through Target, the BH's were so strong that I felt like I was gonna poop my pants with each one although I knew that's not what it was (sorry TMI). I would have to stop and walk very slowly and tense up my face. We quickly went back to the car and I called my mom to get her opinion. She said to call the on call OB. Once we got home around 9:30 I called and she did not hesitate to tell me to go to L&D.
Corynn was in the bath and my mom was still at work on call so she couldn't come get me. So we loaded Corynn up in her PJ's in the car and headed for Shawnee Mission. I got there a little after 10pm. I left the usual urine sample and they hooked me and my babies up to the monitor. Their heart rates were great and they were very active.
Sure enough, contractions were showing up on the monitor every 3-4 minutes. They determined from my urine dip that I was NOT dehydrated. They said I must be drinking plenty of water bc my urine was very diluted. Good for me :-)
So they didn't even bother to start IV fluids on me. But they did say that my urine showed some leukocytes (white blood cells that are an indicator of infection) so they sent my urine to the lab to look for a UTI.
At almost midnight the nurse said it would be at least a couple more hours of monitoring so I sent Erik and Corynn home (she was having a major tired meltdown) and my mom was getting off work so she came up to the hospital to be with me and drive me home when wee were done.
They checked my cervix which was high thick and closed which made me feel soooo much better. They also sent a fetal fibronectin test to the lab which is a protein that would be secreted if I were about to go into labor any time in the next two weeks. This test was also negative!!! Good news.
My urine came back positive for a UTI so they determined this was the cause of my contractions. It's weird bc I had no other UTI symptoms. So, they watched me for a bit and the contractions remained about 3-5min apart but did not progress or become more uncomfortable so they sent me home with antibiotics around 3am.
Since I've been on the abx, the BH have slowed way down. Glad I went in after all!
With my level of paranoia about preterm labor with twins, I'm sure I'll be in for a few more checks before the actual delivery day. I'm guessing I'm all the gossip at the nurses station "oh there's that crazy NICU nurse again, wasn't she just here last week?" Ha. I just hear so many of our preemie moms say that they didn't even know they were in labor. They all say they just had mild cramping or back pain and by the time they got to the hospital to get checked, it was too late and the baby was coming. So, I figure, if I have those symptoms and I go in right away, maybe they could get the labor stopped before I'm dilated to the point of no return.
This time it was a real reason though. Last Tuesday May 29 at 23 weeks and 6 days I started to have cramping and back pain around 4:30pm. It was pretty uncomfortable. It felt like dull period cramps but they didn't come and go like contractions, it was just constant. So I sat in the recliner and drank more water. I was guessing I was just overdoing it caring for Corynn all day and she had been particularly needy!
At about 5:30 they turned into more rhythmic BH that were uncomfortable enough that it would annoy me if Erik tried to talk to me during one.
I started timing them and they were every 5 minutes. Erik was urging me to call the OB but around 6:30 I decided I was just exhausted and if I could just take a quick nap, I'd be ok. At 7:30 I woke up and they seemed to have gone away. So I got up to eat dinner and the general cramping kinda came back but not timeable contractions.
We went to Target to grab a couple quick things we needed around the house which proved to be a bad decision. While walking through Target, the BH's were so strong that I felt like I was gonna poop my pants with each one although I knew that's not what it was (sorry TMI). I would have to stop and walk very slowly and tense up my face. We quickly went back to the car and I called my mom to get her opinion. She said to call the on call OB. Once we got home around 9:30 I called and she did not hesitate to tell me to go to L&D.
Corynn was in the bath and my mom was still at work on call so she couldn't come get me. So we loaded Corynn up in her PJ's in the car and headed for Shawnee Mission. I got there a little after 10pm. I left the usual urine sample and they hooked me and my babies up to the monitor. Their heart rates were great and they were very active.
Sure enough, contractions were showing up on the monitor every 3-4 minutes. They determined from my urine dip that I was NOT dehydrated. They said I must be drinking plenty of water bc my urine was very diluted. Good for me :-)
So they didn't even bother to start IV fluids on me. But they did say that my urine showed some leukocytes (white blood cells that are an indicator of infection) so they sent my urine to the lab to look for a UTI.
At almost midnight the nurse said it would be at least a couple more hours of monitoring so I sent Erik and Corynn home (she was having a major tired meltdown) and my mom was getting off work so she came up to the hospital to be with me and drive me home when wee were done.
They checked my cervix which was high thick and closed which made me feel soooo much better. They also sent a fetal fibronectin test to the lab which is a protein that would be secreted if I were about to go into labor any time in the next two weeks. This test was also negative!!! Good news.
My urine came back positive for a UTI so they determined this was the cause of my contractions. It's weird bc I had no other UTI symptoms. So, they watched me for a bit and the contractions remained about 3-5min apart but did not progress or become more uncomfortable so they sent me home with antibiotics around 3am.
Since I've been on the abx, the BH have slowed way down. Glad I went in after all!
Why am I crying?
So the other day, I'm looking at FB and see pictures of a friends baby shower who is also having twins in September and my first reaction is that I start to tear up??!!
I felt jealous. I got the feeling that she gets to be happy bc her twins are going to live but mine are going to die. WTH?
Then it turns into a full blown cry. I was a sobbing hormonal mess.
It was such a strange feeling. Like I have this feeling of doom for my babies. I just can't fully let go and be excited.
I think what was really getting to me was that she gets to be blissfully happy about her pregnancy and just expect that her babies are going to make it, while I have this cloud of worry over my head that keeps me from getting fully excited.
Every time I try to plan or get things ready, I have a knot in my stomach the whole time.
I want to just be excited and happy like I was with Corynn.
September can't get here fast enough.
I felt jealous. I got the feeling that she gets to be happy bc her twins are going to live but mine are going to die. WTH?
Then it turns into a full blown cry. I was a sobbing hormonal mess.
It was such a strange feeling. Like I have this feeling of doom for my babies. I just can't fully let go and be excited.
I think what was really getting to me was that she gets to be blissfully happy about her pregnancy and just expect that her babies are going to make it, while I have this cloud of worry over my head that keeps me from getting fully excited.
Every time I try to plan or get things ready, I have a knot in my stomach the whole time.
I want to just be excited and happy like I was with Corynn.
September can't get here fast enough.
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