Another fun trip...

It's just the way I planned to spend my day. Another eventful day courtesy of our old friend "pre-term labor!"

It all started last night when my contractions started to get really intense. Like - taking the Tylenol 3 and the procardia and NOTHING changes or dulls the pain. It was really bad. Then my stomach became rock hard and stayed that way. Typically, in a contraction, your stomach becomes hard briefly and then releases - mine didn't release. I managed to make it through a VERY long night by using heating pads, hot showers, lots of pillows, and crying (it's a good release when you're tired, frustrated, and in pain). Today I called the doctor and was told to come in for yet another session with my old friends the monitors.

They hooked me up and started watching. My belly was still hard as a rock, so they couldn't get much other than pressure in terms of contractions, but, for the first time, Jellybean wasn't doing so well. Her baseline heartbeat was 190 - with many forays into the 210-220 range. This is REALLY high. It stayed this way for about forty minutes. So they had me switch onto my side and it went down - baseline 180. Still way too high. At this point, I was in enough pain to be sweating with each contraction and nauseous - neither one of us was doing well.

And off to sonogram we went. Time for another biophysical profile. Jellybean did meet all her marks, but she did it very slowly - we were there for about forty minutes trying to get her to do what she needed to do. Baseline heartbeat was still at 170 (still too high) and my fluid was back down to the very low end of normal. All of this led the doctor to question the tear in the amniotic sac theory and whether I was leaking more fluid and we had infection or other stress going on that was affecting JB. So, she sent me off to L&D.

Thankfully, I got to go outpatient this time (less comfortable, but less permanent as well). They hooked me up and Jellybean was looking much better. She eventually - within an hour - stabilized and went back to normal. Lots of blood tests on me that came back normal. Just as we were about to be released, my contractions started to hit big and strong. They were still not coming in a pattern, but they were coming about every minute or so. They gave me another dose of procardia to back them off, but it didn't do anything.

My doctor was due in to deliver another baby soon, so they had me stay on the monitors until she could come in and check me. Contractions continued - irregular but strong and frequent. She finally checked me out and decided that since Jellybean's heart was good and the contractions weren't increasing in frequency or strength, we were "ok." I am starting to dilate now - just a bit - but once you start down that road, you can't really stop it. That's got her a bit concerned. She wanted me to stay the night, at least, and I had a total breakdown and begged to be released to my own home and bed. She finally agreed, but I have strict orders to be in again tomorrow and Friday if anything continues.

So, it's been another long and drama filled day. We are on very strict bed rest until next Tuesday - lie on the left side as often as possible and no extra movement at all. I'm still hopeful that much of this will be lifted next week, but with the dilation, that may not be the case. I'm thankful JB is looking good, but I'm worried about her now - this is the first time we've seen her react poorly to these situations. I just worry about such a little bitty person having to deal with so much.