Well, we have successfully made it to the 36 week mark! According to babycenter, the baby is about 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long! He's shedding the downy covering of hair and the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin from the amniotic fluid (the combo of this is the black meconium, which is in baby's first bowel movement). And at the end of this week, the baby will be considered full-term, which is great! So maybe he'll come early :)
Anyway, so Wednesday I was experiencing a lot of pelvic and groin pressure with regular pain in my lower back and lower abs, so I called my nurse twice and I learned that contractions don't just have to be in your stomach... umm... I have a read a LOT of literature, gone to baby classes, etc, and how did I miss that?! I figured that your stomach would always bunch up and it would be very easy to tell if you were having a contraction. WRONG. So after it became more painful to walk around, I called the nurse and she told me to get myself into the hospital and it's a good thing I did because as soon as they hooked me up to the monitor I was having real uterine distress and real contractions. The uterine distress contractions are more like "little baby" contractions versus the real contractions, which I was having as well, which are much more of a distinct spiked line on the monitor. Well, they couldn't figure out what was causing all of this, and (un)fortunately I have always been prone to bladder infections and when you're pregnant obviously your chance of that goes up. So when the urine came back, they realized I had another infection. Bladder and vaginal infections are the #2 cause of pre-term labor (at least down here), #1 is dehydration, so that's why my body was contracting and trying to get the baby to move it along to fight the infection, so I'm told.
So what did this result in? A huge shot of rocephin into my hip - even though it was mixed with a numbing medicine (lidocaine), I was pretty sore the last couple of nights and during the day in that area :( Not a big shot fan, so when that epidural needle goes into my back, pretty sure I don't even want to see the needle or anything at all. Afterwards, the nurse told me that it was good I had come in, otherwise, the baby probably would've progressed and come out (note to self, next time, don't go in... just kidding).
I'm still having the pelvic pressure and back/groin pain but that's probably just round ligament pain, etc, the baby moving down and getting ready for his big debut. There is a reason they say the last month is the worst month and that no one thinks the actual labor is really that bad by the time it comes around...
Oh, and regarding cervical exams, talk about the pain of a lifetime! No one ever told me how much "fun" those were!! Having someone stick 4 fingers up as far as they can hurt like none other and those nurses have no mercy. Can't wait till my Wed appointment when I get to have that done again.
Please keep praying for us, especially me, so that my patience doesn't run out... as some of you know, getting advice and lectured and other situations become a little bit annoying and frustrating at this stage in the game when you feel like a house and really tired of being pregnant - especially when everyone else around you complains about how tired and worn out and busy they are too :) But as the song goes, mama said there'd be days like this...
Tri update - Travis and I have still been swimming a lot together - he's really improved a lot! I'm kind of alternating between swimming and pool running/walking now, but at least I'm getting in that pool, plus, it makes my back feel so much better. I think we're both getting anxious for his race, he's really put a lot of time/effort into training and I am excited to see him put it all together in the race.
And I got to have lunch with my friend, Rebekah, today. Her baby came 4 weeks early and will be one month old tomorrow!! It always makes me feel better to talk to her and to hear how life after baby is going (and ask a bazillion labor/pregnancy questions) - plus, she's much more grounded and not as extreme as some people are with pregnancy, which really helps :)
Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment