Tuesday, June 16, 2009

"Information overload, situation lost control"

- "That's What You Get for Waking Up in Vegas" by Katy Perry

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, TMI CENTRAL!

32 weeks + contractions + bleeding = 2 days at the hospital

Yeah, I just got back from a little pre-term labor spell. I think most everything is fine now, I just have to be on bed rest until I deliver.

The events:
It all started on Sunday, well I guess before that, remember the sub-chorionic bleed? Well, I have always had a lot of contractions during my pregnancies, so when I was having some on Sunday I just tried to take it easy and rest. It always seems Sundays are a pretty busy day for some reason. Anyways, we get out of church at 3:30pm and by this time everything is making me have a noticeable contraction, like getting the kids in the van and buckling Grayson into his carseat, etc. When we get home I drink a couple of glasses of water, get a snack and go right in to lay down. The contractions are about 5-7 minutes apart. Now, I've had this happen LOTS during my previous pregnancies, they always eventually stop and any time I've gone to the hospital they just send me home to rest. So, at this point, I'm not really worried. Then they seem to be getting stronger the longer I lay there :( Around 6pm Jeff decides he and the kids are bored and are going to go to his Mom & Dad's house. I don't feel like I should be going anywhere so I stay home to continue resting. Around 7:45pm I get up to use the potty and there is blood! And then, as I pee, I pass a large clot!

Okay, knowing this COULD happen and it ACTUALLY happening are two totally different things!

I call Jeff and tell him we need to go to the hospital because I'm bleeding now so he comes right over to take me. In triage, the nurse hooks me up to the monitors and the baby heartbeat is good. Just seeing that was such a relief! The next step was going to be a fetal fibronectin swab but she said blood could contaminate it and give a false positive, so after finally checking how much I was bleeding she decided against it. She actually referred to the amount of blood coming out as "gross" but I won't hold it against her ;) She could see on the monitors that my contractions were about 3-7 minutes apart, and they had become much stronger since passing the clot and having to lay on my back for this screening. She needed a urine sample not contaminated with blood, and to make sure the I'm not peeing blood, so she extracted one using a straight catheter. NOT PLEASANT! I had to stay in the most uncomfortable position for about 5 whole minutes and I was just trying not to cry the whole time. For a pregnant girl that's not easy ;) After this torture she checked my cervix and said I was dilated to a two. The diagnosis is pre-term labor and doctor on call authorized terbutaline shots to help stop the contractions. After giving me two shots the contractions have DRASTICALLY reduced, but taking the bleeding into consideration, the on call doctor wants to admit me to the hospital and use a "stronger" drug called magnesium.

Magnesium is not pretty. It has lots of side effects. For me, it made me VERY lethargic and hot all over... like burning hot. Apparently it can make a whole array of things go wrong in your body so every hour they had to check my temperature, reflexes, blood pressure and listen to my lungs. It wasn't a restful night. It took them 4 tries to get an IV in since my veins branch a lot, I had to have a catheter while on the magnesium, blood drawn every six hours to check my blood magnesium levels, and no food or drink since it can make you nauseous too. Jeff was long gone by the time they even got the IV in, it was just me and my lovely nurses putting cold wash cloths on my head and neck. Comfortable I was not, my only consolation was that the ultrasound they'd done showed the baby was fine and her fluid levels were good. We just had to stop the contractions and hopefully then there wouldn't be anymore bleeding. Unfortunately by morning the contractions had returned full force :(

Around 8am Dr. Groom came to check on me. I was having pretty regular contractions at this time. He checked my cervix and said I was still at a two, it was very posterior and there wasn't any new blood. After seeing that he told me he was relieved and that I'm no longer "in labor". He told the nurse that I could be weaned off the magnesium and put on terbutaline pills hoping the contractions would slow again. Barring any new bleeding, I could go home the next day :) The terbutaline worked so much better at reducing my contractions that as soon as they gave it to me I went down to about 1 an hour. By early afternoon I was weaned off the magnesium and they were able to give me some soft food to eat! It was hospital food but it tasted glorious, ha ha.

In late afternoon my family came to visit! The kids gave me a hug and a kiss and then just looked at me. There really wasn't much they could do to me or with me so we just kinda looked at each other :) It was cute. Jeff also brought our realtor along since I needed to sign some papers (there were two papers that needed to be singed in front of a notary too but those would have to wait). Everyone was there about 20 minutes and then the kids started getting restless. They gave me another hug and a kiss and left. I'm not really sure what they understood about the situation. Davis asked me why I was there and I said to make sure the baby was healthy. Then he asked what was taking so long :) I know they had a fun time at Grandma's that day but it was nice to know he wanted me to come home!

The next night of my hospital stay was completely different than the first! Since I wasn't on the magnesium my nurse removed the catheter and the blood pressure cuff. And since I wasn't having very many contractions anymore, and the baby's heartbeat had been great all day, she was able to remove those monitors so I could sleep better. Finally I wasn't hooked up to a million things! I still had my IV but I was able to unplug that and go to the potty when I needed to all by myself! She only had to check my vitals a few times in the night and give me my terbutaline pill. I was finally able to get some good rest.

The next day, which was today, the biggest torture was having to wait until 9am for my breakfast. I didn't have any uncomfortable proddings, and they didn't have to draw blood anymore, but this Mama was HUNGRY! I probably could have eaten two of the breakfasts they brought me and it wasn't good food :) And I think the nurse gave me twice my terbutaline prescription. The night nurse was giving me one pill but the day nurse was giving me two. The side-effects of this drug is the jitters and after her giving me two I was feeling them! My hands were shaky and my whole body felt jittery. I as also very "aware" of my heart beat, it's like I could feel it throughout my body. Oh well, other than that today everything went according to plan. My contractions stayed to a minimum and I didn't have any fresh bleeding. When Dr. Groom got there around 1:30pm he was able to discharge me without hesitation.

Here are my instructions: bed rest except getting up to use the restroom, shower and eat. No driving, I can't travel too far from medical care and if I have any more bleeding I'm to go to the hospital immediately. That can't be that hard ;)

Oh yeah, they don't really know where the bleeding came from. One theory is it came from the cervix and the other is it came from a small placental disruption. He said the second theory is more threatening to the pregnancy and he's not sure which one caused my bleeding. I personally think it was the clot from the sub-chorionic bleed coming loose due to the contractions. Either way, I'm glad the bleeding stopped and the baby never showed signs of stress.

Since I thought Dr. Groom would discharge me today, and Jeff was at work, I asked my awesome friend Rachel to come to the hospital and hang out for a while, and then take me home when everything was said and done. Well, not only did she take me home but was able to take me to get my prescription filled, go get those papers notarized (it was at Rod's office and Aletta came out to the car, she's a sweetheart too) AND pick me up some food since I was still hungry! I'm really thankful for the support that I've had through this! It was difficult being in the hospital for two days all alone, but at least I knew my older kids were being taken care of and I have a friend willing to spend 3 hours running me around.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Ultimately, me and baby are doing fine now. We'll be in this bed a long time but at least I have my laptop to keep me company :)

Seriously though, what should I do on bedrest? Learn digital scrapbooking? Learn spanish? Or maybe Portuguese? Maybe I should just rest :)

11 comments:

Jana said...

Holy crap, that sucks!! At least you're getting close enough that you really only have a few weeks to go until they'd let you deliver, right? When do you think they'd let you go...35 or 36 weeks? Emma was about 35 weeks and totally healthy. Sorry you have to be in bed! My week or two of that was not so fun...gets kind of emotional! Nice that you have your laptop there. What are you doing about your kids? Grandma's house? Well, I asked you what happened on Facebook but obviously I read it so now you don't have to tell me again ;)
I hope she stays in there until she's done cookin'! Good luck on bed rest!!

Autumn said...

He wants me on bed rest until 36 1/2 weeks. My sister in law delivered at 36 1/2 weeks and her baby had to stay at the hospital 5 days due to breathing problems, so you never know. I'd personally rather go full term still just to play it safe. I think though that the big concern was the bleeding, if I have more bleeding they might want to do a c-section :( The kids have been at their Grandma Cindy's most of the time I was at the hospital. They even slept there Sunday night.

Trent said...

Bummer, Autumn.

Monique said...

First, glad everything is OK now. Second, you need to program my # into your phone and put me on speed dial. I feel bad I didn't even know you were in the hospital. Third, I'll be there tomorrow afternoon with a treat, that's gotta help make it a little better:) We'll talk then and see what else I can do to help out.

Katie said...

Ugh. So so sorry. The bright side to it all is that you have family to help out. I am so glad your baby is doing fine and you will both be in our prayers to last as long possible!

Ashley said...

Wow, your stay in the hospital sounds horrible! I hope everything goes okay the rest of the pregnancy. Maybe you'll get a really easy delivery to make up for this crap.

gojensens said...

I'm happy to hear all is going well, but bed rest is going to be very difficult with 3 other kids! You should join Facebook! It's fun and it will give you something to do. I'm going to invite you right now!

Elder Jake Zebe said...

Magnesium Sulfate, terbutaline and bedrest....been there...done that...for two pregnancies. I feel for you! I'm sure it is a little confusing to your little boys especially!

Christie said...

Hey, Autumn, my sister Ashley gave me the link to your blog after I asked your mom why you were on bedrest (on FB). Anyway, just wanted to send you lots of hugs and support. Very similar to what happened to me almost 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Amelia...unexplained bleeding (huge clots) and PTL. I was 27 weeks and held her in another 3. She's doing great now, but it was almost 2 months in the NICU.
I'm 26 weeks now with my third (Amelia's my second) and had a very nervous week as I got a bad bug and extremely dehydrated, but thankfully that seems to clearing up.
Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on your blog and hope everything goes well, but if you end up riding the NICU rollercoaster, feel free to ask any questions. Best wishes!

Autumn said...

Wow, I had no idea so many of my friends had been on bed rest before! Thanks for all of your kind words and encouragement. I'm hoping blogging about my days will help me keep my sanity :) And Facebook of course ;)

Jocie said...

I can't believe that lady said gross! Doesn't she work in a hospital? You think she would have seen that before. hello! Good luck with the bed rest!