BED REST!

I had a pretty interesting Friday by spending most of the day in Labor & Delivery, this is how it all started...

I woke up as normal to go to work Friday morning when I began experiencing contractions (what I thought were contractions). One thing the doctor told me was if you experience 5-6 contractions in an hour to be sure to call them. Being that I have never been pregnant before I wasn't 100% sure what contractions were. I called the nurse at my clinic and explained to her what I was feeling. I was having tightening in my lower abdomen with my belly getting as hard as a rock and with that I was also having cramping. The nurse confirmed that it was contractions that I was having. Being that I was already on my way to work she asked that I go home and lay down on my left side for an hour and count the contractions. After an hour she called me back and I told her that I didn't have any of the tightening contractions but had 5 of the cramping ones. She asked how long the cramping ones were lasting and I told her only about 2 seconds at a time. She confirmed with me that those were not contractions that if they were they would last 20, 30 or 60 seconds and that I was free to go about my normal routine for the day. I got off my couch and had a contraction instantly, I walked to the bathroom and had another one. Over the course of the next 15 minutes I had three of the cramping contractions that lasted a minute each. I knew that all of these contractions were not good so I called the nurse back. She said that I need to head for the hospital and that she would let them know I was coming.

Scott picked me up and we headed for Labor and Delivery. They hooked me up to the monitor (for the whole day) to watch my contractions and the baby. The baby looked great, had a strong heartbeat and was moving around a bunch. I was however having pretty frequent contractions and was showing what the nurse called an "irritable uterus". The doctor came in because she wanted to check the length of my cervix and run some tests. When your body is getting ready for labor it releases a protein two weeks before. The doctor did a test to check to see if my body released this protein and it hadn't. This was a really good thing meaning that this baby shouldn't hopefully come with in the next two weeks. The doctor also said that my cervix was closed which is also a good thing. She did find out that my cervix is running a little short and called for an ultrasound to measure it exactly.

After the ultrasound the doctor came to report her findings. She said that my cervix was measuring 2.4 cm at 31 weeks and at 19 weeks it was 3.5 cm. She said it was normal for the cervix to get smaller and I was at a fairly normal length. Her concern was what all these contractions I was having was going to do to the cervix so she put me on bed rest. I was planning on working up until the end so cutting my paychecks 9 weeks early is a pretty stressful thing.

I have an appointment with my OB on Wednesday (7/15) for another ultrasound, to monitor the baby and my contractions again and to check how my cervix is doing after all of these contractions. I am assuming he is not going to take me off bed rest but I am taking everything day by day.

Me, Katie and Elizabeth at Candice's wedding.

Scott and I at Candice's wedding.

My first bed rest visitors, Finley (6 months) and Avery (3 months) along with their moms Laura and Kelly and Finley's big brother Donovan. Pretty soon we will have a picture with Fletcher and the two little girls!