A Second Trip to Labor and Delivery {35 weeks + 3 days}

Many many moons ago, Dr H suggested I schedule my L&D tour early, since "most twin moms end up there early". I scheduled the tour and we took it, but in the back of my head I thought, not me! I won't be there early. I'm holding out until the end.

Ha. Haha. Just to warn you, this might be a little on the TMI side. Such is the nature of having babies!

Monday afternoon we went to the library and had Sonic for dinner. I went to bed around ten, feeling a little nauseous and off, and fell asleep by 10:30. By 11 I was awake, cramping and miserable. You know how you get awful stomach pains when you really need to use the toilet? And all you want is just to die? It was like that for about three hours. I blamed it on the Sonic I'd had for dinner, since it was kind of greasy, but eventually I realized there was nothing left to clear out and the cramps felt more like contractions. I timed them randomly and tried to doze through them, but it wasn't happening. Not too long after Nathan went to bed I couldn't lay down any more and realized that every time I had a contraction it wrapped around my back and down my thighs. At this point I wasn't sure what to do exactly: I didn't want to be in labor but at the same time, that was how labor started with Azaria and I was in denial about it being true labor almost up until she was born. I called my mom at 1:25 and talked to her for a few minutes, deciding to try a warm shower and see if that helped stop things, since I'd already been drinking a lot of water and lying down wasn't happening any longer. I spent quite a while in the shower, and at 2:04 I texted mom,

"Shower didn't stop much, maaaaybe slowed it down. I'm going to try relaxing on the couch and using a rice sock for a while and see if I can sleep it off."

She texted: "Well do you think i should leave?"

I decided to time them for a while, and they were pretty steadily 3 minutes apart, lasting for a minute or so. Normally I would have labored at home for a while, walked around and bounced on my ball to get things intense and regular, but since I was still so early I didn't want to do anything to make labor progress. I called the after hours line at my Dr. office at 2:35 and got a call back from the midwife on-call at 2:46. She said to go on in to L&D and get monitored. I woke Nathan up to get last minute items, make Shane a lunch for the next day, and load the van with my hospital bag and the "bug-out bag" I'd packed the kids. I called my friend Cassie at 3:04, to ask if I could bring the kids over.

I texted mom, "Just going to go in and be monitored , see what they say." 3:26 AM. She headed out. I told her I wasn't sure if it was the real thing, and I hoped it was false labor, but that she could turn around and go home if it ended up being nothing.

I'm not sure what time we actually dropped the kids off at Cassie's house but it felt like it took forever to get the kids and everything in the van and get there, and she only lives down the street! Thank you so much Cassie, for taking the kids in the middle of the night! I later found out that they went back to sleep and did well at their "sleepover".

We got to the hospital and had to go in through the empty ER. A tech came down from L&D to escort us up to the nurse's station, and then Jane got me into a room and onto monitors: one for Dani, one for Dean, and one for contractions. After she monitored for a while she came in and said the on-call doc had ordered an exam. She found me to be 2.5 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and Dean at -2 station. The past two weeks the Dr I had seen had found me to be 3 cm, so I'm thinking it was difference of finger size! Of course as soon as I got in the van contractions really slowed down, so nothing much was happening.

At 4:56 I texted my mom to let her know that things had really slowed down once I got to the hospital, and they just wanted to monitor me all night until the new on-call Dr. was in to re-check. She decided to just pull over at a rest stop and sleep until we knew if it was going to get more serious. I was on the monitors all night, and my contractions were steadily five minutes apart. Dani HATES the monitor and kicked it almost the entire time we were there, and the contraction monitor kept slipping so I had to keep a hand on it. I dozed for about a half hour, but I honestly don't know how people get any sleep when they are in a hospital being monitored! Those things are itchy and uncomfortable! At one point Dani had the hiccups and they sounded so funny through the monitor. SO LOUD!! Nathan slept on the little pull out bed, which was broken but he rolled up in a blanket and slept through most of the nurse visits I think.

Around eight the new on-call Dr. came in and checked me, calling me a 3 again. She said because I'm still so early it's against policy to induce, which we wouldn't want anyway since we want them to be in as long as possible. They gain about 40 grams of weight a day, and every day they are in is approximately two they don't spend in the NICU. She said I could go home, and be on bedrest until Friday at which point I'll be 36 weeks. She also changed my weekly office visit to Friday, so we can know if anything has changed before the weekend.

And so I was discharged and had to take the "walk of shame" back down through the hospital and out the ER to the van. I called my mom and told her I was discharged, so she went back home and went to work. Nathan teased me mercilessly. I felt bad for inconveniencing my friends. By that point, my friend Heather had picked up my kids to take Shane to school (her son goes to the same preschool) and let Azaria play with her little daughter. She VERY kindly kept the kids for us all day until just before dinner time so that Nathan and I could sleep. Then my friend Joy brought us over some dinner. I am SO very grateful and blessed for all of my friends' help and generosity! Thank you guys so much! I was also surprised to find that my stomach was really sore from all the time the kids spent kicking the monitors and the contractions.

Nathan was given special liberty by his command until Friday, which is wonderful and makes it possible for me to relax. Today, I'm not contracting very often as long as I'm sitting still. When I get up or walk around on my potty breaks they do come back. I'm still holding out hope for the end of September! Stay in twinsies!

And that's my drama for the week.