Bedrest

So, I had my first trip to Labor and Delivery. And I'm guessing it won't be my last, since I have to go back for sure tomorrow for another shot.

In the afternoon yesterday, I was having braxton hicks contractions and just feeling a little weird. I thought it was my imagination, but I also had a change in my cervical mucus (Sorry for the TMI) - it became more jelly-like. I brushed it all off because I wasn't having any pain or any cramping. We went to a friend's awesome birthday party that night, but even there I just drank a lot of water and took it easy.

At 3:30 am, I woke up because my stomach hurt and I also had to go to the bathroom. I got up, went downstairs, and when I wiped, I found bloody-tinged mucus. That is the first time I'd seen blood this whole pregnancy. Freaked me out. So, I called my mom (LOVE having a Dr. in the family! Dear Baby, What about Med School...) She said to go lay down and call L&D if I started having contractions. Right after getting off the phone with her, I started to have some. They were not my typical BH contractions, since they also made me feel crampy and achy. So I called Mom back, who told me to call my hospital. So I did. The Dr. on-call said I should come in and they could monitor me. He called the hospital to let them know I was coming in.

I got there and they hooked me up to the fetal monitors. He was doing great! Strong heartbeat, movement, so I was happy he was doing so well. I had about 3-4 contractions while I was hooked up to the machine in the first hour. They decided to do a fetal fibronectin swab to see if I would be at risk for delivering in the next couple of weeks. While we waited, they also did a urine test to see if I had a UTI that could be causing this.

While we waited, she checked me and I am 1 cm dialated and 60% effaced. Because of that, they decided to give me a shot to help slow down/stop my contractions and also a steroid shot to help with his lung development just in case. It's a series of two, so I have to go back at 6 am to get the other one.

My urine test came back negative, but the fetal fibronectin swab came back positive. What that really means is that they don't know what's going to happen, but they're going to monitor me extra close for the next 10 weeks (or less?). I have a Dr. appointment tomorrow (which was already scheduled) and we're going to do all the follow-up. I'm on bedrest until that appointment and from there - who knows!?! We'll just have to see what they want me to do. There is a chance that I'll be on bedrest for the next two weeks at least. I'm just glad that Richie is doing so well and if he were to be a preemie, he would probably do pretty well.

So, that was long! Thanks for reading and please send me any "STAY PUT BABY" vibes that you may have :)