Birth Story Part 2

Ok, so where was I? Oh yes, I had just been admitted so that they could stop the contractions. I was not prepared to stay overnight in the hospital - again, totally thought they would just give me some meds and send me on my merry way back to bed rest. This was also the the first time I've ever stayed overnight in a hospital, so that was also interesting. So, they sent me over to a Labor and Delivery room and started me on an IV with fluids. I received a medication (can't even remember what it was) that I took orally every 20 minutes for the first hour. They did a Group B Strep test, but started me on penicillin anyway, which is standard procedure for an unknown Group B Strep status. Man, when they added the penicillin to my IV it HURT SO BAD. My whole hand and wrist just burned. It hurt just as much as the contractions! So, that part sucked. And they gave me more every 4 hours, for 24 hours. I never learned what the Group B status was - my guess is that it was negative and they didn't want to tell me for fear of pissing me off.

They expected the pills to start working immediately. They didn't. So, they continued to give them to me every 6 hours. The night was pretty long. I had contractions about every 5 minutes. They varied in intensity - some were mild and some weren't. I felt some in the front, but I felt most of them in my back. The baby looked good throughout this, which Fred and I think is because he was happy he was going to be breaking free soon :)

Sometime in the middle of the night, the contractions started getting worse. I felt them in my back so much. I kept waking Fred up to come and rub my back. He wasn't very good at it because he was so sleepy! The nurse checked me in the middle of the night and I was still only 3-4 cm. I got more drugs early the next morning and they still didn't do anything! At 8 am, the Dr. came in to talk to us. She said that she had checked with the Neonatalogist and they had decided that because I had had the steroid shots 2 1/2 weeks earlier and because the meds weren't working, they were just going to let me go. (At first I had the silly thought that they meant I could go home! It quickly dawned on me that was NOT what they meant. I hadn't slept, obviously.)

The Dr. did a quick check and I had progessed to 5 cm! So, the fun began - I was definitely having that baby that day! Yikes!

To be continued...