What a Week: A Labor Scare

Last Friday (9/28) I went to my OB appt, everything was looking great. I even lost 1/2 pound!! Not sure how though, lol. Dr. said I was about 30% effaced (thinning of the cervix) but that I wasn't dilated at all. He also said that Chewy had dropped a little. I started having some contractions over the weekend, nothing regular and certainly not painful. Honestly when I was up, moving around, and busy I hardly noticed them. In the evenings however when I'd sit on the couch to hang out with Kris I'd have quite a few of them. Then by Tuesday I went in for my first NST of the week. After being on the monitors for a while the nurse said I was contracting every 3-5 minutes. She said that I was doing what they wished all their labor patients would do. At 35 weeks and 1 day that was not what I wanted to hear. I wasn't feeling most of the contractions and was surprised to hear that they were coming so often. After a call to the Dr. the nurse gave me a shot of tribulatline, a smooth muscle relaxer, in my upper arm. She warned me that I'd feel warm and that my heart would feel like it was racing. The shot did increase my heart rate and baby's heart rate too, but it knocked out the contractions. After about an hour later, I was released to go home. I had a few contractions on Wednesday, again nothing painful or regular. Then came Thursday...

Not my test strip, but mine looked like this one.

 Thursday morning the boys and I headed off to Community Bible Study. I was having quite a few contractions while driving and they were stronger than ones on previous days. While waiting for CBS to start I was sitting with Corissa and Tiffany and I shared with them that I was having contractions when I really shouldn't be. They prayed over me right then and there. Thanks gals!!  I continued having contractions during our Core Group discussion time, but I didn't have my watch to time them, so I just started tallying them up. By the end of Core Group (which is about 45 min long I think) I'd had 7, so about 6 min apart. Our leader Mary asked for prayer requests and Tiffany asked the group to pray for me because I was having contractions. I was so glad that she brought it up, because as soon as I started explaining about our previous preterm deliveries and the complications that Jonathan and Aaron had (underdeveloped lungs and 2 weeks in the NICU) I started crying, and how I was so scared that this baby would come too soon as well. Then I felt the amazing power of the Family of God- the gals in my group surrounded me and laid hands on me as Mary prayed for God's hand to keep Chewy safe and for His perfect peace no matter what the outcome. Thanks so much my dear Sisters in Christ! You are a huge encouragement to me! I kept having contractions through lecture and the whole drive home, about 6 min. apart. I told Kris about it when I got home and he immediately sent me to bed with a big glass of ice water. The contractions tapered off a bit, to about 10 min apart for a while, but then picked up again to about 5-6min apart. So we decided to call Dr. Brunel. He told us to go to the birth center to be checked out. My mom came to pick up the boys and we headed off to Sonora...

At that point I was 35 weeks and 3 days and so not ready to have this baby! We got checked in and I was happy to see that one of my favorite nurses, Lea was on duty and was assigned to me! She got me hooked up on the monitors and started tracking my contractions. Over the next hour or so they were about 5 min apart but I had a 10 min run or so where they were about every 1-1 1/2 min and they were pretty intense. She did a cervical exam and said I was about 50% effaced but still not dilated at all. I was amazed that after having an entire day of strong contractions that not much had changed from Tuesday (PRAISE GOD!)! Lea called Dr. Brunel to update him on what was going on. She came back and asked me what I wanted to do, did I want to let the contractions go and see what happened or did I want to try and get them to stop. I really liked that I was asked to give my input and I told her that I wanted to try and hang onto this baby for a couple more weeks. So she gave me another shot of tribulatline which did stop the contractions. Over the next hour or so I had 2 contractions. So around 8pm I was allowed to go home. I was also send home with a medication called percardia that helps stop contractions that I can take every 6hrs needed if I start contracting again. I took the pills as scheduled that evening and during the night and still didn't have any contractions. One of the side effects of the medication is that it lowers blood pressure. Since my blood pressure tends to run high, this side effect could actually be a huge benefit to me! I was not put on bed rest per se, but encouraged to rest as much as possible, so I'm trying my best to follow dr.'s orders.

I had my regular Dr. appt on Friday (10/5), and Dr. Brunel said everything is looking great and stable, even my blood pressure. He was glad to hear that the percardia was keeping the contractions away. So we're aiming to use the medication until I hit 38 weeks (which would be Oct 22nd) and then see what my body does on its own.

As of today I am 35weeks and 5 days, so 16 days until the 38 week mark. One thing that my sweet friend Corissa reminded me of on Thursday... she said she'd be praying and praying for me to reach 38 weeks, but realized that she was praying for the wrong thing, that instead she should be praying that Corban's lungs be ready, whenever he's delivered...because that was the real issue, the real need. I hadn't thought of that before, but she was so right! Thanks Corissa for sharing such wisdom!! So please come along side us and pray the Corban's lungs (and whole body really) would be completely mature regardless of his delivery date, and for peace during the waiting!