Never would have dreamed this nightmare (Hospital stays 1 and 2)

Thursday July 26 - Saturday July 28

I was 30 weeks exactly on Thursday July 26, 2012. I was having some cramping all day, that started out as what felt like round ligament pains. Then it developed into stronger pains than that I thought were basic pelvic pains. But later at night, like 8pm I got to thinking these pains cannot be normal. I was doubled over in pain and crying. Then I had Ryan take me to L&D Triage.

In triage they discovered I was having contractions, and my cervix had shrunk from over 3 from 2 days ago to 2.5. They were not too worried, but I was.  But on Thursday and Friday Ryan and I would end up staying in the hospital. They gave me contraction medicine to slow them down, as well as monitored the baby. They injected me with beta methazone (steroids) to protect the baby's lungs in case we did go into labor in the next couple weeks. Even though the pre-term labor test came back negative which means I would NOT go into labor.

We were sent home Saturday afternoon.  I had a UTI, was given an antibiotic and was put on modified bedrest for about 4 weeks or more. However that day when we got home I also developed this very painful feeling in my tummy, in addition to my pelvic area that I thought was as a result of the UTI. I had other UTI symptoms and I assumed it was the baby positioning. It hurt to move or do much else. I thought with rest and medicine I would feel better soon. 

Sunday July 29-Friday August 3

I woke up on Sunday morning at 1.  I was changing position in bed when I was in excrutiating pain. Could be from the UTI, but I had tried to drink a ton of water to pee. I did pee, it did hurt but it did not get rid of all the pain.  The pain seemed to rise from to my upper abdomen and just like Saturday it hurt to move so bad.

They discovered I was 1 cm dilated and cervix went down again. They weren't worried about this. But I was...I had to get some tests run like a chest x-ray and abdominal u/s. They told Ryan to go home and get some stuff since I wouldn't be going home tonight. Well, his car broke down on the highway on the way home. He idles it to the car dealership where they can hopefully look at it soon. He walks home since he couldn't get a hold of anyone. He drives my car back up. This had him super stressed, and me because I thought he would be back up there by the time my tests were done.


They find I have a collapsed lung! This was causing the breathing issues. The CT-scan showed I had air pockets in my abdomen. They think it all stemmed from the collapsed lung which really makes no sense but they have no other ideas.   I think there were 4 teams of Dr’s working on my case!!  The OB’s, the rectal surgeons (when they thought I might  have a bowel perforation and/or needed surgery), and other people too but I dunno who.. I just know there were tons of doctors following it. And, they wouldnt let me eat solids for days with the anticipation of needing surgery and they wanted to correct my consitpation issue.  But I couldn't have a bowel movement if I couldn't eat, so that made no sense to me.


Sunday morning the OB nurse staying with me noticed a mucus-blood discharge on the pad I was laying on.  I had also been having back labor and didn’t know it. I just couldn’t get comfy at all in that damn hospital bed. She calls the OB down and she checks me and finds that I’m 6 cm dilated at 4:30am! Remember I was 1 cm dilated less than 24 hours later.  They rush me to the OR in L&D which is where they deliver preemies. Sure enough my water broke and that baby wanted out now. I had no time for an epidural and had a tube in my chest.  I still couldn’t breathe very well at this point. They kept telling me to take deep breaths but I couldn’t. Thank God I run because they told me I might not have been able to handle this as well as if I didn’t run.  They did have to cut an episiotomy L but that’s the least of my worries. Baby Joshua James was born at 5:32am (that’s 1 hour in active labor) and weighed 3 lbs 6 oz, and 16.14 inches.

                                     

We were in the hospital the rest of the week because not only was I now trying to recover from labor, I also was trying to recover from this “infection” that we believe triggered the early labor.  Both had caused me immense pain in my stomach area. I also had 2 more CT-Scans and did a swallow study.  I was on pain meds, but after the baby was born also had to wake up at certain times and pump.  Ryan had to help because I was in too much pain to get out of bed to get the stuff.  He washed everything after each use, he helped me so much with everything.  I cannot say enough good things about him.  I love him so much!! He hated seeing me in so much pain. I just wanted to get back to my normal self.

Now that I am back to my normal self,except being sore from labor, my work says my 8 week maternity leave began on the day he was born.  So I have some time off now but my baby is in the NICU for 6-8 weeks L  I was trying to be able to take disability for 6 weeks then maternity leave but that’s not in the “policy”.  We have our situation escalated up in HR and haven’t heard anything back yet.  We do not have high hopes though.  I just want an appropriate amount of time home with him before I have to go back.


We still also need to find a daycare, and I haven't even had any of my baby showers yet.  Due to my situation my post-partum OB appointment is in 2 weeks, not the normal 6 weeks.  I also need to schedule another chest x-ray