Mama-Sense

So last week was miserable, scary, painful, boring, and tiring all in one.
I started having more pain the weekend before last and just blamed it on me over-doing it again (which I really hadn't) and/or experiencing more "lightening" pain--although it wasn't the same. So I relaxed and drank as much water as I could. Sleep was impossible. So I told myself if it gets any worse or doesn't get any better by Monday, I would go into my Dr. Well it didn't get any better. I called my nurse and she told me to come in right away for some tests (mostly because I hadn't felt the baby in the time table she had asked)...She informed me that my Dr. is not in the office on Mondays, so I would see Dr. Childs, the on-call. She also informed me that I may be in pre-term labor. I got off the phone with her and called Andrew only to break down on the phone. He insisted on coming with me when he could sense how scared I was (did I mention yet...BEST Husband of the YEAR award....) So I picked Andrew up from work and away we went. They got me right in and said they would first have me give a urine sample, and second have me sit through a stress-test. A stress-test is a very simple test where I sit in an amazingly comfortable recliner chair and they strap two pod looking things to monitor #1 baby's heartbeat and #2 they didn't tell me in the beginning what that was for. Our sweet stubborn baby gave us a laugh when he/she continuously kept kicking the monitor. So we sat there for 10 minutes and the Nurse Practitioner came in to check us. First thing she did was move the #2 sensor because according to her it was in the wrong place. While she was fixing the #2 sensor, another girl came in with her mother and Andrew had to be asked to leave because he (being a male) wasn't allowed to be in the room while another woman was partially undressed (her stomach). So they had Andrew leave and let her mom come in to be with her in Andrews place (don't get me started on how wrong I felt this was!) The nurse practitioner stayed in with me and after moving the #2 sensor (and seconds after Andrew was asked to leave) she came over and asked me a few questions....she confirmed that I was having contractions. (WHAT!?!) She monitored me for a few more minutes and confirmed another one. She sent Dr. Childs in and he spoke with me and put me on "couch potato" rest until my next appointment with Dr. Carr (2 weeks away). He restricted me to the couch, but allowed me to attend school temporarily. No stairs allowed. They did an additional test which eventually ruled out pre-term labor (thank goodness), but he decided to keep me on "couch-potato" rest until Dr. Carr could decide otherwise. They sent me home and I broke the news to Andrew in the waiting room. (He wasn't impressed either that they had left him uninformed and clueless in the waiting room while all this was going on.) 

I went to class Tuesday and was really feeling bad after getting home from that. But I did as I was told and sat on the couch all day. By the time Andrew got home I could not sit up on my own because the pain in my stomach was so bad. I went to bed early and slept nothing during the night. Wednesday I got up early and hoped that by starting my normal morning routine, it would help start the day off better, so I showered, dressed, and ate breakfast, then plopped on the couch for the day. By afternoon, I sensed that something just wasn't right. There just was no explanation given to me why I should be in this much pain. I called my nurse once more, and she once again told me to come in immediately. But that the only test they could do this time that wasn't done last time was an ultrasound of my cervix to be sure that it wasn't showing any pre-term labor signs (uh, I thought that we had ruled that out Monday?) Because Andrew had to sit in the waiting room the entire time on Monday, I went to this appointment alone. I got there, gave a urine sample and got the ultrasound done. As a precaution, my Dr also checked me herself to be sure I wasn't thinning out or dilating. All the tests came back negative for pre-term labor once again (thankfully), but it didn't answer my question of why I was in so much pain. The Dr went out and came back with some questions (and an answer that no longer made me feel like a paranoid crazy pregnant lady)...blood in my urine. I had a bladder and quite possibly a kidney infection. I was given an antibiotic shot to jump start the meds, a prescription for a week, and removed from couch-potato rest because all preterm labor had been ruled out. 

It took most the week and weekend for the meds to fully start taking affect. But as of yesterday, I am feeling quite back to normal. **One of the questions Dr Childs had asked me when I was in on Monday was if I had any sugar that morning (because I had glucose in my urine) and how much water I had been drinking; I had only had orange juice and more water bottles than I could recall ( I guessed 4-5). One of the first signs of a bladder infection for pregnancy is too much glucose in the urine, but him not being my Dr and the bigger concern of my contractions, maybe it just didn't occur to anyone that the pain was from a bladder infection. I have had several bladder infections in my day and normally spot one the day it starts. Anyway, no cause for concern, everything is back to normal and through all the tests, baby is still head down and looks "perfect" according to the Dr. We are right back where we need to be. We have made it to 30 weeks!

Moral of the drama last week is, every pregnancy is different, but if you get a mama-sense that something is wrong....it probably is. 

My post inspiration is beginning to dwindle down and any suggestions or requests on what you would like to see in a future post would be much appreciated! 
p.s. The nursery is now 95% complete!