My first L&D Visit

I had my first Labor and Delivery visit last night. I started feeling mild cramping on Tuesday after a trip to Costco. I bought 3 flats or water and after carrying them into the house I realized that they may have been a bit too heavy and that I probably should not have done it.

Mental note to self: Listen to what they say about not lifting/carrying things that are too heavy.

I hoped that I hadn’t really caused problems and took it fairly easy the rest of the day.

I think I aggravated the situation by the hike I did on Wednesday morning which is one of the shorter ones that I do, but has a steep downhill to begin with the same steep uphill to end.

Wednesday, work was really busy between meetings, phone calls, emails and it wasn’t until after I walked the dogs and laid down that I realized the cramping was still there and much worse than the day before. I started getting worried that I could have really caused myself some problems.

In the back of my mind was an update on one of the ladies who had gotten pregnant the cycle before mine with triplets that went into pre-term labor at 20w and lost all of her boys. My heart broke for her when I heard that news. And, here I am cramping at 20w.

Shoot, I don’t know what contractions feel like, how would I even know if I was in PTL. I was getting worried, but not sure I should be. I can say that it was not come and go like contractions, but a constant nagging tightening of the lower uterus. It was strong enough that I felt like crying there for a bit. I posted a note out to the SMC-Preg community asking what contractions felt like and if I should be worried. I also got on the phone with one of my friends who convinced me that I should at least call and talk to the dr. on call. So, I did. When I talked to him, he wanted me to come in and get monitored for contractions.

The monitoring showed no contractions; a good heartbeat for the baby; my blood pressure was a bit high; my cervix was long and closed. The on-call dr. said that it was likely pulled muscles or ligaments and to apply warm heat. The warm heat along with some Tylenol took the edge off. I was to follow up with my OB today.

I got home around 12:30 am, was up at 5 am, and working by 6. I’m getting a tad tired. My sister called while I was typing this up. I hoped by ignoring the call I could avoid a visit, but she left a message saying she was on her way home and thought she would “stop by anyway” to see how I was doing. Sigh. I really should be nicer because when she called on Tuesday I told her I over did it by moving the water and was just resting. She told me to call her when I needed things like that. She’s here. More later.