The Last 40+ Hours

How have they been spent you ask? Good question! Thanks for asking! The answer would be on my 3rd Labor and Delivery visit which included an overnight stay, constant monitoring for contractions, and two ultrasounds. I’m home now and I think all is fine. Since I didn’t actually get to talk to my dr. before I was released, I have more questions then answers at this point. All in good time I guess.

After my trip, I was really tired. I worked Friday (sort of). I took two naps on Saturday. One nap on Sunday. And, was planning on another nap on Monday, when it occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I felt the baby move. It had been awhile. At least 24 hours. I figured that the baby was probably just laying low since I wasn’t feeling that great because of the cold I caught, but worried enough that I did check for the baby's heart rate on the fetal heart monitor that I never sent back. It was in good range, but I mentioned it to my friend, who is a dr. and who is my voice of conscience. I told her all was probably fine. She countered with if I wasn’t worried I wouldn’t have brought it up and I shouldn't be worried at all so I should call. Mostly to appease my friend and to ease any quilt I would feel if anything really was wrong, I called. I explained the situation and the on-call dr. said to come in for monitoring. Great. Okay. No problem. Been there. Done that. No big deal.

I go in and get hooked up and monitored for an hour. And, I had two contractions during that time and both times, the baby’s heart rate dropped below 120. The on-call dr. sent me down to u/s to check the baby and amniotic fluid. The amniotic fluid was “low”. She said it should be at least 10 or 11 and mine was 8. I am given the surprising news that I will be admitted overnight for more observation, an IV, and another u/s the next day to recheck the fluid. To say I was unprepared is an understatement. There are several lessons in this whole situation, but I will save them for another day because I only got somewhere between 30 and 90 min. of sleep all night and I am so tired I can barely see straight.

I get admitted and from then on, everything looks good. No more contractions. No more dips in the baby’s heart level, and the second u/s showed amniotic fluid over 10 with good blood flow. I was released today at 4 pm with instructions to drink plenty of fluids and to keep my Friday appointment.

What caused the low fluid, contractions, and heart dip? I still have questions about that myself, but I think that the on-call dr. (the one who admitted me) would say that my placenta isn’t functioning the way it should and that a cold, travel, and dehydration would not cause that to occur. She was all for having the perinatoligist who did my L2 u/s come by and do a compare. Dr. P, my dr., seemed much less concerned and I doubt I would have been admitted if she had been making the decision. She said an “8” was borderline, not low, and that I would just be monitored more closely.

It’s funny. My friend C, the dr., stopped by after her shift and was there when both dr’s stopped by this morning. We agreed that it is a matter of style between the dr’s, but she thinks the on-call dr. would be better for me because she would set more rigid limits. For example, my friend C thinks that I should not still be hiking the dogs in the hills. I asked Dr. P about it and she said it was fine and even healthy. C asked the on-call dr. this morning and she said “absolutely not”. To a certain extent, she has a point. If she hadn’t pressured me, I would never have called in. I just would have waited until Friday to talk to Dr. P. It turns out, there really was a problem that I would have just brushed off thinking everything was fine in a false sense of security. Now, maybe everything would have resolved itself or maybe not. Hard to say.

The bottom line is …. Best case scenario, I was just dehydrated which caused the contractions and lower fluid level causing the umbilical cord to be squished during the contraction causing the baby’s heart rate to drop. Worse case scenario, my placenta isn’t functioning the way it should and the hospital bed rest and IV resolved it for now, but I will be having future problems. I guess time will tell.

I do know that I will be much more cautious and careful. I want to avoid an extended hospital stay if I can help it. One day was bad enough. And, if I HAVE to go to bed rest, I really want it to be at home, not in the hospital. I would miss my doggies way to much. I would do it, if I had to of course, for the well being of the baby and myself. But, I sure wouldn’t like it. I’m not much of a complainer, but I sure wanted to be during this hospital stay.

So, there you have it. The last 40+ hours of my life and the most eventful (it goes without saying, not in a good way) hours of my pregnancy.

Having told the story I am off to give my dogs their treats, take a warm bath, take some Tylenol PM to dry my up and limit my coughing and I am off to bed. Nightie Night!