7 months = trip to L&D

Well, yesterday was 7 months pregnant and we had quite an evening to show for it. It started when I wasn't able to sleep well early Wednesday morning. I had a very weird pain right near my belly button from 3-4 AM. It was strong enough to wake me and then keep me from falling back asleep. I'd chalked it up to Braxton Hicks contractions (which are normal at this stage and a way for the uterus to prepare for delivery). It was in a new spot and felt a lot stronger and more painful. But who am I to question? When your uterus expands to 1000x its normal size (no exaggeration) you assume things like this will occur.

During the day I'd felt fine, but then in the afternoon around 4:00 I started to get that pain again. And it wasn't going away by 5:00. So I did what any person would do who didn't want to bother her OB after hours - I searched for info on Braxton Hicks on the internet newspaper (ha ha Anna - I had to work that in...) It said that you weren't supposed to have >4 an hour or for them to be painful, and I thought "uh-oh!". So Dave came home at 5:30 and it was still going on every 5 minutes or so. He convinced me to call the OB; after speaking with her, she did what I thought she'd do and said there'd be no way to know what was causing the pain unless I went to the hospital. Great...

But she did bring up something that I didn't think about (which is why it is always important to call your doctor) - my placenta is in the front and they wanted to make sure it was still in place and not tearing away. So it was with an equal mixture of fear and foolishness that we hopped in the car and went to UPMC Magee Women's Hospital. When Dave eventually got us there via Greenfield the long way (thanks to the Oakland detour and probably nerves), we were seen right away, which leads me to ask why all ERs don't work this smoothly.

They did all my vitals and hooked me up to a contraction monitor which I was familiar with thanks to my experience with Angie's delivery. I got a little scared when the bottom line started zig-sagging up and down since this shows if you are contracting. I think my exact words to Dave were "Dude - holy crap I am contracting!" Alas, it was just the monitor moving thank goodness. Agh, to be naive.

After blood work, and internal exam (ouch) and lots of questions, we were running out of explanations. The final step was an ultrasound to look at the placenta, muscle, and baby. So I got to experience my first ride in a wheel chair and away we went. We were seen right away and it is no understatement to say Peanut is HUGE! Our little over-achiever is in the 81st percentile for weight and measuring 3 weeks ahead of schedule. A whopping 3lbs 3ozs already!! (normal is around 2 lbs 4 ozs). I just looked at Dave (who weighted over 9lbs at birth) and gave him the "you're to blame for this, aren't you?" stare... never mind my chocolate ice-cream cravings.

The bottom line is that they couldn't find any reason for my pain. Peanut and I are both fine. The pain finally subsided around 9 PM - so a total of 5 hrs of on & off pain (mostly on). They said that I wasn't silly to have come in, as much as I felt like I wasted their time. I have instructions on what to do should the pain return (which is basically just to head straight there), but I'm hoping it doesn't. It hasn't been back since, and I slept like a rock.

At least we learned where to go when you're in real labor, got to test run the driving detour in a stressful emergency, and found out that the hospital pillows really suck. Oh, and that triage can be a very scary place when all the women around you are screaming and moaning. That was honestly an eye-opener for me. Heck, the couple that came up to the triage window when I was registering - the woman laid down on the floor and I think her eyes rolled back into her head. I kindly asked that she be seen before me - good heavens! As I told my sister-in-law today, a planned c-section would circumvent all this! And at the rate Peanut is growing, that may seriously be an option!