Happy 4th of July! Although I slept through much of the early part of the 4th, we had a good day. In the wee hours of July 4th, I was having contractions, back pain, damp underwear (sorry TMI) and major stomach upset/diarrhea. Since I've been constipated (sorry TMI....) the entire pregnancy, I did not like seeing 2-3 days of loose bowels, when it didn't seem related to being sick. That's very out of the ordinary for me. Also, I began breaking into a cold sweat (I've been hot the entire pregnancy), and got the chills to the point my teeth chattered. I remembered doing that with Braden when I was fully dilated, so all of the above, made me decide to go into Labor & Delivery at around 1:30 a.m. July 4th.
Jon stayed home with the other three kids. I told him I would call him, and he could leave the kids with my parents or a neighbor if he "had" to. I just didn't want to NOT go in and have them early, when labor could have been stopped with drugs, or babies could have been prepared with steroids. I really don't know what active labor feels like, since I tend to have "back labor" and have such quick dilations/deliveries....I'm normally 5 cm's when I get to the hospital, and get the epidural immediately so I don't feel the contractions. I had my first baby within 4 hours of arriving at the hospital, but apparently had been having back labor the night before. I assumed it was "weeding in the yard" back pain. Needless to say, I want to be cautious with twins.
They monitored the babies with the heart monitor/straps.... the girls did not want to participate and kept moving around. I had contractions, but none that lasted longer than 10 seconds. A productive contraction would last around 40-60 secs. My panties were damp (sorry again - TMI), but we weren't sure if that was from fluid or the "cold sweats", I was having. My contractions were what the nurse called "irritability" and could be causing the dilation. After my cervical check, they saw that I was 1 cm dilated, and told me that is still a bit early to dilate with twins. They called my Dr. who was on-call, and she told them to release me home, but I needed to come in on Tuesday a.m. to get another cervix check.
I've tried to take it easy since. I need to the babies to hang on another 4 weeks. Jon is out of town this week, and I was going to go with him, until I realized I was starting to dilate. I have two appointments tomorrow - one with the OB and one with the high risk doc. Should get a good "picture" of where we are delivery-wise.
I was next to a young couple in the ER that was admitted for pre-eclamsia and contractions every 4 minutes. I heard her labor through the pain, and listened through the curtain to the Dr. telling her they would be giving her a C-section immediately, and she would have a July 4th baby. It was so excited to witness, and I couldn't help but overhear the phone calls to their families, and the nurses prepping her with IV's, shaving, instructions.... I told her bye and good luck as I left to go home. The nurses told me they hoped not to see me for another month or so!
Here are some pics from last night. We celebrated the 4th with my parents for supper, then went down to the pool to pop fireworks with the neighbors and some of their friends. Had such a great time, and brought back one of Bree's friends to spend the night!
Dawn
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