My day in labor and delivery

Or, as the title should say: Life as a klutz.

Last Thursday night (7/19) I decided to briskly walk in to my coffee table while carrying my laptop. Didn't see the table there, forgot completely that we had purposefully moved it there, and blam! Hit it like a train. I walked so hard and fast in to it that I actually fell forward and on to it. I caught myself, so the only damage done was to my shins and arm where the laptop dug in. I went to the doctor the next day for my normal appointment and all was well.

Fast forward to this past Wednesday (7/25). We were predicted to get some storms that evening. Since we've been in an intense drought and have only recently started getting this thing called rain, I did not believe these storms would either materialize or, if they did, amount to anything. Much to my surprise, they started rolling in around 9 pm and the lightning was insane and the thunder was roaring. I was pretty scared with how bright/close/loud things were. At 12:30 I got a text from the National Weather Service saying we were under a severe thunderstorm warning and that the storm heading our way was tracked with having 70mph winds. There was a lull in the storm where I convinced Jake to go outside with me to tie down the patio furniture so it wouldn't blow all over if it did get that windy. So at 12:30 in the morning, out we go on to the wet deck to bungee down the chairs.

Again, the deck was wet from the storms that had just come through. I was moving the two little footstools we had (very light, might I add) to the other side of the door. I took a step towards them and must have hit the deck just right because my left leg went forward, my right leg went back, and my middle goes straight down, hitting the deck hard. Yes, I did the splits, on my deck at 12:30 am while being 8 months pregnant. I was not anticipating falling; the shock of falling so fast and hard was surreal and I didn't feel any pain aside from a slight tightening of my belly that went away as soon as it came on. Jake freaked out but at the time, I was ok and told him as such. We both went to bed, listening to the howling of the storm(s).

4:30 rolled around and no matter which way I laid in bed I was in excruciating pain - my hips, my legs, my lower back. It. Was. Bad. I tried to get up to go to the bathroom and it was like someone was ripping my legs off my body. I finally got up, did what I had to do, took some Tylenol, and tried finding sleep though it never came. Eventually it came time to go to work, which I did, and planned on being there all day. I had posted about my fall to facebook and one of you awesome friends of mine (seriously, thank you) actually told me something I hadn't even thought to do: call my doctor and tell him I fell. 

Since I was still in a pretty severe amount of pain and walking was really challenging, I called and told them I fell. I expected the same usual response from my doctor's staff: "ok great thanks for letting us know, bye!" but was surprised when my doctor's nurse came on and told me to go to Labor and Delivery right away. I was not expecting that whatsoever because I didn't fall on my belly, I just fell straight down on my groin/butt area. I called Jake to tell him, which I know got him very nervous. He wanted to come with me, but I told him it would probably be better for him to stay at work since he had a day full of meetings. Reluctantly he agreed and stayed at work while I began my journey to St. Mary's.

I find hospitals, at least this one, really weird. When I arrive at a hospital, I'd like a check in desk, like you'd find in a doctors office, where you go up to the desk, they check you in to being in the building, and tell you where to go. St. Mary's is HUGE and when you first walk in from the parking ramp, you're actually in the wrong building if you're there for urgent services or anything hospital related. The building the parking ramp attaches to is actually their specialty building where you'd go for things like Gastroenterology. From the parking garage, you have to find this fabled skybridge to get you over to the emergency services building/labor and delivery. This whole time there is not a single desk to greet you or direct you, you just have to find where you're going on your own. Once you cross the sky bridge and go down a long hallway there is an information desk. Here you can ask for directions. But you'd better have a notepad with you cause the directions are not easy. Fortunately once you find the atrium, Labor and Delivery is only a floor up. Once you get up there, you're in a vast room with very little signage to direct you. You can go left (the right way) or right. Thankfully a patron was coming out of the correct way and pointed me in the direction I needed. More hallways, and FINALLY I rounded a corner where I saw a nurses station. Here was where I apparently "checked in" - but it felt weird cause I was in the actual birthing suites themselves. 

They took me back to an actual delivery room right away and had me lay down on this gurney looking bed. I didn't have to put on a gown but I was given a bracelet with a bar code right away and then immediately was hooked up to the monitors you see used when going in to delivery. I had no idea what was going on and was actually pretty scared. Someone had just gone in to labor as I was getting hooked up so as soon as the nurse finished getting the monitor stable, she looked at the tape/printout to make sure it was recording correctly, said something along the lines of 'Huh, skipped beats' and then had to run out of the room.

 

So there I sat, for about 45 mins, wondering what was happening with me/the baby. Finally the nurse came back in with a L&D resident who introduced himself and asked what happened. I told him of my fall the night before, my pain level(s), and explained I didn't have any gush of fluid or bleeding or any abnormal cramping. I had still felt the baby moving around since the fall and his heartbeat was stable in the 135-145 range (click for a short video I took while I was there, bored). I was told time after time that he looked like he was doing marvelous and I had nothing to worry about. They had a lab tech come in while they were there to take blood to make sure none of the baby's blood mixed with mine. It was then I found out I would be staying in the room for at least another 3 hours while they got the results of the blood test back. They resident phoned my info/stats in to my doctor and came back a little while later saying that he didn't feel I needed an MRI of my hip area and that my doctor gave permission for me to have pain relief as to their digression. He said my doctor told me not to worry about the skipped heartbeat, too. Apparently most babies that have that in the womb tend to have it resolved during/after birth.

I was still a little worried. How could you sit there, alone in a hospital room attached to monitors, and NOT worry about your baby's heartbeat skipping? Every 20 mins or so Baby Aschebrook decided he didn't like where I was laying and would move. The monitor would make a real loud noise since he was pushing around in there and then it'd go silent. If after a short period of time the sensors couldn't pick up his heartbeat again this two-toned alarm would go off. The first time I heard it, I freaked. I sat there for about two minutes listening to it go off, thinking one of the nurses at the nurses station would see my monitor flat-lining and come in. Nope, no one came. I had to push the nurse button (which activates a two way communication between you and whomever's at the desk) to have them fix it, every time it happened. I felt like a pest after the second time the alarm went off. It was no big deal, obviously, but it was annoying to have to have someone come in each time to chase him down. It didn't help that I was so uncomfortable I too had to move around a lot.

My pain relief came around 12:45 pm - a nurse came in to check on the alarm and asked if I was comfortable. She must have seen the look of agony on my face as I laid there and said she'd go get me something. She came back with an extra pillow and a Vicodin, which apparently is "safe" to take for extreme pain in pregnancy. Within a half hour of taking the Vicodin, I felt WORLDS better. I was comfortable and able to relax a bit. They continued to monitor the baby after I took the pill to make sure he wasn't getting affected by it.

An hour later, the nurse came back and told me I needed a Rhogam boost. I'm O- and Jake's O+ and apparently Baby Aschebrook is a + blood type too because they found very slight traces of his blood in mine. Again, my stomach's in my throat at the thought of what could have caused our blood to mix. I asked the nurse, who shrugged it off and said I probably tore the placenta a little when I fell. I was told it wasn't a big deal and that this boost was just a precautionary administration and that I would get a third boost before I began active labor. The shot is pretty painful but it's tolerable since it only pokes you for 10 seconds. After the shot, they unhooked me and I was able to walk out and head back to work.

Last night went pretty well - I definitely was dehydrated and tired from taking the Vicodin. I also started getting a headache as the Vicodin wore off. I decided that unless I was in sheer pain again that I would NOT take another one while pregnant since I didn't like how that affected me and was concerned with how that would affect my baby. I took an ice pack to bed and was able to sleep a LOT better than I had the night before. I'm still pretty tired - yesterday, even if I was just lounging around all day, was quite exhausting. A good glimpse of what's to come, I guess :)