Beginning at 3am Monday morning, I was experiencing a lovely episode of heartburn. That lasted until 6am...when the vomiting began. After 4 more episodes of barfing, we called my OB's nurse to ask what we should do. I had been unable to hold down fluids and dehydration is a risk for going into early labor. While Baby is "full-term," meaning that all of his/her major organs have developed and birth at this stage would be quite viable, it's thought to be best to let a baby come when ready vs. because Mama was puking so much, a lack of fluids pushed he/she out. Not quite the best birth story. Nor would that be a pleasant labor experience. Not that it's super fun regardless, but I digress...
The nurse consulted with the on-call doctor because mine is out of town (awesome). I was told it was important to get re-hydrated The ER is apparently afraid of pregnant women so I was sent to the Labor and Delivery unit. And was admitted.
I received two bags of fluids and lab work (which all came back normal) in the first 3 hours that I was there. I have been experiencing some contractions since before week 30 (when I was last blessed with an episode of vomitus). The residents observed somewhat regular contractions that they thought would dissipate after the first bag of fluids. They did not. They also did not cease after bag 2. After observing Baby's heart rate drop a few times during my regular contractions, they decided it was important to check my amniotic fluid and do a pelvic exam.
My amniotic fluid was measured to be 9.6, well in the normal range. To remind you, I was induced with Matthew because of low amniotic fluid, so this was relieving information for me. I told the two residents and nurse that I did not know the gender of Baby, so they would not tell me the gender during this ultrasound. While the new resident was moving around my belly, the training resident said "and there's the umbilical cord." I had to pseudo-bring Mike into the room since he was still at work and I said, "And there's the penis!" They all looked at me with fear and surprise, like "OH NO--THIS DID NOT GO AS PLANNED!". I quickly said, "Oh my gosh, I'm totally kidding. I didn't see anything! I was just thinking about if that just happened!" They were totally relieved and the training resident, "Yeah, cause we weren't even in that area and I didn't see anything." Hmm...didn't see anything. Girl?
Anyway, pelvic exams (yes, exams as both trainee and trainer checked me--FUN!) revealed that I am 1.5cm dilated, 50% effaced, and baby's engagement is at -3 (scale goes from -5 to +5). The resident wanted to check with the on call OB, but said that it was likely that I would need to stay for a few more hours for observation to ensure that labor wasn't starting. Enter tears. Reality check that labor and baby are near setting in.
10 minutes later...
The resident came back and said that she had not known that this was my second pregnancy and that after talking with the OB, I was free to go.
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