Day 199

Holly vs. the IV Pole- Round 1

So, here's the story! We came to the ER tonight after a long day of painful contractions. Doctors normally tell you to call or come to the hospital if you've had more than 4 contractions in an hour. Tonight it seemed I'd had about 10 in an hour and they were getting more painful as time went on. Could I actually be in labor??? At this point fear set in since I'm still only 33 weeks along.

We came in and they poked and prodded on me and hooked me up to about 5000 monitors. Still not dilated so that was good news. Over the course of the night and Monday they tried lots of different things to make the contractions stop (fluids, Demerol, morphine, vistaril...), but nothing even phased them. I continued to have contractions about every 5-10 minutes. Ultrasound revealed Baby Max is still good to go in there. More updates tomorrow...

Now, let's talk about my new nemesis- this IVpole. I personally think it's just plain mean to give an 8 month pregnant person massive amounts of fluids during the night. (I mean, I already get up about 4-5 times a night to go to the bathroom anyway! ) So, our night began and sleep evaded me. I stared all night at the monitor screen watching the lines go up and down as the contractions came and went. Then, as I lay there, I felt the urge. Let's keep this G-rated and just say that pregnant people don't have a lot of bladder control so I knew I had to act fast. My husband seemed to be sleeping peacefully (I think he was just pretending!) so I began the process of hoisting my rather large self out of bed, unhooking the plugs for the fetal monitors, unclipping my heart monitor, unplugging the IV pole from the wall, and dragging this behemoth pole to the bathroom. Just in time!!! Then back to bed to plug all of those contraptions back in and try to get comfy again. Little did I know, this was the nightly routine that was repeated at about 30-45 minute intervals ALL NIGHT LONG!!! Needless to say, I did not sleep a wink! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!