Last night, David and I have an adventure: an emergency trip to the hospital!
Before I tell the story, I should preface by saying that everything is fine.
So, I was having contractions pretty steadily for about 2 hours. They weren't very hard (mostly) but they were regular. I wasn't too worried except for that regularity; they were coming every 2 - 3 minutes. I laid down on my side and drank a ton of water (32 oz or more), which is supposed to help, but I didn't know how long it would take to work. (For future reference, give it about an hour and a half!) I timed the contractions for about 30 minutes and then David called the doctor.
Doctor called back about 15 minutes later, and the contractions were still coming. He asked me a couple of questions (are you hydrated? have you changed position?) and told me to come in to L&D (Labor and Delivery) to be monitored. Okay... off we went.
(I should add that we went leaving a beautiful pair of steaks and a half done pile of roast potatos.... David was fixing a super supper, and we didn't get to eat it until about 10:30! But, it was still very good.)
So, we both got lost going to L&D, but that was fine, we made it eventually. I was very embarrassed to find that, upon being actually hooked up to the monitor... you guessed it, the contractions had stopped. I was like, I guess we can go home now! But the nurse said no, we needed to be monitored and checked to make sure that the contractions hadn't changed anything internally.
She hooked me up to the monitor three ways: one heartbeat monitor for each twin, and a contraction monitor for me. I was a mess. It was very cool to see the heartbeats and contractions on the screen, though. The heartbeats were amplified, which was nice. The kicks the babies made were also amplified, which wasn't so nice to highly sensitive musician ears (SQUEEEAAAL) but still reassuring in a noisy kind of way. Out little girl wasn't very cooperative about sharing her heartrate with us, and kept kicking me and moving away from the monitor. I didn't think she had enough room to do that! Apparently, she is going to grow up to enjoy spelunking.
The boy didn't seem to care who heard him. He just sat there, broadcasting. Hmmm. He's going to be a composer... or maybe a DJ.
Eventually my doctor came. I lucked out a LOT, because it was my regular OB's night to do rounds at the hospital. Yea! No strange doctors for me. He did an internal exam and took a swab for a fetal fibronectin test. He said everything looked good with me, but that the results of the test would tell whether it was likely I'd go into labor during the next week or two. Thankfully, the test results came back negative, which is GOOD. I'm only 26 weeks. Let's shoot for at least 10 more, shall we? He said I was to take it very easy for the next week or so and try to figure out what it was that triggered the contractions. (I had sung for a memorial service that morning, which is the only non-routine thing I'd done. Perhaps performance stress? But I didn't feel stressed at all. Hard to say if that was it. Maybe not enough water during the day.) So, I'm not on full time bedrest, still just the modified 2 hours in the AM and 2 hours in the PM off my feet. I'm hoping to avoid full time bedrest... I hear people get a little strange after a couple of months in bed.
On the other side (of me, that is) the therapy seems to be helping my back. Hooray! Sciatica is a major pain in the... well, the back. My therapist taught me today how to roll over in bed without twisting my spine, which hurts. You do it by keeping your spine, pelvis and knees kind of 'locked' and not allowing the spine to twist. Bliss... except I was irritated with myself for not figuing this out. Placenta brain. Voice students of mine will also be happy to note that I learned a new trick for the Great American Chicken Head. No, I don't require that treatment, thank you very much... I asked her on YOUR behalf. =-) If you need it, you'll be getting it this week. Lucky you.
We buy our Christmas tree tomorrow! Yea!
