ER/Hospital Visit on a Saturday Night!

Not to worry anyone - we are all fine and baby is still brewing...but, we did make an visit to the ER/Labor and Delivery floor this past Saturday night. I will say, it was the best hospital/ER experience I've ever had! We are so excited to be delivering at St. Tammany Parish Hospital!

Anyway, back to the story...Saturday was filled with running errands with Millie and MCat on the Northshore, exchanging things and picking up baby items needed for the nursery. I have been having contractions since 30 weeks and the doctor said that was fine, but if we get 6 contractions in a hour to either call her and come to her office or the hospital, if its after hours. Around 5pm I started having pretty frequent contractions, having 4 in an hour, then 5 in an hour and around 8pm I had 6 in an hour. We knew that it could be a false alarm and if we went to the hospital they'd just check us out and turn us back around, but with the gestational

diabetes, we didn't want to risk it. So we told ourselves if we had 6 contractions in an hour for 2 straight hours, we'd grab our bags and run to the hospital. Mind you, there is no such thing as "grabbing our bags"...

So at 9:30 we decided to go for it and go to the hospital. I, of course, haven't packed my hospital bag or the baby bag, so Matt's freaking out ready to leave and I'm sitting in the baby's closet trying to find an outfit for her to hypothetically come home in, since we do not have one for her yet. Now, I know the chances of her coming that night were slim, but I just didn't know. We couldn't have her coming home in some 'knit' thing! I'm a basket case, I know. Then I had to pack MY bag...oh wow, let's just say Matt isn't the most patient person when it comes to stressful situations. He just can't help it:)

So I have a hodge podge of things in my hospital bag, the baby's bag and we lock up the dogs and get ready to leave. Matt drives like a bat out of hell out of the neighborhood, potentially scaring our neighbors and their children to death and then says "I need something to drink, you want something to drink?" and casually pulls in to a gas station to grab a Diet Dr. Pepper and a bonus size Twix - great, thanks, husband, supporter - I'd really love a freaking candy bar and a DDP right now but I can't have one because of stupid gestation diabetes. Way to be a good supporter! He says "but it's DIET Dr. Pepper...that doesn't help?"

So we make it to the hospital, check in oh so quickly in the ER and then head on up to Labor and Delivery. We get checked in and go into the mini-emergency room specifically for labor and delivery patients and get hooked up to a fetal monitor. Then we find out that my doctor is the doctor on call for the night so we immediately relaxed. The baby looked great and they measured her heartbeat and my contractions for about an hour. They said coming to the hospital was definitely the best thing to do, so we felt a little less crazy at that point.

After doing an exam the nurse announced that I was no where near labor and that everything looked and measured right where it should be - ZERO! They ran a urinalysis and when the results came back they showed the cause of the contractions was SEVERE DEHYDRATION!!!! Matt and I still can't believe it, because I drink water all day long! The nurse said "Well, apparently that is not enough for baby girl"! Sooo I re-hydrated in the hospital and the nurse gave me a shot of Brethine to ward off any contractions. She also gave me a prescription for Brethine to take regularly to stop any further contractions, because while I wasn't dilated at all, if contractions keep going on like that, it will lead to pre-term labor.

So we were given a clean bill of health and sent home at 1am! I still have my weekly doctor's appointments so I'll see my regular OB GYN Wednesday. At last week's appointment she mentioned that she probably wouldn't let me go the full 40 weeks because of gestational diabetes and she'd decide when to induce me after we had a special sonogram to measure baby girl's weight. If I stay on the diet the baby should only gain half a pound a week until birth and right now she already weighs 5lbs, so we are looking to induce between 37 and 39 weeks, so that's somewhere between May 24 and June 7! We'll know more after Wednesday's appoint!