Oh What a Night

    No spanking news to report. Just thought I'd let you all know that we spent the night in the hospital. Around midnight I started getting pretty strong braxton hicks contractions, and I was having about 6 an hour. I thought maybe I needed to drink something (even though I drink water all day long,) so I had a bottle of water and laid down in bed. They didn't stop. I timed them until around 2:30 and they were between 7-15 min apart. I wasn't really concerned because there was no real pattern, but my doctor had said to call if I had more than 4-5 an hour, so I called. They had me go to labor and delivery.
    We were checked in around 3, and they hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor and the one they use to monitor contractions. They confirmed I was having contractions and they were not slowing down. The baby's heart beat looked great and he was still moving around as usual.
    The nurse gave me some apple juice, to watch the baby's heart beat when I had sugar, and they had a midwife come in and give me a cervical exam. I was not dilated or effaced at all, so they left me on the monitor, and told me they'd be back to check me again in about an hour.
    Someone down the hall was having twins, so I didn't see much of the nurses or midwife for about an hour and a half. When the doctor finally came in, he checked me again. I hadn't made any progress, but was still having contractions, closer together now, and stronger. (Which of course could have been from the internal exam, but they wanted to monitor me more anyway.) So, the doctor decided to put me on an IV to give me some fluids, even though I'd had nearly a liter of liquid to drink since arriving at the hospital. When the doctor left the room, I started to cry. I hate needles, and didn't want to have an IV. It seemed pretty obvious to me that I wasn't in labor, and I just wanted to go home. I hadn't slept at all yet, and let me tell you ... sleeping in the hospital bed was NOT an option. My butt was going numb, my back hurt, and my hips felt like they might shatter. GAH. J was right beside me the whole time, and promised it'd be okay. I felt better having him there, and I realized that it was for the baby, and that made it easier to accept.
   They came back, gave me the IV, which actually hurt MORE than I expected it to (not common when it comes to needles, and me lol). The first bag of fluids went by quickly, about 45 minutes. I thought that was it. I was still having contractions but not as strong. Nope, they gave me another bag, and turned it all the way down, so it was coming painfully slow.
    Finally, the doctors switched shifts at 7 am and my own doctor was working, which made me more comfortable. After another 2 and a half hours, my doctor checked me again, no progress was made, and she told me to go home. The second bag of fluid wasn't even done! I cant imagine how long it would have taken. Good lord. At this point, I was so ready to go home. I was exhausted, sore, and very very irritated. I was thrilled to be leaving. I signed the discharge papers, got into my own clothes, and finally we were on our way home by 10 am.

    The baby is doing just fine, and hopefully he'll decide to stay in a few more weeks. He definitely wasn't happy having all those monitors strapped to my belly, he kept kicking directly on the monitors, as if to say, "get those things off!" Maybe he could just tell how stressed I was about it. I'm just glad that he stayed put and is doing well. We're very lucky.