November 11, 2005

I started experiencing strong contractions earlier this month! I always wondered what a contraction felt like, now I know. It's not real fun, and luckily mine have not lasted too long. The nurses have been really on top of it in making sure that activity is kept to a minimum. The doctor has me on medication that I have to take daily to keep contractions down. Against my will, because I would prefer to do this without drugs. While the doctor has checked me to make sure that I'm not in preterm labor, she has advised that it is not wise to be checking me regularly because it could cause some change in my cervix and that is what we are trying to avoid. Our goal is to make it to Nov 30, and have the baby as scheduled without anything happening unexpectedly. She explained that I could simply be having contractions and not necessarily be in preterm labor--which is fine. But as soon as those contractions start to cause changes in my cervix--it is considered preterm labor and she would not have a problem delivering after 34 weeks. The reason they are giving me this daily medication--Procardia--is because they want to make sure that I don't start to have the contractions that will cause changes in the cervix.--and because she cannot check me weekly, they are treating ALL contractions as potential preterm contractions. Confusing, I know!! On really bad days I need more than just a daily dose of the procardia; when procardia didn't take, I was given the tributaline. Tributaline was NOT fun to take, it made feel really sick and shaky for hours on end. The days that I did have to take tributaline, I was not in the mood for visitors and I spend all afternoon just laying around depressed--read on...

Last night and today have been really hard times. I have been experiencing much more contraction activity than in the last few weeks, and the contractions have been much stronger. While on the monitor last night, there were four big contractions graphed, so I was administered the additional procardia at midnight. Then I woke up in the morning, feeling a little more crampy than usual, and asked the nurse to put me on the monitor. I was administered another procardia at 6 in the morning. The procardia helped for a few hours, but by 2:20pm, I was again having contractions so I was given the tributaline. It was not a fun afternoon. I was in bed all day, feeling shaky and with my heart racing. I was not in the mood for visitors that evening and I feared that the doctor’s check had caused changes in my cervix.