Arrested Development

Yesterday was a long day.

I woke up around 4:30 (couldn't sleep because of back pains -- pretty normal nowadays) and around 5:30 started having severe stomach cramps. They would come in waves and sometimes felt like strong contractions. This of course made me worry. Nelson woke up shortly after all this started and we called the on-call doctor from my OB/GYN clinic. He said to drink a few large glasses of water and then see how it was in an hour. If it was no better, I should come in early for my already-scheduled 9:30 check-up. I did what he said and it actually got worse, so we went to the clinic.

Judy (the fantastic LPN that took care of me during my pregnancy with Emily and is helping us with this child) examined me and did an ultrasound to confirm that the baby was ok. It's heartbeat was 144 bpm and it seemed to be doing just fine. But they couldn't figure out what was causing the pain. They had several more people come in to check me out and the final OB decided that maybe I had an incarcerated uterus. Now you might be thinking, "Huh??" That's exactly what we said! When I was pregnant with Emily my uterus was tilted but came forward on it's own. With this pregnancy, they think that my uterus did not come forward but had actually lodged itself in my pelvic bone. They said they wanted me to get a second opinion and to go directly to our hospital. The OB that examined me at the clinic informed us that if the uterus was incarcerated they would most likely need to give me an epidural and manually move it up and forward. Sounds like fun, huh?!

So, we dropped off Emily at a friends house and headed down to the new labor and delivery ward at our hospital. They immediately got us into a room and I was examined by the on-call dr I had talked to on the phone earlier that morning. He didn't think my uterus was lodged anymore and that maybe it had actually freed itself b/n the clinic and the hospital (apparently it can do this). But just to be sure, he wanted to do a few tests and another ultrasound. We saw several more nurses and drs and a fetal specialist that confirmed that the baby was fine and that the uterus had indeed adjusted itself. The pain slowly subsided throughout the day and we finally left the hospital after 6pm.

So, my incarcerated uterus was let out on probation -- hopefully it won't violate this act and incarcerate itself again! (This was just one of the many, many puns Nelson and I tossed around yesterday. Hospitals can get very tiring after a while!)

But, we are all doing well and feeling much better! Praise be to God!! :)