Admitted to Labor and Delivery

Yesterday I woke up feeling Braxtons Hicks and what I thought was intestinal pains.  These continued sporadically throughout the day, but by evening it was so painful that I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep at all and I needed some kind of assistance regardless of what was causing the pain.

We checked into OB triage around 11pm and got all hooked up to the monitors again.  Within minutes, it registered a contraction of 11 on a scale of 1 to 12.  Not what we wanted to see, but I have to admit feeling a tiny bit of vindication that the pain wasn't all in my head.   We were seen by the same doctor who diagnosed our SCH.  This time we got a different type of shocking news as he kept his usual poker face on during my internal....I was dilated 3-4cm and he could feel the baby's head.  R and I looked at each other with an "oh shit" expression.

They admitted us to L&D and though they weren't getting any closer together, I was exhausted and opted for an epidural at 3am.  The back labor was probably one of the worst parts...the contractions still felt like really bad intestinal pain.   The epi wasn't really painful at all, but the numbing meds did sting a little.  Then it was just an odd pressure on my back until the meds kicked.  I was able to move my legs and was really only numb around the hip area.

They checked me again around 7am this morning and I was 4cm and 100% effaced and baby was in -2 position.   It is a little after 1pm now, and the contractions have stayed spaced out and irregular, so they turned off my epidural about 45 minutes ago to see what happens. If they stay infrequent and manageable for me, they'll move me upstairs to a pre-natal floor and monitor me there. Ideally we are hoping contractions stop altogether and they can send me home at 35 weeks on Thursday....I assume on strict bedrest. This close to 35 weeks they don't do anything to stop labor, but they also don't do anything to assist progression. 3 days ago I would have received steroid shots, but there is not enough medical data out there yet for them to give it to me now. We did opt to be included in a medical study on steroid use for late pre-term babies, but we don't know if we were assigned the placebo or the actual drug.


We are doing okay for now...feeling a little like a deer in headlights because we've barely started organizing anything. We do have plenty of friends and family locally though, so I know we can get it sorted out.