Too Early!

I went to a surprise baby shower on Tuesday afternoon for a friend who is due next week. It was fun times, but there was no way I thought I would beat her to the hospital.

Sunday night, I started getting this throbbing pain in both of my kidneys. It was weird! I just thought it was because I had not had enough to drink on Saturday and then drank lots on Sunday. It wasn't too bad of a pain. I would say not even half as bad as kidney stone pain. It was just weird and a little uncomfortable. The pain continued on Monday, but seemed to be linked to when I would drink something. Tuesday morning when the pain was still there, I emailed my mom to see if it was or could be something normal in pregnancy. Since she has had six kids I thought she would be a good place to go for some advice.

Then I went to the baby shower, and on the way home the pain was there again. I asked Sherri Ziemer, who had given me a ride, if she ever experienced any kidney pain with her 4 pregnancies. She said she wasn't sure because she might not know if that is where the pain was. After all not many have had such experiences with kidney pain and could pick it out like me.

When I got home, I pretty much just laid on the couch. I was feeling a little sick (from the pain I thought), and I was tired. I talked with Jon and at about the same time received a reply from my mom. Both said I should call my OB just to make sure it wasn't a problem.

Well, she was not in the office, but her assistant talked with one of the other doctors in the office and told me I should head into Labor and Delivery at the hospital just to get checked out (and that is where my doctor was). So Jon came home and we headed to the hospital. My doc was just going to order a renal (kidney) ultrasound for whenever I could go in and do it, but they hooked me up to some monitors that check baby's heartbeat and contractions (it was standard procedure). Low and behold, I was having contractions every two minutes and didn't even know it.

Dr. Rhee then checked to see if my body was producing a certain hormone, which if present, meant you would delivery within two weeks. She saw something she was really not expecting and got to use it as a teaching moment for Jon. I was dilated to between 2 and 3 centimeters and she could see membranes. She said she didn't want to do an exact measurement, because she feared rupturing the membranes. Too early to be seeing these things. I am only 31 (and a half) weeks.

I was then admitted to the hospital, and put on medicine to stop my preterm labor. The regular contractions stopped at 2 a.m. Wednesday. I didn't have any more for a while, but I have had some random ones that they don't seem too worried about.

Dr. Rhee said she would really like to see me get to 32 weeks (which is tomorrow!) and then we would shoot for 34 weeks. She didn't seem too positive that I would make it to 34 weeks, but if I do, I might get to go home and be on bed rest there. If the baby does come in the next 2 weeks, it will be by C-section since the baby is not turned at this point.

I had an ultrasound Wednesday morning. He is already 5 pounds. If I was to go to full-term, he would probably be over 9 pounds. Also his measurements were in the 33-34 week sizes, except his upper arms, which was in the 32 week size. Looks like he has Jon's arms at this point anyway.

I am just sitting in bed at this point waiting to see what happens. Jon has had to adjust to being a bachelor (at least as far as our apartment goes and him getting himself up and ready for school). Then he comes to the hospital after classes until around 9 so we can both try and get some sleep.

Wednesday, Jenni Toller came and spent most of her day off with me. It was really nice to have company. It made the day go by so much faster. She also left me her computer so I could have something to do and access to my email and stuff. Thanks so much Jenni. You are awesome!

That is all for now, I think. Jon took some pictures of me laying in bed eating green jello last night, but we don't have our little thing to load the pictures on the computer, so there will be pictures coming. Sorry for such a long post without pictures. Not normally what I like to do, but I did not see what else I could do at this point, with all that has happened and where I now sit and will be for probably another 2 weeks.