One year ago today...

...Brooke's birth story started, in a sense.

A year ago yesterday, I posted asking for prayers after finding out that day that my cervix was starting to thin. It didn't mean I would go in to labor right away, but I had a bad feeling and got extremely nervous. I was given procardia to take to keep contractions at bay and put on bedrest.

A year ago today, I was admitted in to the hospital in preterm labor. My mom had come over to help with Ryan. Things were going fine all day, until a little bit after Doug got home around 4. I started noticing some cramps that were coming and going every few minutes. Then I started noticing lower back pressure, same feeling I had when I went in to labor with Zachary and Ryan. I called L&D and they told me I should come in if I was worried. So off we went. The doctor examined me and I was still about the same as the day before, but I was having some contractions. They started me on another oral med and also ended up putting me on magnesium sulfate (through an IV). My bloodwork came back showing a high white blood count, so antibiotics were started as well and I had a Group B Strep test done. Obviously, I was admitted. I got the first steroid shot to help mature Brooke's lungs that night and the 2nd dose Thursday night. The mag made me SO sick. I couldn't open my eyes due to double vision and dizziness. It also made me a little nauseous and it made my mouth feel like it was filled with cotton. I got a very short break from it Thursday morning when they shut it off for about an hour because I was so sick. That was short lived. During this time I was contracting about every 30-60 minutes. Friday morning they cut the mag, but I was still on the 2 oral meds. My last contraction was at 11:15am on Friday. They moved me to a postpartum room that day since things were stable. Saturday my bloodwork still wasn't back to normal so he kept me until Sunday. Sunday (Easter) morning when I was hooked up to the monitor for an hour, I had a couple mild contractions, but they stopped as soon as I emptied my bladder. The doctor came in to examine me and my cervix was still the same as when I went in Wednesday night. My bloodwork was good, so he let me go home, still on bedrest (of course).

Not long after getting home I started noticing that I would feel like I had to go #2 every time I would stand up or sit down to pee. I was only having a contraction here and there, though, and was told not to worry unless I had more than 4 in a half hour or 6 in an hour. I called L&D that night around 8 to describe what I was feeling and was told it could be how the baby was laying and not to worry since my contractions weren't regular. I didn't get much sleep that night because the feeling kept getting more intense and then I started contracting more. By 7am, I knew I had to go back in. By the time we got there I was contracting every 5-10 minutes. The doctor came in to see me and we found out there was a tear in my cervix behind the cerclage and I was about 2cm dilated. So once again I was being admitted (NOT that I wanted to go home). I got a shot of brethine to stop the contractions and it worked FAST (and the side effects were MUCH better and WAY less brutal than the mag). I was put on total bedrest and had to use a bed pan.

The contractions did end up starting up again, but would only come about every 30-60 minutes and sometimes not even that close. Early Tuesday morning around 3am when I used the bed pan, I discovered I was bleeding. They alerted the doctor, but he assumed it was just from the tear in my cervix. I wasn't really actively bleeding, but every time I would use the bed pan and wipe it was there. I thought maybe Tuesday would be "the day". But when he came to see me in the morning, he didn't even examine me. He did come back in the evening and checked me then and everything was still the same. The blood was very unnerving to me, though, and it didn't help when at around 1am Wednesday morning, I bled a large amount on the bed pad. But it was only one time and then everything went back to normal. Before that happened, my nurse came in and asked if I was feeling the contractions because they were closer and stronger, but I hadn't because I was sleeping. She asked if I maybe needed to use the bed pan and I did and that's when we discovered the bleeding. Then she positioned me on my left side and the contractions lessened again.

Once again in the morning, the doctor didn't check me. All that day I was really nervous because Brooke's heartrate started dropping during contractions. It wasn't dangerously low or anything, still on the low side of normal and it came back up pretty quickly and the nurse assured me she was okay, but I didn't like it because she hadn't been doing it before. Maybe it was a sign of things to come.

To be continued, next Thursday.... ; )