Interruption

I'm hoping what happened last night is just an interruption in the otherwise very smooth and healthy pregnancy I've had.

I was very active yesterday.  I went for a 2 mile walk, I cooked, I cleaned my car in the heat.  I noticed that I had been having contractions throughout the day, but wasn't really paying much attention to them.  Finally at around 5 pm, I decided to lay down, drink a huge thing of water, and count my contractions just to be sure I was in the clear (more than 6 in an hour requires me to call my doctor).

Well, within a 1/2 hr I realized I had already reached my 6 per hour limit.  I gave it another 1/2 hour just to be sure, and they did continue.  So I gave the doctor a call.  She called me back quickly and instructed me to go drink at least 32 ounces of water in 20 minutes, then lay down.  If things were not better within 1 more hour, I needed to call back.

They weren't better, and in fact started to get worse (they started making me very uncomfortable).  I called back, and was told to head into labor and delivery.

Ian and I quickly looked around and grabbed a few things just in case we'd be in overnight, or longer.  Throughout me getting ready to leave the house, and the car ride and walk through the hospital, I became extremely uncomfortable.

Quite honestly, I was thinking "how am I ever going to go through labor naturally."  After lots of tests later - baby girl was determined to be absolutely fine (although irritated with the poking around of my belly).  Her heart rate was monitored, as were my contractions.  My midwife called them "irritations."  Cervix was completely closed and the tests came back negative for signs of pre-term labor.  All good news!

I continued to complain of horrible back pain that got worse when I was standing for more than 10 seconds, and if I was laying on my left side.  The last resort test was a ultrasound of my kidneys.

Finally, we got answers.  I have a kidney stone.  The doctor knew I wasn't really interested in anything for the pain, but stressed that I at least get the prescription filled in case I needed it.  He said that most pregnant ladies say that passing a kidney stone is more painful than labor.  Thank goodness the pain I had been experiencing wasn't labor related - it had me worried.  Now it explains why the pain got worse after drinking about 40 ounces of water so quickly (my kidney had to work overtime and was also working on trying to move the stone).  It also explains the contractions - when you have some type of bladder or kidney infection, normally contractions will increase.  I can ignore the contractions over the next several days until this stone passes.

We stopped on the way home and got the prescription filled.  Luckily, I didn't need any of it to sleep last night as the pain had mostly dissipated once that huge amount of water had gone through me.

I am so grateful they were able to find out what was wrong, that baby girl is perfectly healthy, and that what is wrong is not a huge deal in the scheme of things.  Yes, it's going to be painful as my body tries to pass the stone - but I'll deal with it.

And I'm so grateful that I was able to go home, and get a good night sleep.  I made sure the doctor was okay with me going away this weekend.

You see, I'm in one of my good friend Leah's weddings in NY.  Ian is staying here to go to Stacy's wedding.  My bestie Lauren is flying to the airport near the wedding where I'll pick her up in a few hours.  She'll be my date for the weekend!

Stacy, have the most beautiful wedding weekend!  I'm so sad I'll miss it but have already charged the batteries for the camera so that Ian can take lots of pictures for me to see!

I'm off to NY - if possible, can you say a little prayer (or send some positive vibes) that I have a healthy and smooth (hopefully pretty pain free) weekend?