What the hell just happened?

Day 7

Yesterday was quite an extraordinary day. And right from the early hours of the morning I knew it was going to be a tough one.

I woke at about 4am with some mild cramping. But after a trip to the bathroom it wasn't concerning me too much and I drifted back to sleep. But when I woke at 6am it was worse and deep down I knew this wasn't good. By 7:30 my husband and I had resigned ourselves that much of the day was likely to be spent in hospital. I felt terrible - emotionally, more than physically. With Memorial weekend ahead, Ben had decided to take Friday off work so he could have some time to himself, catch up on chores and do a much needed workout at the gym. I was robbing him of this luxury - and after a week of me being on bed rest this was considered a luxury, and one that he's been looking forward to all week.

And so it was at approx. 9:30 am that we made our way to Labor and Delivery under instructions of my doctor. On arrival, our worlds fell apart - again. This time they put me straight into a delivery room which immediately alarmed me. Minutes later the nurse casually declared we were having a baby and a team of neo-natal nurses, complete with incubators, had arrived. In short, nothing more than a hurricane was passing through our room. And all this before my doctor, who thankfully was doing her rounds on the ward, had assessed me. They were in panic mode, I was in tears, Ben was in shock and disbelief. It was horrible. I'm currently only at 24 weeks and in my limited time on bed rest I've done enough research to know that the odds of having a successful delivery and a healthy baby at this stage are not great. Yes modern medicine is a wonderful thing and miracles do happen but nature is ultimately in control.

But thankfully my doctor saw sense and quickly established calm among her team, dispatching the incubator which gave both me and my husband a sense of calm. The fear begin to subside. A thorough assessment of my symptoms and an internal examination demonstrated that imminent delivery was unlikely. I was hooked up on the monitor and although the cramps remained, although lessened, I was not contracting, or dilated. Things were looking more positive. An internal ultrasound a few hours later revealed no change in my cervix and we all breathed a sigh of relief. By 6pm we were at home, having picked up daughter from day care, and our lives seemed to have returned to normal, or at least relative normality.

But I learned something from this day. I learned that I'd rather play safe and go the hospital only be sent home under false alarm than wait it out at home. On leaving my nurse told us a story about a woman, who at 27 weeks spent two hours straining on the toilet to do a poo. Instead she had a baby.

I learned that I have utter faith, confidence and trust in my OB and my fetal specialist. And I learned that although the reaction from the nurses was perhaps unnecessary and insensitive at times, I'm glad they were prepared right from the start, rather than taking a wait and see approach. As a result, I have increased belief that this pregnancy, although difficult, will be OK.