mini heart attack #3 (trip to labor and delivery)

As many of you know, Josh and I were celebrating our first anniversary this weekend! We didn't have any set plans and just planned to go with the flow - which is exactly what we did! Saturday night we went out for a nice dinner at Longhorn's and talked about going over to the Gwinnett Braves game (anything even remotely close to Atlanta was way out of the question because of the Final Four, Braves game, and all the other events going on). During dinner I stared having some serious back pain and thought it might have to do with how I was sitting, but it was coming and going pretty regularly. We left Longhorn and headed to get Chick-fil-a ice-cream for dessert (mine and baby M's personal fav!). While in the car I started to time the contractions and they were about 7-8 minutes apart. I didn't want to be one of those first time mom's who calls the doctor about every little thing so we continued to head to the Gwinnett Braves game. After about 45 minutes of consistent contractions I called my mom to get her opinion (and we totally bypassed the entrance to the game). I decided to call my doctor and just let him know what was going on, especially with all of the other issues related to this pregnancy. He told me to just stay off my feet and see if they continued consistently for another hour to call him back. I just had an appointment on Tuesday where my cervix was closed and I had a negative FFN so he thought it was false labor but he wanted to have me keep monitoring. He said normally false labor fades out after an hour or two.

Since we were so close to the Mall of Georgia we headed over there, got some pretzels and a bottle of water and sat down. I continued to monitor them and they were consistently 7-8 minutes apart after another hour and 15 minutes, so I called Dr. Pohl again! (I have to say, even though it is better safe to be sorry I still felt like a complete worry wart idiot for calling). He told me to take myself to labor and delivery and get checked out to see what was going on. At this point I was just hoping that I didn't show up and they just stop completely, then I really would have felt like a fool! We drove to Gwinnett Medical and got "checked in" and taken back to labor and delivery. They strapped a contraction monitor on my belly and one to monitor baby M's heartbeat. Our nurse, Amy, checked my cervix and did another FFN. My cervix was still closed, of course! They also took a urine sample to see if I possibly had a UTI, protein in my urine, or if I was dehydrated. She then left to run all the tests and monitor my contractions for a while. While she was gone the contractions continued and were about 5-6 minutes apart very consistently and some were quite painful! 

Here is how we spent our evening from about 9:15 PM - 1 AM :)

While we were waiting on Amy to come back, another nurse, Sarah, came to say hello! She had JUST messaged me a few days ago on the Baby Murphy Updates page to let me know she was a labor and delivery nurse at Gwinnett Medical and also friends with Josh's cousin, Katie. It was nice to actually meet her in person! Amy came back in after about an hour and 20 minutes with all negative test results! She also said that since my contractions were pretty close together and continuous that she called Dr. Pohl and they were going to give me a shot of Terbutaline to stop the contractions. I asked if there were any risks to baby M, especially with his heart condition, but Amy said no it just may make my heart rate go up and I could feel a little jittery. 

I really hate shots and usually put up a fight, but this really wasn't the time for that... so, she gave me the first shot and said they would monitor me and baby for 20 minutes and then check my blood pressure. They will give you up to 3 doses if the contractions don't stop. After the first shot the contractions slowed to a stop and I definitely felt very funny. She checked my blood pressure 20 minutes later and it was still normal and they decided to give me the second dose to be on the precautionary side. We waited another 30 minutes and she checked my blood pressure again and everything was fine so she sent us home around 12:45 AM! I asked if Dr. Pohl had said anything about bed rest, but he hadn't and they just wanted me to take today easy and rest. I go to work on Monday, but have another appointment with him on Tuesday so there isn't too much time between now and then. My last day of work is also on Thursday (pretty good timing I guess) so I think everything will be okay! 

I have to say, baby M was such a little stinker through all of the monitoring. He was doing all of his acrobatic acts and kicking the monitors I had strapped to me. At one point he moved and the monitor was picking up my heart rate - which was MUCH lower than what his should have been so we were freaking out. I think it happened after the second shot, but Sarah came in and checked my pulse and moved the monitor around to catch his heartbeat which was still strong in the low 130's (right where it always is)! This wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend my evening/weekend, but better safe than sorry and I am very glad I decided to go in! We had our second round of maternity pictures yesterday morning and I had joked that I might go in to labor before next weekend (we almost had to reschedule, details below) and I won't be making jokes like that again! Please pray that baby M stays put for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. The longer he "cooks" the stronger he will be in the event he needs surgery sooner rather than later!

Sorry for such a long post, but it was a pretty long night.... I included some of our second session maternity pictures below as a treat :) Funny story about that as well... We schedule them for downtown Lawrenceville at 8 AM Saturday morning. I woke up at 7:20 to get a shower and get ready. As soon as I get out of the shower OUR POWER GOES OUT. I wish this was a joke, but I am so serious. We still don't know why, but all of our neighbors lost power too. So, I ended up having to dry my hair by the heat blowing out of my car vents... what an experience! LOL. I think it still looked pretty good for the pictures :) Thankful that Shannon waited an extra 20 minutes for me to finish getting ready and for her amazing pictures! 

 Thank you all for your continued prayers - it is getting so much closer to the time we are going to finally be able to meet baby M/peanut and we are so excited!

Love to you all, 
Ashlyn