My Hospital Visit
...actually, allow me to revisit that hit-and-run guy first. He smashed me so loudly that a man across the street wrote down all his information for me (and he didn't even know I had been sitting in the car at the time). He said he thought the other driver's behavior was "unbelievable." So it was far from a benign tap. Even if the hit-and-runner didn't see me sitting in the car (and I think he probably did), he didn't bother getting out to see if he'd damaged our car. It is pretty hard to accept that there's nothing I can do. I was pissed. I also felt shaken up and crampy in my midsection, which apparently were the little contractions I was having. They were not extremely painful or anything, but I guess that's a minor-league version of what will happen to me. The doctor showed me what they looked like on the monitor she hooked me up to, and then showed me what the major-league contractions looked like on a neighboring monitor (another woman in another labor and delivery room).
That was one of the interesting things about going to the hospital prematurely. I got to stay in a labor and delivery room, one of the ones I'll be in when the day comes (maybe even the exact one). I got to see the whole set-up and some of the equipment and how it works. They put a monitor on the baby's heartbeat, and there was a line representing me and my contractions (which went away), and you could also see other anonymous women and babies in other rooms (kind of weird). I got pretty obsessed with staring at the monitor of a woman who was clearly in labor and having huge contractions, and her poor little baby's heartbeat was dipping up and down dramatically. It turned out my regular doctor was on duty, a good piece of fortune for me, and she came and checked me out on the ultrasound. She said the baby looked good and established what I had been suspecting as true (that the baby's feet are in my rib area and possibly contributing to the pain, though I realize she can move around a lot in there). She showed us on the monitor how the baby is trying out her breathing mechanism and said this was a good sign.
She also measured the baby and came up with an estimate of the baby's weight. Now, it's only an estimate, and inexact, but it was 3 pounds, 6 oz!!! My books told me the baby should be around 2 pounds at this point. My doctor said it was still normal for her to be about this weight, but-- yikes! Maybe she's going to be a biggie.
Thank you all for sending me such supportive comments on my trauma of yesterday. It made me feel a lot better.
That was one of the interesting things about going to the hospital prematurely. I got to stay in a labor and delivery room, one of the ones I'll be in when the day comes (maybe even the exact one). I got to see the whole set-up and some of the equipment and how it works. They put a monitor on the baby's heartbeat, and there was a line representing me and my contractions (which went away), and you could also see other anonymous women and babies in other rooms (kind of weird). I got pretty obsessed with staring at the monitor of a woman who was clearly in labor and having huge contractions, and her poor little baby's heartbeat was dipping up and down dramatically. It turned out my regular doctor was on duty, a good piece of fortune for me, and she came and checked me out on the ultrasound. She said the baby looked good and established what I had been suspecting as true (that the baby's feet are in my rib area and possibly contributing to the pain, though I realize she can move around a lot in there). She showed us on the monitor how the baby is trying out her breathing mechanism and said this was a good sign.
She also measured the baby and came up with an estimate of the baby's weight. Now, it's only an estimate, and inexact, but it was 3 pounds, 6 oz!!! My books told me the baby should be around 2 pounds at this point. My doctor said it was still normal for her to be about this weight, but-- yikes! Maybe she's going to be a biggie.
Thank you all for sending me such supportive comments on my trauma of yesterday. It made me feel a lot better.
posted by Sarah Goss at 10:19 AM
12 Comments:
I can't believe the police can't do anything--isn't hit and run illegal whether or not there is significant damage? To be in the car not driving and be hit--that sounds so scary, but there isn't anything you can do! I am sorry you had contractions--I think I mentioned that I had early ones...I couldn't feel them, but they were able to monitor them in the way you described. At least you didn't have to take the medicine I took--they put me on something akin to speed, which was had to deal with while also being on bedrest. I hope you are resting!
It's hard to believe, isn't it? But the police officer told me that technically, no crime has been committed unless I can *prove* damages to myself or the car. This seems especially wrong to me since the other time I got hit-and-run, not all the damages to the car turned out to be visible to the naked eye.
I wonder why you had to be on bedrest for early contractions, and not me? Maybe yours were more frequent, or larger? But they sound comparable to mine (since you said you couldn't feel them). That's a puzzler. They let me go after the contractions stopped and said to drink more water! No bed rest or anything. Curious. Did you have other symptoms, other than the contractions? Or maybe yours didn't subside?
I am still amazed at the idea that you have to "prove" damage. I think the fact that Maddy was breech may had affected the contraction problem--I couldn't just give birth (in fact, Maddy never dropped--the time near birth when they sit lower near your cervix--and so she wouldn't have come out no matter what contractions I had). Also, my contractions only stopped with medicine, while I guess yours stopped on their own. I had to go back two times for check ups and both times I was having contractions, and then they put me on the medicine because it didn't stop on its own. Anyway, I am glad they didn't give you the medicine or bedrest--both suck! I hope you got the cell phone thing figured out too...don't need you in isolation!
Sar - I will be arriving at your apt. tomorrow with much bottled water and my bossy personality in full regalia. You'll be putting your feet up whether you want to or not! Think I'll bring some halava,too, just for good measure!
I love you.
All right, I will look forward to seeing the "full regalia." What is the significance of the halvah?
Hi Melissa,
Okay, that explains things, I think--that only medicine stopped the contractions. Mine stopped on their own. But, what was their reason for putting you on the monitor to see if you were having contractions? The only reason they even saw that I was having them was that they put me on the monitor after the accident. (Oh, and about the breech position: if this happened to you early on, like it happened to me, how did they know Maddie was going to stay in that position? They keep telling me that there's still lots of room to move around and that the position she's in now doesn't mean it'll be the same one she's in at the birth. That's too bad, because she's always been "head down," so far!) Thank you for sharing this with me... I am filled with curiosity about these things nowadays, and liable to ask a lot of questions!
Heh heh! Okay, so, Dr. Albert, why do some babies remain in the breech position? Are they the smaller-headed ones?
Ahh, head circumference... well, I am guessing this baby is going to have a large head circumference, based on seeing pics of myself and Mark as babies. I predict difficulty, since every other woman in my family who's had a baby has had a Cesarean-- although the doctor told me that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Well, our suspense will be over in the near future!! Yep... the terror is starting to set in.
It is understandable that you have a lot of questions--there is so much mystery about pregnancy and individuality about the experience, the more you know, the better! I have no idea why Maddy was breech or stayed breech...they were planning on trying to move her with someone kind of massage technique but two days before that was planned, my water broke and so they had to do a c-section. Her head was small--she was seven pounds--I never thought of that as as a reason, but maybe according to dr. albert's explanation that is why she stayed breech? The doctors had no answers, and kept saying Maddy might upright herself, but it never happened--I had here head bumping against my ribs! Btw, Maddy was above normal in weight around this stage of your pregnancy and she turned out small. Who knows, I guess! About the contractions, it was just one more thing they found in the course of a problematic pregnancy--I went in because I thought I was leaking amniotic fluid, ironically--I wasn't, but I was having contractions! Through this all, are you feeling any better from your move? My legs have been killing me this week because of moving things up and down stairs...I waddle because of the muscle strain, and it makes me think of you. :-)
Dear Melissa,
SO many things to talk about, huh? For the first time in my life I am really interested in my physical being (well, I don't have much of a choice). It's reassuring to hear that the baby being this big at 28 weeks doesn't necessarily mean she's going to be some kind of freakish giant by the end :-) Good luck with your move!! You have my empathy entirely.
I would like to know where this dude lives and what his license plate reads.
Dad
Grrrr -- stupid police. If the car had been stolen, they'd probably shrug and say, "Yup, guess it's gone."
As for those "practice" contractions ... they happen to lots of people, car accident or no.
Hey Dad--well, I'd like to know his name, at least. I would like to TELL him what a rude jerk he is even if I can't do anything to him legally. Mainly what I wanted was an apology!
Hi Matt! Yeah... that's what the doctor said, and she mentioned that not drinking enough water could be part of the practice contractions issue, so I am trying to be better about that.
Post a Comment
<< Home