Hospital Bag and Labor & Delivery

Carlene and Georgina are going to kill me when they see this post! LOL!

We were all gathered over my older sisters house for a friends & family dinner yesterday afternoon.  Carlene and Georgina came with their HANDSOME little boys and we had a ball watching them run around.  Georgina has a 9 month old DOLL BABY named Nathan that I just couldn't get enough of.  And he's a chunker!  She kept telling me not to pick him up because "I don't want to read on your blog tomorrow that he put you into labor!!"  Famous last words....

After they left I noticed that my Braxton Hicks contractions were getting stronger and closer together.  It was to the point that I felt uncomfortable and grumpy during them.  So DH and I decided to casually sneak out of my sisters house and head to the hospital.  The ride there was painful.  I was worried, and hurting, and just kind of freaked out.  We were silent in the car.  Once we made it there, the attendant ran out with a wheelchair and wheeled me inside the Emergency Room.  My husband parked the car, even though they had valet.  He was just in a rush and didn't read the sign.  He came in and the attendant pretty much ran us to Labor & Delivery.  We checked in and they whisked us back in Triage and had me get situated to be put on the monitors and have an internal exam.  That's when I started to think, "Oh shoot!  I don't have my hospital bag, or Bunny's bag, OR the car seat!  I really hope she doesn't come tonight!"  Well, after that trip to L&D, I now know that I don't need ANY of the crap I was going to bring with me in my hospital bag.  They gave me everything I could possible need.  Non-slip socks, a comfy hospital gown/nursing gown, undies, etc.

Anyways, Bunny looked great on the monitor, she was moving all around just as happy as can be.  But it did show that I was contracting, and frequently.  The midwife on duty came in and checked me and noticed that I was about 1-2 centimeters dilated, but she didn't think I was in active labor.  They decided to have me drink tons of water and monitor me for a few hours.  I noticed that my stomach was just plain hurting while I was there.  It wasn't BH's it was just pain.  Then I realized that I hadn't gone, er... number 2.... in like 5 days!!  My husband looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Why didn't you tell me that?  You ate all that food and haven't gone to the bathroom?!?"  It never really crossed my mind, to be honest.  At that time, the nurse came in to remove the monitors so that I could rest before they came back to check me again.  I decided to go attempt to use the restroom.  What better place to try than at the hospital, huh?

Success!  I felt so much better after that (sorry if TMI), the BH contractions had eased up, and I felt more like myself again.  I even fell asleep for about an hour while waiting on the midwife to return.  She checked me and I was the same, which was great!  No progress meant no active labor.  They put the fetal monitors back on me just to make sure Bunny was okay, and then I was free to get dressed and be discharged.  The nurse gave me a pad because I was spotting a little from the internal exam.  I thought people were kidding when they said that hospital pads are the size of mattresses. Umm, no!  They are serious!  It barely fit into my underwear and made me waddle even more.  So I now know not to bother bringing undies to the hospital.  It's not even worth it.  I'll use their mesh ones.

All in all, I was dehydrated and a little backed up, which was irritating my uterus.  Bunny can still bake for a little while longer.  I feel relieved.  Oh, and Georgina, Nathan did NOT put me into labor!  LOL!!

I'm exhausted today, we didn't get discharged until 3AM, and didn't get home and in the bed until 4AM.  Needless to say, I'm ready to pass out.  Hopefully that'll be our last trip to L&D before 37 weeks, because they wouldn't have even attempted to stop my labor last night.