72 Hours

The last 72 hours have been a bit of a whirlwind. 

Saturday was a great day, at least that’s how it started. I can’t even tell you what we did other than the fact that we had a great nap together in the afternoon. Around 4pm I started feeling some cramps, so I asked B to heat up my snuggle to see if that would help alleviate the pain. Well the heat took the pain from a 4 to a 3, but not a really big change. But then a bit before 6 I started having contractions, about 15 minutes apart but they were about a 5 on the pain scale. Now I’ve had a few in the past few weeks, so I thought I would just ride it out. Well after a few hours, and an increase in the frequency of the contractions we headed to the local ER to get checked out. 

So we got to the ER, and got all set up in a bed in L&D triage, and got hooked up to the monitor. Great thing was G’s a strong guy and he did well through all of this. Even now. I on the other hand was contracting every 3 to 5 minutes by now, and the pain was a solid 5 the whole time. I just have to remember to breathe through everything. So they took some blood, and checked me out. At our appointment on Friday my cervix was 2.4cm. Not bad for me and how things have been going. Well when they checked me out on Saturday, I was down to maybe 1cm. Well there were definitely some changes going on. So the call was made to Hamilton and we were going to be transferred. They started an IV and hung some antibiotics, and got us ready to transport. 

We got to take a nice ride in an ambulance for about an hour, no lights or sirens which made me feel a bit better. I knew that I was in preterm labour – if I wasn’t they wouldn’t have sent me to Hamilton. I can’t say that I wasn’t scared, but I knew that as soon as we got to Hamilton we would be okay. So we were where we needed to be. 

We got to Hamilton, and got checked in around 2am on Sunday morning, and got hooked up to more machines. The nurse came in and talked us through some things, got us all set up, and the resident on staff came in to see what’s going on. She prescribed some pain medication so that I could possibly sleep and hoping that the sleep would stop the contractions. So around 5am I got a dose of morphine and some gravol, along with more fluids and antibiotics. Thankfully I slept for a few hours, but woke up with contractions still. So we went into conservation mode. They did more blood work and more tests, and more poking and prodding. More pain meds were administered just to keep me comfortable. The contractions had been regular for over 12 hours and weren’t letting up at all. They put me on a liquid diet in case things progressed worse and we ended up in the OR. Then came more pain meds around noon. These ones were paired with a strong tranquilizer to knock me out and help me sleep more. They did send in more doctors, the anestigeologist, and a neonatologist to just go over their roles if things progressed. The ultrasound tech also came in to get a more current picture of what was going on. I was barely lucid during all of this, so it’s a good thing that B was there to take in all the information. 

It’s a bit hard to write about Sunday since I wasn’t lucid for most of the day and when I was I was in quite a bit of pain. B was great – getting me ice when I needed it, and water, and helping me to the washroom when I needed. Sunday evening was the hardest part. The contractions were the same in frequency – but they were a lot more intense. A minimum of a 6 on the pain scale – so comfort was not in the cards. Another dose of pain meds and a drug induced nap. This continued through most of the night. 

But light came in the morning; the contractions hadn’t changed in frequency but were staying around a 4, and they let me eat breakfast. The rest of Monday was about the same, although by the time evening came around I was an emotional and physical wreck and had a bit of a breakdown. After over two days of pain and ups and downs I reached my end. The contractions had started to get stronger again, so B talked to one of the nurses and I was given another round of morphine and tranquilizers. 

Now all day Monday they were flip flopping back and forth on whether they were going to send me to the ward or not, but every time there seemed to be an okay patch, it was followed by a rough patch. By Tuesday morning however we were doing a lot better. I had a solid night’s sleep, just a bit of cramping in the morning, and we were sent over to the ward just before lunch. 

So here we are on Tuesday evening sitting in the ward not knowing what the next few days or weeks are going to look like. We could be here just for a few days, or here until Grayson appears in March. Or earlier if he decides that he can’t wait that long to make his grand entrance. 

72 hours ago we started a bit of a new adventure, but we’re still here. Gray’s still cooking, and we’re just happy that we aren’t in the NICU.