Ultrasound and Hospital Happenings
There were a record number of babies born here at Sutter last night - 11 babies! It is so sweet because each time a baby is born here a cute little musical mobile starts singing. My roomate found the lullaby utterly annoying until she found out it only did that when a baby was born, and now she is a fan.
On another hospital note, all the patients on our floor take lukewarm showers and it is not good. The nurses all have a different story about when you can get the best chance at hot water - some say first thing in the morning while others say in the mid-afternoon, and then there is the contingent who claims that night time is the best time for warm showers. Well, I have tried all times and I am here to report that there is no good time to take a shower in this maternity ward. I find the lack of warm showers especially inhumane considering all the pregnant uncomfortable women who are the patients on this floor. Some have been here for a month already and have probably never had a hot shower. The nurses are sympathettic, but sympathy does not fix faulty showers. There was only one thing I could do that I knew would remedy the hot water dilemma once and for all. I put Chris on the job. Yesterday Chris went to the nurses station and had all the lovely ladies gathered around him where he began his dissertation on the perils of lukewarm water as it relates to very large ladies taking showers. He ended up with the personal phone number of the lady in charge of most things on this floor. He left her a message. At 8am this morning I was greeted by this nice lady with a maintenance man in tow. She told me that they were fixing the shower right now and we won't have a problem with it from now on. Oh how I am looking forward to that nice hot shower!
Last night I got a little scared. I was doing my normal monitoring around 8:30 when I started having contractions about every 1-2 minutes. They weren't the kind of contractions that hurt, just the kind that tighten up my entire abdomen. My baby girl, baby B, doesn't like contractions of any kind. Her heart rate was all over the place, flunctuating from 150 down to 110. The heart rate is not supposed to go lower than 110. I could feel the anxiety creep up through my body raising my heart rate and constricting my breathing. I put on calming music and tried to will the contractions away through peaceful thinking, but it didn't work. The nurse gave me an extra dose of the drug that helps relax muscles and contractions. That didn't help much either. Luckily, Baby B's heart rate stabalized and she seemed to be doing fine. I told my nurse that I bet once she takes all the monitoring devices off my belly my contractions will stop. So at 11:30 I went off the monitors and sure enough my contractions stopped. So, I have a theory: I think that I get little mini anxiety attacks when they put the monitors on me which causes me to have some contractions. I don't get any contractions at any other time during the day! I was talking to my nurse Asia today, who reminds me so much of Miranda on Grey's Anatomy except Asia is much much nicer, and I was telling her that the combination of the lovely girdle I have to wear to hold the 4 monitors on (3 for babies, 1 for contractions) and then the belts that hold them down tighter and the anticipation of what I will see on the monitors, causes me anxiety. She said that happens quite a bit with her moms. I also told her that since I was told I as having triplets at 6 weeks I have been warned about how high risk I am and all the terrible things that could go wrong. It is a lot of pressure.
So, my doctor ordered an ultrasound this morning to check my cervix and see if it had dialated or was doing anything. If I was having real contractions, they would be thinning and opening up my cervix. We checked the 'ol cervix and oddly enough it has improved over the past couple of days. My cervix is holding up perfectly and so we don't need to worry about the Braxton Hicks for now. The babies look great - the ultrasound tech said that they look like nice sized babies. Our Baby C - the boy - is such a stinker. He never stops moving and I believe he is dominating the upper half of my abdomen, probably really annoying his sister who is also trying to carve herself out a nice cramped spot in the upper right quadrant of my belly.
I am hoping for an uneventful rest of my day today. I just realized I have been here for a whole week now. One week down, 3 to go. . . maybe.
On another hospital note, all the patients on our floor take lukewarm showers and it is not good. The nurses all have a different story about when you can get the best chance at hot water - some say first thing in the morning while others say in the mid-afternoon, and then there is the contingent who claims that night time is the best time for warm showers. Well, I have tried all times and I am here to report that there is no good time to take a shower in this maternity ward. I find the lack of warm showers especially inhumane considering all the pregnant uncomfortable women who are the patients on this floor. Some have been here for a month already and have probably never had a hot shower. The nurses are sympathettic, but sympathy does not fix faulty showers. There was only one thing I could do that I knew would remedy the hot water dilemma once and for all. I put Chris on the job. Yesterday Chris went to the nurses station and had all the lovely ladies gathered around him where he began his dissertation on the perils of lukewarm water as it relates to very large ladies taking showers. He ended up with the personal phone number of the lady in charge of most things on this floor. He left her a message. At 8am this morning I was greeted by this nice lady with a maintenance man in tow. She told me that they were fixing the shower right now and we won't have a problem with it from now on. Oh how I am looking forward to that nice hot shower!
Last night I got a little scared. I was doing my normal monitoring around 8:30 when I started having contractions about every 1-2 minutes. They weren't the kind of contractions that hurt, just the kind that tighten up my entire abdomen. My baby girl, baby B, doesn't like contractions of any kind. Her heart rate was all over the place, flunctuating from 150 down to 110. The heart rate is not supposed to go lower than 110. I could feel the anxiety creep up through my body raising my heart rate and constricting my breathing. I put on calming music and tried to will the contractions away through peaceful thinking, but it didn't work. The nurse gave me an extra dose of the drug that helps relax muscles and contractions. That didn't help much either. Luckily, Baby B's heart rate stabalized and she seemed to be doing fine. I told my nurse that I bet once she takes all the monitoring devices off my belly my contractions will stop. So at 11:30 I went off the monitors and sure enough my contractions stopped. So, I have a theory: I think that I get little mini anxiety attacks when they put the monitors on me which causes me to have some contractions. I don't get any contractions at any other time during the day! I was talking to my nurse Asia today, who reminds me so much of Miranda on Grey's Anatomy except Asia is much much nicer, and I was telling her that the combination of the lovely girdle I have to wear to hold the 4 monitors on (3 for babies, 1 for contractions) and then the belts that hold them down tighter and the anticipation of what I will see on the monitors, causes me anxiety. She said that happens quite a bit with her moms. I also told her that since I was told I as having triplets at 6 weeks I have been warned about how high risk I am and all the terrible things that could go wrong. It is a lot of pressure.
So, my doctor ordered an ultrasound this morning to check my cervix and see if it had dialated or was doing anything. If I was having real contractions, they would be thinning and opening up my cervix. We checked the 'ol cervix and oddly enough it has improved over the past couple of days. My cervix is holding up perfectly and so we don't need to worry about the Braxton Hicks for now. The babies look great - the ultrasound tech said that they look like nice sized babies. Our Baby C - the boy - is such a stinker. He never stops moving and I believe he is dominating the upper half of my abdomen, probably really annoying his sister who is also trying to carve herself out a nice cramped spot in the upper right quadrant of my belly.
I am hoping for an uneventful rest of my day today. I just realized I have been here for a whole week now. One week down, 3 to go. . . maybe.
I'm SO sorry to hear about those stinky NOT hot showers!! That stinks!! I'd be in utter misery... That was one thing I really looked forward to in both of my pregnancies, was my showers... I relished letting the hot water hit me. It was VERY therapeutic. What a poopy thing! I really hope your superhusband has that fixed for you soon! :) Have you checke out www.sidelines.org ? It's a pretty neat resource for expectant moms on bedrest, as well as www.tripletconnection.org I really found so much helpful information there when I was pregnant with my boys...
I've been following your story for a bit now, and I'm praying for all of you!! I hope the rest of your stay in the hospital is very uneventful and as pleasant as possible... Be Well...