April 23rd. 28 weeks & 6 days. Day 47 of Bedrest.That morning I had my 3 hour blood sugar test at USF. My previous results had come back at 150 and the doctor said that meant they needed to do a longer one to see if I did indeed have gestational diabetes. I did the required fasting and stopped eating at 10 p.m. on the 22nd.
On Monday, Mike dropped me off to the sugar test and took Jonathan to Riverview for an appointment with his pediatrician. At that appointment, we got the official diagnosis that Jonathan had pneumonia. He had to get his third shot of the weekend. Not fun.
While that was going on, I was sitting in the recliner at the sugar test and started feeling some fairly intense cramping in my stomach as well as lower back pain. I told the nurse that I thought I was having contractions. Since I wasn't on schedule to see a doctor that day, she recommended that when the sugar test was over that I head across the driveway to Tampa General Hospital and have them monitor me.
So, I did. When they checked me, they found that I was in active labor and was already dilated to 2. They admitted me right away to the Labor and Delivery section. In between meeting with doctors, I was texting Mike to let him know what was up. They put a monitor on me for each of the babies as well as one to check contractions. Then the processional began. I spoke to a NICU doctor who gave me the complete run down of what to expect if the babies came right away. One nurse told me that I would be meeting my babies in the next 24-48 hours. They sent the anesthesiology department guy to come talk to me about what to expect as far as the spinal anesthesia and to get me to sign consents for the operating room. They sent a group of residents to come stand around while I was being checked and then to talk about "what ifs". They brought back in another nurse to try to get the babies back on monitor (every time I had to move or if the babies got to rambunctious, they would go off monitor and then the nurses would have to try to track down each one individually again).
They put me on magnesium to try to stop the active labor. They gave me the first of two steriod shots to help mature the lungs of the babies. They declared me a slip risk because of the magnesium and introduced the "wonderful world" of a bedpan (eww...and yes, I know, TMI).
We were told by one of the nurses that since I was already starting to dilate, I would be kept in the hospital until the babies came. Mike was very relieved to know that I would be taken care of and monitored.
That night, my friend, Julie, kept Jonathan overnight (while the poor little guy was dealing with pneumonia) and Mike stayed at the hospital with me. Neither one of us slept much since the nurses were in there nearly all night trying to keep the babies on monitor. In the morning, Mike had to head off to work (nothing dramatic seemed to be happening) and my sister, Barb, came with plans to spend the next several days at the hospital with me.
They still wouldn't let me eat until they were sure that active labor had chilled out just in case we had to have the c-section. So, at this point, I still hadn't eaten or had anything more than that nasty glucose drink and ice chips since Sunday night. I was getting crabby with a capital c. Cruel and unusual punishment is depriving a mother carrying triplets. Nothing made me happier than when they finally decided I could have food. YAY! No one had to die. It had been almost 36 hours by the time I was able to eat.
On Tuesday afternoon, they went ahead with the second steriod shot and ceased the magnesium meant to slow active labor. They told me at that point we would just wait and see what happened.
Tuesday evening around 10:00 p.m., they moved me off of Labor and Delivery and over to another wing where I would just continue to be monitored. Barb helped pack up all the stuff and we went to the new place.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of 4 of The Birth Story. Coming tomorrow.
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