Hospital Trip!

34 WEEKS & 5 DAYS

Time is running out! I only have about 5 weeks left now! I'm getting bigger and bigger; and everything is more uncomfortable and/or painful. I have my next doctor's appointment tomorrow and it will be my first exam, and up until last weekend I wasn't looking forward to it. Let me back track a bit and tell you a little bit about the weekend...

Saturday as you know was Valentine's Day and Joshua and I spent the day in Gonzales having my maternity pictures taken. It was a long day of shooting in different locations and by the time we were done, I was done. I was totally exhausted but I didn't notice anything unusual that night. However, the next day I began feeling menstrual-type cramps around 11am. I knew cramps like these were pretty normal so I didn't think much of it until about 1pm when they started becoming more painful and frequent. I called my cousin Brandi who told me to try drinking 8 glasses of water and laying down for 30 minutes because it sounded to her like I was dehydrated, and if the cramps continued for me to call my doctor. Thirty minutes after I followed her directions, the cramps seemed to feel worse so I gave my doctor call and left a message for him. By the time he called me back thirty minutes later, they had died down a lot so he agreed that I was most likely dehydrated. Unfortunately, about thirty minutes after that, the cramping began again and continued to grow stronger until about 8pm when I decided to call the doctor again. A midwife called me back a little while later and suggested I go into the hospital just to be safe, although she didn't think I was in labor. So Joshua and I went to the hospital where we stayed until 1:30am waiting to find out what the heck was causing these cramps. They weren't showing up on the machine as contractions and my cervix was still closed so they tested my urine for a Urinary Tract Infection but it came back clear. So finally they decided that the cramps were round ligament pain, and they gave me some Tylenol and told me to call the doctor in the morning if I was still feeling them. By the time I took the Tylenol, the cramps were hurting so bad I wanted to cry, but the medicine kicked in and I didn't feel them again until about two days later when they only lasted for about 15 minutes.

After that, I was feeling pretty okay until last night when I woke up with contractions that felt like they lasted forever. I really don't know though because I refused to look at the clock. I was finally able to fall back asleep and I didn't feel them again until I was at work today. And man, it felt like everything I did brought on a contraction. After a couple hours, I realized that I was probably dehydrated so I guzzled down a few bottles of water and the contractions went away. But I've also been having a lot of heavy duty pain between my legs today so I am just dying to see my doctor tomorrow. He's going to be out of town for Mardi Gras so I really need to make sure this baby stays in until he returns!

NOTE: The entire time we were at the hospital, we were listening to Beckham's heartbeat and it was so cute when he got the hiccups because we could hear him move with each one!