Practice Run To Labor and Delivery.....Check!

On Saturday we had an unpleasant practice run to labor and delivery. I got up in the morning and within about a half-hour started feeling really crampy and started having some lower abdominal/back pain and pressure. I thought maybe things were getting started so I just went with it and relaxed all morning. The pain intensified to about a 6 out of 10 with bursts of extreme pain that were about a 9 or 10 out of 10. Since these bursts of pain would come and go, and I have never been in labor or given birth before, I thought, "Hmmm, is this what contractions are like?" I started timing the waves of pain. They would come about every 20 to 30 minutes and would last about 10 minutes. My abdomen would get all hard and tight, and I'd be in extreme pain to the point of feeling nauseous, weak, short of breath and having to cry through it. When it got to the point that the pain wasn't really subsiding at all any more, I called the Patient Receiving Unit at Methodist Hospital. They transferred me to Labor and Delivery where I bawled to the poor nurse who answered the phone. She said she didn't think I was in labor, but I should come right in as they were concerned about the amount of pain I was experiencing.

So in we went. We spent 5 hours in the hospital with me hooked up to monitors. My blood pressure which had been 116/74 on Thursday was now in the 150's/100's. Hmmm, this was no good. They didn't know if the blood pressure was caused by the stress and pain I was in or if preeclampsia was starting. Either way, they tested me for a UTI and kidney stones and found nothing. Personally, I don't think they tried very hard. Once they checked me and found I was not in labor and the baby was doing fine, they pretty much said, "Go home and take some Tylenol. Call us if it gets worse. Oh, and up your bp meds." That was not what I wanted to hear. So I went home in pain and laid down and tried to relax.

In my professional medical opinion, (since the professionals didn't have one), I think baby was pressing on a nerve or something. Even after the waves of severe pain subsided, I was left with a pain and pressure in my groin, sciatic, and hip that radiated down my leg. My chiropractor says the baby was probably compressing a round ligament. Sounds good to me. At least she has an opinion one way or another. All I know is it was not a pleasant experience but I definitely know where to go and what to do now when I really go into labor. And at least next time I'll have a bundle of joy to bring home with me.....instead of a big fat waste of time! :(