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March 2013 Moms
CloudBee
member
advice to you after being discharged from hospital
CloudBee
member
I left work on Thursday for a routine appointment with my perinatologist. I'm high risk due to some heart defects I was born with, so I see my peri every 3-4 weeks in addition to seeing my OB.
The perinatologist always does ultrasounds. At Thursday's appointment she noted my cervix was unusually short, so she sent me down the hall to labor & delivery to be placed on a monitor to check for contractions. I thought this was crazy because I felt normal.
Fast forward - I was having contractions 3 minutes apart! A complete surprise to me. I was admitted, pumped full of fluids to see if it was dehydration, and then put on anti-contraction meds when they realized it wasn't dehydration.
Now I'm on bedrest and still on meds. They are taking additional cervical measurements this week to determine the chances of the baby coming early. If my cervix has shortened more, then I'll get steroid shots for the baby's lungs and we'll be prepared for the possibility of a preemie.
Anyway, my advice to you...
- We had JUST finished our nursery on Tuesday, and I was admitted on Thursday. If you have everything you need to finish your nursery, do what you can now. I would suggest once now, after my experience, that once anyone hits viability at 24 weeks, they do their best to either finish their nursery, or have everything they need to finish it at home. (In the event that friends/family need to help out in the event that you're in bed rest.) I felt so much peace knowing that even the small odds and ends left to do for the nursery (like was the sheets on the crib mattress) someone else could do it for me, and there was no issue about it being done my way or not. Had I ended up in the hospital a week ago, I would have been so upset that I would have missed out on setting the nursery up how I wanted it.
- If your nails are painted and chipped or the paint has grown out, either take the polish off, or paint them! Again, once you hit 24 weeks or when they typically get serious about bed rest, keep your toes tidy! I kept telling myself I was going to paint my nails, but put it off because I knew it would be a bit more challenging. Well, after being exposed from the waist down multiple times this week, I was SO embarrassed that my toes were a bit unsightly. Not the norm for me, so I was really not happy. LOL
- PACK YOUR HOSPITAL BAG! Just last weekend I pulled out the duffel bag that I wanted to use, threw in my favorite yoga pants, 2 nursing tops that I bought on sale at Gap, my travel toiletries, and a complete spare set of my MAKEUP. I can't believe I did this. I had no intention of doing this until Feb/March, but was in a total nesting phase over the weekend. Having a few of my own items was amazing. The makeup was a huge plus because I felt like crap but when I put makeup on felt so much better about just sitting in a hospital bed for a couple days. So even even though I didn't have labor/delivery items packed, as I had only half-assed my bag, I at least had what I needed for bedrest. My only mistake was not throwing the bag in my car. My husband had to go home and get it for me, as I was admitted to the hospital from work. Please, pack what you would want for a hospital stay. You'll be so much happier!
- Also, if you have an old or spare digital camera, throw that in your hospital bag with a charger. I did this the other day, too, knowing that I use my regular camera so often that I didn't want to pack it away just yet. Well, knowing that I could have had a preemie this week, I was so thankful knowing that I had a backup camera in my bag which has better resolution than my iPhone.
- Phone charger! If you have a spare one, pack it now and just deal with not having a spare.
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Re: advice to you after being discharged from hospital
Glad everything is okay for now! Are they doing a fFN for you? I hope your cervix stays long and closed, woman!
With DD1, I had started getting some things together like nursing tanks and lanolin and breast pads and I'm glad I did. As a preemie mom, you won't regret doing it early but you might regret putting it off.
I know people eyeroll me when I say to do it early-ish, but you just never know. I had an absolutely normal pregnancy with DD1 and my water just broke one morning and I had her 12 hours later.
BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM
I completely agree. There's NO harm whatsoever in preparing early when it comes to just tossing some comfort items into a bag. It doesn't take long, and can save a ton of stress.
Yup! I had to send DH home and sent him a specific list of makeup and stuff, but at least all the nursing stuff and clothes were all in a bag. Since I had to start pumping right away, the lanolin/pads/tanks came in SUPER handy and I'm so glad I had them.
So glad you passed the fFN!! Phew! Take it easy and keep cookin' that baby! I have a friend who had a shortened cervix but went on to have a FT baby.
BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM
I agree with all of this, but I'm such a hypocrit because I've done like none of it! I still have to finalize the nursery and wash all the baby's clothes, as well as pull everything out of storage from my DD and clean/re organize our kitchen a little bit in order to fit all the bottles and such. And I'm 32 weeks and had my daughter at 35 weeks, so you would think I would be on top of this! I'm going to start the laundry tomorrow and also get all the boxes out of our basement that have the baby bottles and little toys and stuff in them tomorrow hopefully.
Although last time I washed the newborn clothes for the first time, I went into labor an hour later....so let's hope that doesn't happen again!
Either way (and I know this is terrible to think about) if he decided to come now, I know we'd be facing some NICU time and I would have time to get this stuff done regardless (obviously not what I want to do, but I know it's always a backup possibility).
Edit: Not to scare you but I had a negative fFN and still went into labor less than 2 weeks later (apparently less than a 1% chance for this, but I beat those odds). Most likely this won't happen for you, but just take it extremely easy like they said and keep that baby in there
(They never put me on bed rest or restrictions when I started PTL at 33.5 weeks and had they, I probably would have kept her in a little longer).
I'm in the same boat, girl! I think knowing that everything is in the house makes me lazier about it.
I really can't believe that I had DD1 less than a month from where I am now in this pregnancy. I'm somewhat freaking out about it. I thought I'd be more calm, but I'm more emotional than I expected.
BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM
I get excited to know it can happen soon, then the reality of it all makes me anxious and nauseous! I start my high risk protocol on Monday with my first NST so it's really becomming all too real now. I've been contracting A LOT lately too. I had PPROM like you so I'm just sort of on edge, contractions or not.
Ugh, effing pPROM. I almost wish I had something predictable last time so I could take more steps to look out for it or stop it. At this point I wonder if I should just wear Depends around, haha.
BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM
Lol, I always had a lot of BH which seems to be the case with this pregnancy too and they are getting more frequent. But the morning of around 3am I woke up with terrible back pain and called out of work. Went back to sleep after a ton of Tylenol and woke up feeling perfect! Two hours later my water broke after a trip to the bathroom, I thought I was just peeing my pants haha I was in such denial. About an hour after that contractions started and I knew, so I think I had a little warning based on the back pain and how I'd been feeling that week but who knows!
DS1 -6/25/11
DS2 -3/23/13
Missed MC D&C 8/26/14
DD - 8/26/15
LO#4 due 5/30/17
Glad things are holding up, I had a short cervix my last and this pregnancy but this time I'm on meds and have a cerclage which really helped.
As for the list, as much as it is nice to have those things done you'd survive if they weren't. I wasn't able to do a lot after being placed on bed rest at 27 weeks last time. In the end the nursery waited and we didn't even use it right away, nobody cared about my toes and it's not like someone wasn't able to stop and get my stuff at home for me which is what happened.
What was your cervix measuring?
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