Let me start by saying that everything is fine with the baby. I had a follow-up appointment with my OB today and the baby is looking great! Good strong hear rate (140-145), head down (good boy!), and just as active as ever. Also, my cervix hasn't had any changes since the last appointment which is great news and the doctor did another fetal fibronectin test just to make sure I won't deliver within the next two weeks. I'm still waiting on the result of that test.
That brings me to the disappointing test results. When it comes to tests/grades/scores I can be a little competitive. In school nothing thrilled me more than peaking over at a neighbor's returned test/paper/project and seeing that I did better. I know, I'm sick. If it makes you feel any better I always felt a little guilty about my joy.
So, you can imagine my disappointment when I went to my appointment today only to find out that I had failed a very important test. What?? How is that possible? The doctor basically assured me that I was going to ace it, and instead I failed? FAILED! I don't fail!!! WTF?!?! Luckily (or not so luckily) this test has a do-over policy. Unfortunately when you retake the test it's a little more intense.
What is this test you ask? It's a glucose test to make sure you don't have gestational diabetes. The first test involves drinking a sickeningly sweet drink and then sitting for an hour before having blood drawn. This is the test I failed. (WTF?!?!?!) Now I have to go back in asap, drink the same nasty drink and sit there again. Only this time it's not for an hour. Oh no, nothing easy like that. It's for three. Three freaking hours of my life sucked up at the hospital lab. Waiting. waiting. waiting. All I can say is I better pass this freaking test or else! >:(
Or else what? Or else I not only have an irritable uterus, I have gestational diabetes too. Crap.
Showing posts with label irritable uterus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label irritable uterus. Show all posts
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A Day In The Life With My Irritated Ute
Let's talk about it, shall we? I know you want to hear all about it, so I thought I would share. The official term for it is an irritable uterus, although my doctor called it a hyper uterus. I'm not really sure which mental image I prefer. One conjures up the image of a brownish-red blob with angry eyebrows and a mean face and the other makes me picture the same blob with arms and legs bouncing around with this crazy grin on its face. Either way, both images are somewhat disturbing.
So what is this Irritable Uterus thing anyway? Good freaking question. For the most part no one really knows. It's not quite Braxton Hicks, but it's also not quite pre-term labor contractions. That really clears it up doesn't it? An excerpt from www.iritable-uterus.com (yes that's a real website!):
Irritable Uterus, in and of itself, may not cause a woman to deliver a premature baby. We, however, believe that an irritable uterus can and often DOES, in some mysterious way, trigger a woman’s uterus to start preterm labor, which can cause preterm birth.
Clearer? No? Yeah, me neither. All I know is I have contractions all day. Some are painful some aren't. Some last only a few seconds, some last more than a minute. When they are painful, I feel cramping first then slowly my stomach begins to harden. Sometimes it hardens starting at the bottom and moving up to the top and sometimes it starts at the top and moves down. They happen when I'm up and moving, when I'm sitting and when I'm lying down. They happen when I have to pee and when I don't and they happen when I'm hungry and when I'm not. Long story short. No rhyme or reason, just contractions galore. One thing's for sure, my uterus is very irritated, in fact I think it's down right angry. The question is, who/what made it so angry? I don't know, but you better be careful around me, because you might make it more angry.
Just to give you an idea, here's a day in the form of contraction counts from yesterday. Enjoy!
(woke up at 9:30- woo!)
9:59 am
10:06
(got distracted, stopped timing)
11:33
11:39
12:06 pm
12:11
(visitors)
1:55
2:08
2:16
2:28
2:43
2:50
3:05
(break)
4:36
4:43
4:57
(dinner)
7:37
8:01
8:11
8:20
8:27
8:33
8:46
8:52
8:56
9:05
At that point I was mentally and physically exhausted so I stopped timing them. Today has been better, only three contractions in the last 2 hours. I'm expecting they'll pick up later. We shall see what the doctor says tomorrow. Hopefully they are still just a product of my irritate ute and not actual pre-term labor!
So what is this Irritable Uterus thing anyway? Good freaking question. For the most part no one really knows. It's not quite Braxton Hicks, but it's also not quite pre-term labor contractions. That really clears it up doesn't it? An excerpt from www.iritable-uterus.com (yes that's a real website!):
Irritable Uterus, in and of itself, may not cause a woman to deliver a premature baby. We, however, believe that an irritable uterus can and often DOES, in some mysterious way, trigger a woman’s uterus to start preterm labor, which can cause preterm birth.
Clearer? No? Yeah, me neither. All I know is I have contractions all day. Some are painful some aren't. Some last only a few seconds, some last more than a minute. When they are painful, I feel cramping first then slowly my stomach begins to harden. Sometimes it hardens starting at the bottom and moving up to the top and sometimes it starts at the top and moves down. They happen when I'm up and moving, when I'm sitting and when I'm lying down. They happen when I have to pee and when I don't and they happen when I'm hungry and when I'm not. Long story short. No rhyme or reason, just contractions galore. One thing's for sure, my uterus is very irritated, in fact I think it's down right angry. The question is, who/what made it so angry? I don't know, but you better be careful around me, because you might make it more angry.
Just to give you an idea, here's a day in the form of contraction counts from yesterday. Enjoy!
(woke up at 9:30- woo!)
9:59 am
10:06
(got distracted, stopped timing)
11:33
11:39
12:06 pm
12:11
(visitors)
1:55
2:08
2:16
2:28
2:43
2:50
3:05
(break)
4:36
4:43
4:57
(dinner)
7:37
8:01
8:11
8:20
8:27
8:33
8:46
8:52
8:56
9:05
At that point I was mentally and physically exhausted so I stopped timing them. Today has been better, only three contractions in the last 2 hours. I'm expecting they'll pick up later. We shall see what the doctor says tomorrow. Hopefully they are still just a product of my irritate ute and not actual pre-term labor!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Adventures in Sleeping
Pretty much since I peed on a stick last November, sleeping has ceased to be an activity that is enjoyable for me. Once upon a time I was an awesome sleeper. In fact, while some children, who will remain nameless, were forcing their eyes to stay open for as long as they possibly could, I was asking to be put to bed. What an odd child I was. In high school getting up before 10:00am was painful. No really, it hurt.
This champion sleeping continued well into my twenties and only within the last few years have I considered "sleeping in" to be anything past 9:00am. So you can imagine how sad I was when my talent was somehow stolen from me by something the size of a blueberry. Seriously, I eat blueberries for breakfast (not really, I actually don't like them very much) and here was one taking over my body?? What the heck!?
That darling little blueberry continued to grow and grow, making its presence all the more known in my life, both waking and sleeping. I went from 0-1 trips to the bathroom a night to 4-7. My body billow became grossly insufficient and was replaced by a Snoogle - a massive C-shaped pillow that now dominates our king size bed. And to top it all off, somehow as I slept less and less, my wonderful husband, who has a history of insomnia, suddenly started sleeping more. Hmmm, weird, no?
Last night was unfortunately all too similar to the previous sleepless nights. Every night I climb into my "nest" which consists of the Snoogle, a full length body pillow, a king size pillow and a regular pillow (don't ask me where they all go, it's far too complicated). Once situated, I pull up the five layers of covers and at this point I hopefully begin to drift off to sleep. This initial process is usually interrupted by the need to blow my nose or to get up to pee. Fortunately last night I was pretty tired so I fell asleep relatively quickly. Yay!
Sadly it was not meant to last.
1:00am - desperate need to pee, strongly suspect pee monster is gnawing on my bladder, try without success to ignore it.
1:15am - realize that resistance is futile, begin process of getting out of bed
1:40 - wake up to intense bladder pain, a 2lb baby pressing on the Vena Cava and legs dangling over side of bed
My thought process went something like this: Huh? What? What's going on? How did I get here? Didn't I get up to go pee? Did I come back and fall asleep this way? Ow, my bladder hurts. Ow! My back hurts too. *whimper whimper* Why am I on my back? Holy crap! I never got out of bed! I still need to pee! UGH!!!!!!
You would think that after that I would have at least slept well. Nope. Not so. With two more trips to the bathroom (see steps 1-7), the clicking/rattling noise from the heater vent, and general pregnancy pain, sleep was just not meant to be. Once the husband left for work I officially gave up and have now returned to my throne (the couch) for the day. To lift my spirits I will leave you with a favorite youtube video of mine
Seriously! John Stamos in ripped jeans singing about his undying love for me... um, I mean for someone, and little chubby naked babies... I don't think it gets better than that! Plus that bed he's in looks super cozy, like I could sleep for twelve hours straight.
This champion sleeping continued well into my twenties and only within the last few years have I considered "sleeping in" to be anything past 9:00am. So you can imagine how sad I was when my talent was somehow stolen from me by something the size of a blueberry. Seriously, I eat blueberries for breakfast (not really, I actually don't like them very much) and here was one taking over my body?? What the heck!?
That darling little blueberry continued to grow and grow, making its presence all the more known in my life, both waking and sleeping. I went from 0-1 trips to the bathroom a night to 4-7. My body billow became grossly insufficient and was replaced by a Snoogle - a massive C-shaped pillow that now dominates our king size bed. And to top it all off, somehow as I slept less and less, my wonderful husband, who has a history of insomnia, suddenly started sleeping more. Hmmm, weird, no?
Last night was unfortunately all too similar to the previous sleepless nights. Every night I climb into my "nest" which consists of the Snoogle, a full length body pillow, a king size pillow and a regular pillow (don't ask me where they all go, it's far too complicated). Once situated, I pull up the five layers of covers and at this point I hopefully begin to drift off to sleep. This initial process is usually interrupted by the need to blow my nose or to get up to pee. Fortunately last night I was pretty tired so I fell asleep relatively quickly. Yay!
Sadly it was not meant to last.
1:00am - desperate need to pee, strongly suspect pee monster is gnawing on my bladder, try without success to ignore it.
1:15am - realize that resistance is futile, begin process of getting out of bed
- roll over to left side if not already there - this in itself can be quite difficult considering the massive lump of a baby on my abdomen.
- wait for irritable uterus to become less irritated (walking with a full bladder + contractions = not fun)
- disentangle self from pillow nest
- peel back any covers that have not been tossed onto husband during bought of night sweats
- swing legs over the side of the bed
- push upper body up with arms - using ab muscles is a thing of the past
- stumble to bathroom as baby bounces on full bladder
1:40 - wake up to intense bladder pain, a 2lb baby pressing on the Vena Cava and legs dangling over side of bed
My thought process went something like this: Huh? What? What's going on? How did I get here? Didn't I get up to go pee? Did I come back and fall asleep this way? Ow, my bladder hurts. Ow! My back hurts too. *whimper whimper* Why am I on my back? Holy crap! I never got out of bed! I still need to pee! UGH!!!!!!
You would think that after that I would have at least slept well. Nope. Not so. With two more trips to the bathroom (see steps 1-7), the clicking/rattling noise from the heater vent, and general pregnancy pain, sleep was just not meant to be. Once the husband left for work I officially gave up and have now returned to my throne (the couch) for the day. To lift my spirits I will leave you with a favorite youtube video of mine
Seriously! John Stamos in ripped jeans singing about his undying love for me... um, I mean for someone, and little chubby naked babies... I don't think it gets better than that! Plus that bed he's in looks super cozy, like I could sleep for twelve hours straight.
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