The Road to Bryton

Monday, May 11, 2015

Every morning when I wake up the baby moves around like crazy.  She is active while I eat, exercise and get ready for work.  This morning, however, there is no movement.  I start to try and think about the day before…I can’t remember if I felt her move.  We had been so busy with family that I had not paid much attention to the baby’s movements.  I try to not panic and then I suddenly have intense contractions that feel like a band is being tightened around my lower abdomen and back; they are so strong I could barely make myself walk.  At this point I feel like I need to go into labor and delivery to be checked out. 

The whole way there I keep hearing in my head, “there is something they need to see, they need to see it.”  As we park and my husband is trying to help me in the nurse sees me and asks right away if I need a wheelchair.  I declined and held onto the nurse’s desk. I explained that I have not felt movement and that I am sure my baby is fine but I have never had a baby just stop moving before.  The contractions had just started so I was not as concerned about them but could not really walk or breathe through them.

They did not have me change.  Instead they just asked me questions and got me registered.  The nurse hooked the monitor up and very quickly we found a heartbeat and began to monitor the baby and my contractions.  As time went on my contractions stayed the same but I had not progressed; just when I was about to be sent home the nurse ran in.  She seemed a little panicked and asked if I had moved, I said no but that I thought I had finally felt the baby move.  She said well you just got yourself another hour of monitoring as the babies heart rate dropped down to 90, but only briefly.  The next hour came and went and they sent me home.  I was contracting and was told I am just a couple days shy of making it to 37 weeks. “Let’s have you eat, rest (stay down), and get really hydrated to see if we can’t stop full labor from coming on.” (The nurse shared that she felt if I moved around I was going to have the baby).

So my husband being the good husband he is text my work, took my phone away, and made me stay in bed.  By the end of the day I had gotten my contractions to slow down but still rarely ever felt a movement.  If I did they were very faint, when I was so use to this baby trying to break my ribs.