Mommy's day in the hospital

I had my regular prenatal appointment scheduled for 2:45 on Tuesday July 3rd, and directly afterwards I was supposed to go over to the hospital to finish pre-registration for the delivery of my baby.  I felt bad that it was going to go so long, since my visiting teacher was taking a turn driving me, but she said it was all fine.  Her teenage daughter came over with her to stay with Mason (who was napping) so we wouldn't have to deal with him.

The first issue was that when I got to the office, I had to fill out the insurance information for the office again, since it was the first of July, and apparently everyone has to fill everything out again in July.  I didn't know about it, so I was called back to my appointment late since they had to wait until the paperwork was done.

Then, when the midwife went to feel for the baby, she couldn't find his head down where it had been last week, and was pretty certain it was high up to the left.  She sent the nurse to ask the sonogram lady to make room for me so they could double check while she finished my regular check up.  That was the only thing that went quickly, she was ready for me as soon as my midwife was finished.

They did the ultrasound, and sure enough, the baby was transverse.  Transverse means the baby is lying sideways in the belly, and you can't really deliver a transverse baby naturally unless it turns during labor or beforehand.  They have a procedure they can do to turn the baby by manipulating the belly from the outside (called a version).  As part of the ultrasound they checked how much amniotic fluid I had to see if a version would be feasible, and apparently my fluid levels were really high, which explains how the baby turned in the first place.

So then I had to wait for the doctor who specializes in the version to come and check me out.  At this point I was late for my pre-registration appointment, so they called over to the hospital to let them know I'd be there later.  When the doctor finally showed up, he asked if we could do the version that same day, and when I said yes, they arranged for me to go do the pre-registration appointment first.  My midwife warned me that I could be at the hospital for up to three hours, so when I left the appointment and headed to the hospital with my visiting teacher, I told her what was up, and that I didn't expect her to wait around all that time.  We decided that she would leave me at the hospital, go get her daughter and Mason and take them home, and then we'd get Mason later.  I called Mike at work and told him what was going on, and we decided that we would play it by ear.

I went to the hospital and my visiting teacher hung around til the nurse showed up, then left.  That appointment went quickly, since I have delivered at that hospital before.  Then I was sent down to the cafeteria to eat something, since they had to do a fetal non-stress test first, which works much better if you've eaten, since it encourages the baby to move around.  It was about four thirty when I was done eating.  Then I sat for 30 minutes or so until they got me into the triage room for the test.  I had to wait about an hour for the doctor to show up, he had been in the middle of a delivery.  I called Mike to let him know I wouldn't be ready for him to pick me up on the way home from work, and arranged for him to go get Mason.

When the doctor came, they gave me a shot directly into my vein of a drug meant to relax my uterus so they could manipulate the baby into position.  It was the WEIRDEST feeling I have ever had!  It had an affect on me like a very strong stimulant.  My head was spinning, my heart rate was very accelerated and I was shaking, which lasted about an hour.  Once it took effect, it took the doctor about 30 seconds to move the baby into position.  He had a sonogram machine right there so he could make sure of the positioning.

When he was done, they plugged me back into the machine to make sure the baby hadn't been adversely affected by the procedure, and he decided I should get a Rhogam shot, just in case.  For some reason, the hospital has a policy that if they need to know your blood type for any procedure, they have to type your blood.  I don't understand why, it's on file in the midwives files, so why they can't just pull that, I can't understand.

Anyway, I had to wait for the nurse to come draw my blood for them to check the type.  When she finally showed up, I figured I could have Mike come get me, because they said the blood typing shouldn't take more than 30 minutes or so.  So I called him to come, but when he was there, we still hadn't heard from the lab, so I had to send him to my mother-in-laws house to wait, since it was close, and Mason wouldn't be allowed into the triage room.  Shortly after that, the lab sent up that there were some antibodies in my blood stream, and before I could get the Rhogam shot, they had to verify what the antibodies were.  I guess they were concerned that the antibodies could be the kind you get from having an adverse reaction to the baby's blood getting into your blood stream.

By the time they had figured out the antibodies and sent the order for the Rhogam, it was around 9.  I called Mike, and he was talking about how Mason was getting very tired.  We had no way of knowing how long it would take at this point, and Mike couldn't exactly drive him home to bed and then come get me.  Mike's dad offered to let him stay there, and when his mom got home, we decided to go with that, since the next day was the fourth of July and we'd be going over for a barbeque anyway.  So I told Mike to get Mason comfortable and come to the hospital.

He showed up a little after 9:30, and sat around waiting for me to be ready.  It took awhile for me to finally get the Rhogam shot because the pharmacy entered the information into the computer wrong, and the nurse needed to scan it before giving it to me.

The last straw for me was when the resident doctor came to check on me to release me.  He looked at the strip from the machine and saw that I had been having contractions the whole time I was there.  I hadn't felt them at all, and it isn't unusual to have contractions for a couple weeks before going into actual labor, but he seemed to think it was an issue, and that I should stay for another half an hour for observation.  I was NOT in favor of that, and the nurse supported me.  She told me that I could tell him no, that I was leaving, and that is what we did.  So as soon as she got the release paperwork, Mike and I left.  At around 10:30.  I had been in that stupid room for about 5 hours.

We didn't get home til after 11, and I got to bed very late.  I was grateful that Lorrie had suggested us leaving Mason there, because Mike and I both slept in this morning, him til about 9, me until 11.  Not continuous sleep for me, what with having to empty my bladder every few hours, and having a cold.  All I can say is, I'm glad that it's over, and I am going to do everything I can to encourage the baby to stay head down the way he is supposed to be.