Trial Run

Yesterday was perhaps one of the most physically unpleasant days of my life.  Of course, I've decided to blog about it to keep it fresh in mind for all of eternity.

The amnio was scheduled for 9:45.  We woke up, got to the hospital an hour early as directed and things progressed normally.  Amnio was eventless - the fluid was amber and clear.  Typically,with mature lungs, it should be colorless and very cloudy.  I didn't really feel like they were going to be mature going into things, so I wasn't incredibly disappointed.  About a half hour after the amnio, I started contracting, which is mostly expected.  Contractions quickly escalated to every 3 minutes and became very, very uncomfortable.  The official fluid results came back as early transitional - but definitely not mature.    We then spent the next eight hours trying to stop labor.  They gave me three liters of fluid and 2 medications - none of which worked.   I didn't seem to be progressing as all - they weren't getting more intense or more frequent and my cervix wasn't changing.  They called the MFM for recommendations.  He felt like we should still try to stop labor for 2-3 days because the baby would probably otherwise end up in the NICU - maybe even vented.  WTF?!?  At nearly 39 weeks?!?  I don't get it at all.   He also thought that maybe because I wasn't progressing that my uterus was just pissed off about having no food for 24 hours and suggested feeding me.  I was reluctant - because that guaranteed another 6 hours of uncomfortable labor if it didn't work.  So we settled on an oral dose of procardia, which they assured me they would know if it would work or not within 20 minutes.  About 10 minutes into it, I thought I was dying.  I turned myself on my left side, adjusted my IV rate to give me a crap load of fluid, and asked Monk to get the nurse.  When she came back, I was feeling somewhat better - and my blood pressure was 60/20.  The baby didn't seem to mind at all and tolerated the whole thing really well.  After a couple of more liters of fluid, I started to feel a little better - just incredibly flushed, racing heart, and horrid headache.  And hey ...the contractions stopped.   So they fed me ...and sent me home with plans to return on Wednesday for the section.  I'm supposed to be on super limited activity.  No sex, no activity, no shopping or lifting and do what I can to avoid labor between now and then.  Who would have thought?  Who stops labor at almost 39 weeks?

We came home and settled in for the night.  We comforted my distressed mother, daughter, and two year old and tucked ourselves into bed.  I have another three days of pregnancy before a section and tubal ligation ....and hopefully a live baby to cuddle to show for it afterwards.

The only thing I'm really struggling with is how to parent a 2 year old and a newborn.  My 2 year old is very very cuddly and needy.  He still needs to cuddle and "touch nursies" several times throughout the day.  He is recently potty trained and sleeping through the night.  Today, when laying down with him for a nap, he kept trying to touch nursies (which I have been avoiding to avoid contractions) and when I said, "No", he screamed, "THOSE ARE NOT THE NEW BABY'S" !!!   I sense big big problems coming my way and don't have a clue as to how to deal with them to make this less painful for him.  There's a reason that my first 2 kids were 13 years apart - I swear.

Any and all advice accepted and appreciated :)