Full Bed Rest

Well, I decided to call the nurse today to report some pain I’ve been having quite regularly in the groin area for the past couple days that won’t go away (I wanted to check in since we’re supposed to be out of town all next week for Carolina Camp Meeting.) The midwife was out for the morning, but the nurse suggested coming in this afternoon to get checked out just in case.

She started off with a pelvic exam to check my cervix. Last Monday it was still thick and completely closed. Today it was softened and dilated 1cm. I haven’t had too many contractions this week, but I did tell her about last week when I was having contractions every 30min for about 30 hours straight after being up tending to Carter for the morning. She went ahead and hooked me up to a monitor to make sure I wasn’t currently experiencing any contractions that I wasn’t aware of and that came back clear.

She then did an ultrasound to determine Owen’s position and found that he’s breech right now (which is completely ok at this point, he’s not due for another 3 months!) She figures that the groin pain I’ve been experiencing is from his position- his legs pushing downward when he moves. So she called it a lucky fluke that she discovered my dilated cervix, which she attributes to the contractions I’ve been experiencing, not the current groin pain.

So the result of all this is that I am now of full bed rest. I am allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and she said sitting should be ok, so I don’t have to be lying down 24/7. She also advised against traveling out of town, but since we will be staying with my in-laws and will receive more help with Carter than if we stayed home, she gave next week the go ahead.

After conferring with one of the doctors she decided to give me an injection of betamethasone, which is a cortical steroid to help develop Owen’s lungs in case he is born early and I have to have a second injection tomorrow afternoon. She also gave me a copy of my records to keep with me in case I do go into preterm labor.

She also told me that regular contractions 30 minutes apart at this point should be ok, but if they’re painful or more frequent than that to go straight to the hospital. Their goal is for me to get to at least 34 weeks. I’m currently 26w 3d, so I have 7 ½ weeks to go until it would be considered safe for him come out. He’d have about a 90% chance of survival right now, but with risks of complications.

And so the new countdown begins. I’ve been counting down to the planned c-sections day of Aug. 18 (88 days from now), but I have decided to now just count down to 34 weeks, at which point I will breath a huge sigh of relief (and hopefully be downgraded back to partial bed rest). So… 53 days to go, but it’s almost tomorrow, so 52. :)