Drama, drama, drama

Well, had my first hospital visit yesterday. I started having some cramping about 5:30 in the a.m. when I was leaving for clinical. I figured since I was on the high risk labor and delivery floor for my shift I would be in good hands regardless. :) Usually they subside with sitting down and drinking lots of water. After I downed 1000 mL of water and sat in the car for 45 minutes I was still having them. I didn't think much of it. I was in a room helping do a newborn assessment and felt like I was going to pass out so I left the room and sat for a minute. It subsided but then continued to happen over the next hour or so. Meanwhile my cramping was getting worse and not better. I was in the hall and I was holding my belly up as I felt lots of pressure in between cramps and a nurse asked if I was ok. I said yea, that I was just having come cramping and that it was normal. She asked how far along I was, I told her 28 weeks and she asked me how I knew they weren't contractions. I said I didn't. She told me to get checked. I said that I didn't want to, that I was fine and she said at the least to start timing them to make sure they weren't consistent. So I did. And they were. About every 8-10 minutes for an hour they came, fairly strong, not painful but pretty uncomfortable. I told my friend Jill and she made me call the Dr. The nurse called back about 5 minutes later and told me that Dr. Dado, my Dr. wanted me to go to Shea to get checked out. They wanted to make sure that my cervix wasn't dilating etc. I practically thought I every reason I shouldn't go as I was in clinical and its practically a sin to miss those hours. I asked if I could just go to OB triage at county to be checked and they said that I could but that if something was wrong, I would stay there. They would not transfer me. That's all I needed to hear. So, my wonderful friend Jill went to tell the teacher we were heading to the hospital. I was so happy she came with me, she wouldn't let me drive myself as once the Dr. said I needed to "go now" I started to cry. Just a tad scary. Anyway, it was good for her too as she got out of a few clinical hours and luckily went from one OB shift to another. I checked in and they hooked me up and did some tests. Josh came down, boat in tow, and the look on his face was that of terror when he walked in and saw me in my gown. I assured him I was fine, but I guess when I called him to tell him I was going, I scared him cause I was crying. Poor guy. Tatum's heart rate was strong and perfect. My cramps had started to subside but while I was there everyone kept referring to them as contractions. I was not able to refer to them as that, I preferred to call them cramps, I guess they were little contractions. On the monitor I did have one contraction while I was there but it wasn't enough for them to keep me. My cervix is softer than they would expect at 28 weeks but its not effaced or dilated so they chatted with Dr. Dado and told me to go home and rest. So, I went back to clinical. :) It was fine, I just sat in the nursery and rocked a very fussy baby for a long time. So, I was not on my feet. I had some more cramping later in the day but nothing like earlier and they didn't last. Anywho, I am fine now. Glad I went in and know I am fine. The nurse at county saw me and asked if I got checked and told me that I would be very surprised how many people she sees come in and say that they are having menstrual type cramps and are about 28-30 weeks and end up being 7-8 centimeters dilated already when they decide to come in so she was glad I went. Here is a stellar photo of me that Jill so kindly took while I was in my hospital gown. If you think this one is bad, you should have seen the others she took. She mentioned that she didn't want to hurt my feelings but that one of the photos was so bad and I looked huge, I think it was the angle. :) I looked at it and I agreed and made her immediately delete it.