Adventures in pregnancy

Well I decided to bring the New Year in with a bang or at least an eventful January 3. Although I will start off this post with everything is FINE today, I was not feeling very well yesterday. I had some cramping in my lower left side and just generally did not feel myself. Because I had a check-up scheduled for later in the day, I called early and asked to move my appointment up. I had a normal check up, discussed the ultrasound results (which I'll mention in a minute) and told her about my discomfort. Dr. Brown decided that they should hook me up to a monitor to check everything out because my side was still hurting. After about 30 minutes of sitting attached to a machine measuring the baby's heartbeat and my uterus, it was determined that I had had 4 mild contractions. Obviously not a great thing at 22 weeks of pregnancy especially when I wasn't really noticing anything similar to what I thought a contraction would feel like. Anyway, they sent me home to rest, told me to drink lots of water and call them back in a few hours. So I drove home, watched some TV and slept for an hour. Around 3 p.m. I still felt about the same with my left side feeling pretty painful. So I called in and the nurse told me that the doctor wanted me to go to the hospital to Labor & Delivery. This was not exactly something I wanted to hear. Since it was Iain's day off and he was at home, he drove us to Chambersburg and I checked into the hospital. I was definitely not ready for that. It just felt wrong! They put me in bed, hooked me up to another baby monitor and asked a lot of questions. After about 4 hours of monitoring, an IV of fluid (ouch!), a urine test and several episodes of the Simpson's, Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends, we were permitted to go home. Contractions were not being detected and they concluded that the searing pain was from round ligament pain or stretching of the uterus to accomodate the baby. Boy this hurts! I was advised that I should take Tylenol and be aware of possible signs of pre-term labor in case I was to experience anything similar again. It was definitely a long day but I was majorly releaved that nothing was wrong and to know what to do if anything else felt wrong. If anything, we got an early tour of the hospital which wasn't bad. Earlier in the day at my appointment, Dr. Brown did tell me that our ultrasound was excellent and that the baby is developing perfectly. He also weighs in at 1 pound 13 onces so he's not small! Maybe this is what caused the sudden pain in my stomach. She also told me that his length is fine, his heartbeat is right as it should be and that he was moving around quite a lot. All of these things were wonderful to hear. I am hoping that the next few weeks will be relatively quiet after such excitement on a would be boring Thursday. Don't worry- I'll be resting this weekend.