The strangest thing about being back at the hospital was having to repeat all the steps as if I had not just been there a day and a half earlier.
Step 1: register with OB check-in
Step 2: head to triage
Step 3: wait and wait some more
Step 4: answer all the doctor's questions as if I had not just answered the same questions 48 hours earlier
I was contracting-- of that I was sure, but for some reason the monitor could not pick it up. Each time I would feel my abdomen contract I watched the numbers on the monitor barely move.
"I know you can't tell but I swear this hurts a lot!" I told the nurse. She nodded sympathetically and adjusted the belly band. Still nothing.
The doctor came to see me and decided that it was time for an internal exam. Everyone else had stayed away from this option as they did not want to make an irritated cervix even more so. For whatever reason, my husband and I found this amusing.
"Irritated cervix," I chuckled. "Why is my cervix so sensitive? Did someone say something to make it mad?"
The mood in the triage room was light and calm as we bantered a bit with the night shift. The doctor prepared for the internal and said he was going to perform a fetal fibronectin test to determine if I was in labor. Turns out, we didn't need to know. After completing the internal there was blood - a large amount of blood - and the mood turned serious.
For a brief second the doctor and the nurse glanced at each other. It was in that glance I had everything I needed to know about the severity of the situation. Without a warning the doctor threw a sheet over my waist and the nurse pushed the side rails of the bed up and started rolling me down the hall.
"I can walk," I said.
"No. We want you as stationary as possible."
My husband followed the medical parade with my pocketbook in hand looking dazed. I watched the blood stain on the sheet covering me get bigger. I instinctively put my hands on my belly and willed the baby to kick so I would know he was ok. He remained quiet.
Back to the labor and delivery room they carefully slid me over to a hospital bed where we, for the final time, tried not to have a baby.
...to be continued
~Davina
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