We got checked in and got some info. about getting registered at the hospital and 2 girls that arrived after me (for the same Dr.) got called in before us. The nurse finally came and got us and realized that she had skipped us (so she gave us a free parking validation since it was their mistake--yay!). As soon as we got in the room, I of course had to give a urine sample, blood pressure, and weight (I gained 6 pounds this month...wow! That makes a total of 11 pounds). She checked the heart-rate and it was anywhere from 152-157 both at Dr. and hospital. We then could hear my Dr. in the hall and she had just got called to go do a delivery....so here we are waiting again. She made it back about 20 minutes later and wanted to know more about this pain I have been having (remember--she was on vacation during the last hospital visit). I explained it and showed her where it was hurting and how it still hurts very bad everyday, especially during the night, in the morning, and really bad after working all day, etc. She still suspected it was just really bad round ligament pains that some women just get and she again echoed how uncomfortable I am with them. She said it is a good thing because it means nothing is wrong with the baby, but since they are so uncomfortable/painful they can be a bad thing. However, she did want to do a quick ultrasound to check my cervix to make sure nothing was wrong there causing the pain.
They brought in the US machine and she began checking my cervix (vaginally). She measured the length of the cervix and it was almost 4 (anything over 2 is considered good) so that was fine. She kept focusing on one area though and told me she did have a concern. This worried me and I began crying. She showed me this dark spot on the top of my cervix right where we could see the baby's head laying...it looked like a dark "V". She said it looked like the inside of my cervix was opening up from the pressure of the baby's head (it is a condition called Funneling). She said it was so hard to tell though and she wanted to get another Dr. to look at is before we over-react. She then checked it with her hands and said she could feel the baby's head and that since the head is just hanging out so low putting so much pressure on my cervix that could be why it is opening and definitely expains all of the pain (especially after being on my feet, at the end of the day, etc.).
She asked me what our plans were for the weekend and I told her we were headed out about 5 hours away to go camping, so she had us just hang out for a minute so someone else could look at the pictures of my cervix. About 10 minutes later she came back and the other Doctor agreed that it looked questionable but so borderline at this point that in order to be safe they wanted me to go over to the hospital to have it checked out before we could leave for the weekend.
I asked more questions about what was going on and "Funneling" is kinda of like the inside of the cervix dilating instead of the outside (because of all of the pressure from the head of the baby). She said she wanted the radiologist to do the US and see what they thought. She said if everything came out okay, we were free to get on the road and go camping. HOWEVER, if the hospital did determine my cervix was funneling, we were going to be staying Friday night in the hospital to be monitored and since my dr. was on call Friday night she would be visiting me on Saturday to come up with a plan which would include bedrest from that day on for the duration of my pregnancy (WHAT!?!? This totally freaked me out!) and meant we would not be traveling anywhere.
She called the hospital and explained what she was ordering so they would be ready for us while I got admitted (for the 2nd time this month--the baby book is filling up with hospital wristbands quickly :)) We walked across the parking lot to the hospital, got admitted, changed into the lovely gowns, gave ANOTHER urine sample to be tested, got hooked up to the monitors to check for contractions, and got settled into the bed. My temp. was fine, but they determined my pulse was high. They think I was dehydrated so I was given strict orders to keep drinking ALOT. They are worried about contractions, so I was given strict orders to stay hydrated, go to the bathroom every time I have to, and make sure I am laying on my sides. We checked in about 4:30 and Radiology finally came for me at about 5:30 (when I got to come off the monitors and they did not record any contractions!! :):)). When we got on the US bed, the tech. told me the Dr. had ordered a full US scan with measurements of the baby, etc. so we were not expecting to see the baby again but were very happy we did get to. I warned her about our VERY active baby and explained we have no profile shots as the little one will not ever cooperate with pictures, so she was able to capture some very cute profile shots--YAY!! The baby did give her a hard time continuing to flip around and upside down and move everywhere the whole time, but it was so cute. She did have to turn the screen a few times and for the first time someone told me "our little one did decide to flash her". Since this has been a concern of mine all along I am relieved to know that someone does know what we are having and all the "parts" are okay and accounted for.
She then did another vaginal ultrasound to measure the cervis to get pics. for the radiologist and I was wheeled back to the Labor and Delivery Testing Unit to wait again. At about 6:45 they had the results and they came and shared them with me. They are pretty sure my cervix is okay at this point but they will continue to monitor it to make sure it does not start Funneling or opening anywhere. They called my Dr. to see if I could be discharged and go on with the weekend as we had planned. She said yes I just needed to take it easy, stay hydrated, and I am not allowed to lift anything. She had also talked to me about staying off of my feet. She is glad school will be out this week and happy that I will not be teaching summer school. She wants me doing as little as possible to prevent Funneling from happening since we now know it is borderline in my case already.
We were finally discharged around 7 p.m. We were starving so we stopped to eat, got gas, and began our 5 hour trek to Concan. My poor husband did such a great job driving and I pretty much slept the whole way. I was drained from laying around at the Dr. and Hospital all afternoon and incredibly uncomfortable in the car as our car was sooo jam-packed I could not even lay my seat back. We did make it to Garner around 1 in the morning.
My next appt. will include the 1 hour glucose screening and bloodwork.
This is such a long post but I will leave you with some precious pictures of our little angel!
This top pic. is where we watched out little one YAWN really big--it was so cute!
The bottom pic. is with an arm and a leg up by the face
The top pic. in this set is a perfect little shot of the foot--all 5 toes were accounted for! :)
The middle pic. is of the hand waving--it was so cute on screen--but of course blurry on the pictures as this little ball of energy would not stay still :)
This top picture is the profile with a leg and foot
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