3rd Trimester Bumpdate

September 8, 2016 by Ruthie 7 Comments

I wanted to give everyone an update about my pregnancy and all that is going on.  I was hoping I wouldn’t have much to tell you for this round of weeks but I do.  I’m always hoping for an uneventful pregnancy but apparently, I like to keep things interesting and keep me on my toes!  So here’s a little more in in-depth detail of the last 5 weeks!

Week 25

Not much to share except that I’m still so happy to be past viability!  Woohoo!

Week 26

Everything was going well through the beginning of my 26th week of pregnancy.  I was looking forward to the weekend since it was my husband and I’s 5th wedding anniversary.  We had originally planned to travel to Okoboji for the weekend as that is where we got married but decided against it as we had been traveling every weekend and wanted a weekend at home.  Thankfully we did.  On Friday the 19th my husband and I just enjoyed an evening in and we were watching a little TV.  Around 9:30 at night I started having period like cramps.  I was getting a little worried so I called my Doctor around 10 pm and he told me to take some pain reliever and if it didn’t go away to go into the hospital.  I was super tired so I set my alarm for an hour later so I could wake up and see how I was feeling.  It obviously wasn’t terrible; I was able to sleep.  I woke up an hour later and felt fine so I went back to sleep.

The next day we were planning to do a few things around the house during the day.  Then in the evening, we were going to cook steaks and enjoy a romantic dinner after our daughter went to sleep. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.  While my husband was changing out a light fixture in our bedroom I had been experiencing multiple Braxton Hicks one after the other.  I tried not to let it bother me but they weren’t going away.  Since my Doctor had told me that I may need to go in the previous evening I felt that we should go into the hospital and get checked.  We dropped our daughter off at our neighbor’s and headed to the hospital.

Once I got checked in and registered the nurse hooked me up to a machine to monitor my contractions. At first, they weren’t picking up the contractions and the nurse asked me if I was sure they were contractions.  She asked if maybe the baby was just moving around a lot.  I felt crazy but I knew it wasn’t just the baby moving.  My doctor happened to be at the hospital so he came in to check on me.  He checked to see if my cervix was closed and elongated and thankfully it was.

I continued to feel contractions and about an hour later the nurse came in to tell me she was noticing some contractions showing up on the monitor.  My doctor recommended I take Nifedipine to see if that helped slow down the contractions.  Unfortunately, it did nothing for me.  The nurse came back after about another hour or so and said my contractions have escalated to about 2.5 minutes apart and were 20 seconds long.  Since the Nifedipine didn’t work they gave me a shot of Terbutaline.  The nurse warned me it may make my heart race.  And boy did it!!  I did not like the reaction I had to this shot.  It felt like my heart was beating out of my chest and I felt completely out of it.  My heart was literally racing and I could tell the baby was too because it was moving around like crazy.  The nurse came in to check on me since I was a little nervous about how I was feeling.  She then gave me something to slow my heart rate down because it was a little higher than the normal person that takes this injection.

I’m happy to say though that the Terbutaline did slow down my contractions quite a bit.  I don’t ever want to take that shot again but it did work.  They continued to monitor me for a little while I waited for an ultrasound to make sure everything was looking good.  During the ultrasound, they measured the baby’s size, amount of amniotic fluid, and checked the length of my cervix.  Thankfully everything looked great and my cervix was very long and closed still.

My doctor came back to see me and see how I was doing and gave me a prescription for Nifedipine to take if I got multiple contractions in a row at home.  He told me that with how long my cervix was that in medical terms I shouldn’t go into labor for at least 2 weeks.  He didn’t seem concerned about the contractions as it did not affect my cervix.  I was sent home and told to take it easy and to call if I had any questions or concerns that week.

Week 27

I was only having minimal contractions, 1 -3 a day, so I took it easy per doctor’s orders.  That Thursday I had an appointment set up already so I went in to see how I was doing.  My doctor checked and my cervix was closed and elongated so all was good.  I was planning to go to Okoboji over Labor Day weekend so he wanted me to come back in a week and make sure my cervix was good before I traveled. He also said I could resume normal activity!

Week 28

I went in to check on my cervix and everything was still looking great!  Things were looking up and I was finally in my 3rd trimester!!  Every milestone seems huge for me and I couldn’t be more thankful to have made it this far!  On Friday we were getting ready to head to Okoboji but I was having some terrible back pain.  I had terrible back labor with my daughter so I was a little worried about that.  I had been up and going all morning packing and preparing for Okoboji so I thought that could have been causing for the pain as well.  I decided to be safe than sorry so I called my doctor to get his input.  He told me lower back pain was quite common in the 3rd trimester so I should be fine to go to Okoboji.  He told me to take some Tylenol and see if that helped.  I took some Tylenol and laid in bed for about a half hour and I started feeling better.  My husband packed up the car and we decided to get on our way.

I was still having some anxiety with traveling but I didn’t want to miss my last weekend trip to Okoboji. I was feeling pretty good until about the last hour or so of the drive.  My back started killing me again and sitting in the car was not helping the situation.  All I wanted to do was to lay down and take some Tylenol.  I hadn’t reached my 6 hour time period before I could take more Tylenol so I just decided to deal and just focus on getting to the lake.  My husband was driving so I didn’t have to worry about that.

Once we got there I immediately went and laid on the couch.  It wasn’t feeling much better but the laying down did help a little.  I eventually was able to take some Tylenol and that helped a lot.  I finally felt good enough to head out to dinner with my family and my back seemed to feel pretty good the rest of the evening.  After dinner, I went home and went to bed in hopes that I would wake up with no back pain.

The next morning I felt pretty good besides the normal aches and pains of pregnancy.  I was hopeful that the back pain would not come back and it hasn’t so far!  Woohoo!  Oh, the joys of pregnancy!  I am now 29 weeks pregnant and each week that goes by gets me closer to the finish line!  I don’t want this little one to be born early but I’m so excited for her to be here and to hold her in my arms.  And to know she is safe and sound!

Ovia App