29.3 Weeks Along - Unexpected Doctor's Appt. Today....Turns Out It Was All For Naught!

I think I’d rather have had a tooth pulled than go to the doctor’s office this afternoon. And to add insult to injury, it wasn’t even a regularly scheduled OB visit.

Nope, Nervous Nelly here got all worried because of all the pressure she’s been feeling and how Gidget’s movements have been really low….and I mean lowwwwwwww. Like wayyyyyyy down there. I will try to avoid being too graphic lest my own cheeks turn ablaze from my own embarrassment.

Anyhow, I’ve been feeling a lot of serious pressure, and feeling like things are going to fall out of me. Combined with having constant, painful Braxton Hicks contractions whenever I walk, I was beginning to become pretty concerned. I’d also been told, 13 years ago when I had my son Zack that my uterus was slightly prolapsed and if I ever got pregnant again it would have to be watched closely. I had this running through my head as well today, worrying that my insides were falling out.

Add to that just my general level of paranoia about anything going wrong with this pregnancy (I guess all my worries after the abruption last year haven’t quite faded yet), and I decided to call the doctor’s office.

So, as succinctly as possible I try and explain what I’m feeling and I’m told I need to be seen in the office, today!

So I show up for my appointment at 2:45 and I’m first seen by one of the nurses who runs a NST (Non-Stress Test) on me and that looks good, although she did have a lot of trouble at first trying to find Gidget’s heartbeat, which did nothing for my frame of mind, although I’d felt her wiggling on my way into the office. Finally she gets the heartbeat, records it, and then turns on the monitor for 30 minutes to see if she can register any contractions. And then I asked her; “Um why are we doing this? I didn’t think I was in labour?” So the nurse says that the triage nurse who took my call entered it as a possible pre-term labour so that I could get in sooner and they have to have a recording of an NST. Oh, ok…whatever.

So once the nurse has determined I’m not having contractions, (HELLO, I could have told you that!) and after she does a brief sonogram (of which I got no souvenir pics!) she tells me to go pee in a cup and once I’ve done that she then escorts me into an exam room and tells me to drop trou and get up on the table.

Pardon? Drop trou?

Yes indeedy folks I got to have an all expense paid, all inclusive trip to “internal-land”….Just what I didn’t want! I knew I was in trouble when I saw the jelly/lubricant stuff.

Can I just say right now that I hate, no, I HATE HATE HATE getting those kinds of internals. And when I’m pregnant, it’s ALWAYS worse.

A few minutes later the doctor comes in and introduces herself (my regular doc is out on maternity leave) and tells me to lay back and starts pressing and prodding on me, trying to discern Gidget’s head from her behind, and she’s really really pressing! But that’s ok, because she didn’t utter those dreaded words; “Please place your feet in the stirrups.”

At that point I thought I was going to get off scott-free.

Then she made some comment about Gidget being stubborn and she turned around, grabbed the tube of jelly/lubricant and she said IT:

“Hun, would you please put your feet in the stirrups.”

And I asked her if it was really necessary and she said that it was and that there was little chance that at just outside of 30 weeks along that it was going to cause me to go into pre-term labour but she really needed to find out what was causing all the pressure.

“Well, if you must.” I pathetically moaned back at her.

I could have kicked that woman in the head, it hurt so badly.

Once Dr. Paul-Bunyan-Hands was done and told me I could get dressed again while she went over my scan, and conferred with the nurse about my urine, she’d be back in to talk to me.

So me and my wounded pride (yes I know, you’d think after all those other babies I’d have left my pride at the door a long time ago…well you’re wrong!) hobble off the table and whimper back to where my clothing is and get dressed.

I’m thinking to myself the entire time;

*grumble grumble grumble* “Sheesh, they outta not let people with hands that big be OBGYN’s….”*grumble whimper grumble* “Dammit that hurt, could she have poked and pushed at me any harder?”…..*whimper whimper whimper*

Once I’m dressed, I situate myself on the chair in the room and wait for her to come back and I try to relax, although it feels like I’ve been impaled by an eggplant. If I thought I had problems sitting down before, it was nothing compared to how I felt after the internal.

Dr. Paul-Bunyan-Hands comes back in and says very matter-of-factly that while my uterus might be slightly prolapsed it’s nothing to be concerned about now and is more common in women like myself who have not only gained and lost hundreds of pounds but who have given birth to multiples. She said that what I was feeling was most likely a combination of all the muscles in the general area and a certain little girl’s feet pressing directly against my cervix!

So it all boils down to Gidget hanging-ten on my cervix! She’s head up and feet down and lookin’ good!

Other than that I’m not dilated and everything looks swell. Oh and I’ve gained 4lbs since October 14^th which she wasn’t concerned about. Brings my total weight gain this pregnancy to 18lbs. I’m not supposed to gain any more than 30 though. Oh and I do have to go see another dietician because I’m not able to digest veggies at all and am now having trouble with certain fruits. And I was told that I need to walk walk walk, and swim swim swim.

Having said all that though, I won’t be the least bit surprised come early January if I don’t make it my scheduled C-Section date and wind up in a few days early after my water has broken and there’s a foot sticking out!

Turns out I got all worried over nothing today!