The early tour of L&D...

Tuesday was our 2nd "Prepared Childbirth Class" The night started off ok, we picked up a burger at burger king (ok, not so healthy but we're out of groceries and I'm knocked up), enjoyed our evening talking about C-sections, Pain Meds and breathing exercises. Robert thoroughly impressed me with how interested he is in childbirth. I'm very proud of him. While other husbands were poking and prodding their wives during the "therapeutic" massage portion of our evening, Robert gave me a great massage and didn't crack one single joke. He is going to be a great labor coach.

After the class ended, we went home and pretty much went to bed. When I got into bed, I was really uncomfortable, like little miss was IN THE WAY. ugh! but just chalked it up to pregnancy and went to sleep. At 2 am I got up for my standard trip to the bathroom (the joys of pregnancy) and was in a lot of pain... no contractions and baby was kicking just fine but my entire upper body had sharp constant pain. My back hurt, my upper abdomen hurt, everything from belly button up hurt. I didn't think it was indigestion because I didn't have a sour stomach or anything and I didn't feel any gas at all, just felt like my entire gut had been wrapped up in a gigantic knot.

I called the on-call nurse and she told me to take some tums and drink something fizzy. I did that, and took a Tylenol and didn't feel great but I was able to fall asleep on the couch. At 5:00 am I rolled over on the couch and HOLYMOTHEROFGOD! I was in INTENSE pain! It was unbearable! I got all sweaty and threw up but I wasn't really nauseated, I think I puked because of the pain. The nurse told me to go to L&D if it didn't subside or get better... so off we went. They strapped me in, baby hated the monitors and kicked at them for hours. My pain subsided from a 10 to probably a 7-8 (9 at times). The nurse gave me some pepcid and out of exhaustion I fell asleep. By the time the Doctor came by my pain was gone (I'm still sore - like someone has been punching me in the gut and back) but she told me that it was probably my gallbladder and there was nothing we could do right now and I just need to be very careful about eating fatty foods (no more whoppers!)

So now I'm home... I feel a little stupid about going to L&D over indigestion but I can honestly say that I have NEVER been in that much pain in my entire life. And... the dr didn't make me feel stupid at all - in fact she told me that when she was pregnant, she went in after she had accidentally peed on herself thinking her water broke and she is an OB!!!

Also, I feel very "ready" for labor now. I kept telling myself that at least with contractions, there is some sort of reprieve whereas with this pain, there was NONE. It was persistant pain for essentially 6 hours straight. I am proud of myself for handling it as calmly as I did. I used to go a little (Ok, a lot) hysterical when I had a lot of pain (especially when I was younger suffering menstrual cramps). But I breathed through it and managed to stay calm. There were times I started feeling like I was out of control but Robert helped remind me to breathe and calm down.

Of course upon us returning home from the hospital (after a braless visit to Costco - I can't believe I actually did that!), I googled "Gallbladder and pregnancy" - and found this quote "I thought that I was dying. It hurts as much as childbirth, but unlike contractions, the pain doesn't go away," I kept telling Robert that while we were in the hospital... I'm glad someone else who had gone through this felt the same way... If I can handle that, I can handle giving birth!