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Cris Coffey (CCOFFEY@rugs.bry.indiana.edu)
Wed, 27 Mar 1996 17:03:07 EST5
Cynthia,
After seeing your message, I believe the medications are playing
tricks on our babies! Brethane, I was told, is what I received.
Although the form of it I received was called Terbutaline. Yes, it
made me crazy, too! Imagine 16 weeks of trembling, your heart doing
flip-flops in your chest, monitoring your pulse, and feeling your
baby kick around like a Ninja in your womb! I eventually got so used
to it that I could control my shakiness to some degree by
concentrating on it! I once tried to polish my nails to make myself
feel better--well, it looked like my unborn child had tried to do the
polishing!
Brandon, too, was never small the way a preemie should be. He
weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz, 21.5" long. We thought that maybe someone had
made a mistake in calculating my due date (which made me hyper to
think that I might have laid there in bed 3 or 4 weeks longer than
necessary). I asked my OB/GYN and she confirmed that he was a
preemie and that no mistake had been made. She said she could tell
by the consistency of the mucous that covered him at birth, as well
as the lines on the bottoms of his feet.
About your contractions....ditto! Really, I laid in bed for 16 weeks
having extremely hard contractions but never feeling an ounce of
pain! I could always tell that they were strong and needed
attention, though. It was really kind of nice, because I was in
enough mysery the way it was without having to lay there and suffer
through labor pains for 16 weeks as well! The night I delivered
Brandon (full moon--I believe the wive's tale), I had been in "the"
labor for about 7 hours (I had been off the Terbutaline since noon
that day), roaming the halls of labor and delivery trying to progress
and get it over with, and I had yet to feel a single pain! In
between walks I was put back on the monitor for 30 minutes each time.
At one point a nurse checked on me and I looked at the monitor strip
(contractions were heavy-duty and about 90 seconds apart) and then
asked the nurse what the strip would look like when I was in truly
hard labor--you know--the labor that says "this is it". She just
looked at me and smiled, and said, "just like this". I told her that
I had not felt any pain, and all she did was smile again (L&D was
full and I was being monitored in a supply closet for lack of space),
put her fingers to her lips, and told me not to tell any of the otehr
expectant mothers there--it might create a lynch mob! After several
episodes of walking with my mother and my husband, I began having
mild pain with contractions. The pain got worse as the night went
on, and by the time the doctor broke my water I was in so much pain
that I couldn't even move (I couldn't have even bent over long enough
to get an epideral). But it's funny about having contractions with
no pain. Maybe it's natures way of saying, "OK, you're suffering
enough, so I'll go easy on you."
I feel much better knowing there are mothers out there with
experiences similar to mine!
Cris
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