A Pre-term Labor Scare, An Enlarged Liver, And A Stomach Virus: Our Week Thus Far

So this week has been interesting to say the least.

Tuesday, Chris took me to the hospital because I had been having consistent contractions and back pain since Monday and the contractions were getting closer together. Early that morning I could not stop vomiting…like I threw up all over myself as we pulled into the hospital parking lot. It was glamorous. Ladies, you know you married a good man, when he holds the car door open for you while you spew your guts all over said car door and all down the front of your clothes, and he calmly reassures you, cleans up the mess…and still claims you as his own. He’s such a gift to me!

The midwives at the hospital did not want me having Miss Elliot quite yet, since I was only 35 weeks at this point, so they hooked me up to an IV to get some fluids going to make sure it wasn’t because I was dehydrated. That didn’t help, and my contractions were about 5 minutes apart at this point. They then gave me a shot to try and slow labor, and when that didn’t help either, they admitted me for the night.

Finally, after a few hours the contractions died down, but I was still in constant pain across the top of my uterus. I couldn’t tell if I was having contractions and it didn’t make sense that the pain was so constant. After about 12 hours of dealing with the pain, they finally brought me some medicine and whew! I felt sooo much better. It was so nice not to be in pain for a little bit.

All of my lab work came back normal and my blood pressure was perfect. We were all so confused as to what was going on.

Whenever the pain medicine would wear off I was in terrible pain again, so they didn’t want to send me home not knowing what was causing it. They thought it could be my gallbladder, so they sent me down for an ultrasound to check it out.

Everything looked great with that, but they noticed that my liver is enlarged and finally decided that that must be what the issue is.

Meanwhile, in the midst of this, Chris suddenly becomes violently ill. As in he could not stop vomiting for over an hour and I told him to try and go home to be more comfortable. He was so sick! His dad had to come pick him up because he was throwing up at least every ten minutes.

I was trying so hard not to totally have a meltdown, not knowing what was going to happen to me that night and if I was going to get worse, plus now not having my husband there by my side. And feeling so much concern for his health and wanting to be by his side to take care of him…man. It was a disaster. Chris was so upset to leave me, but the poor guy had no choice. I have never seen him so sick!

I texted my little sister in GA and she immediately jumped in her car and drove almost 4 hours to come be with me last night. She is amazing and I felt so much better not being alone.

The doctor came in and told me he didn’t want me to take any more medicine that night and see if the pain came back as strong, and thankfully it did not. So this morning they were able to send me home.

The plan for now is to just monitor me closely and if I start having any pain, they want me to come straight back and do more bloodwork. He is worried that this might be the beginning of preeclampsia and if that’s the case, Miss Elliot may be delivered at any time depending on how my liver holds up. They gave me two rounds of steroid shots for her lung development just in case she gets here early, so that’s a really good thing.

If I remain out of pain and can manage my symptoms well, we can just take things day by day and wait for her to come on her own.

It’s so hard not knowing how all of this is going to go down. I just want to know. And it was exactly a year ago today that I was admitted with Eli and was told he would be born the next day because of his heart rate dropping. So to say I’m a little over the whole pregnancy drama would be an understatement. (ha) Apparently it’s impossible for me to just have a baby with no complications. I MUST HAVE DRAMA.

What’s sad is tomorrow is Eli’s first birthday, and Monday is Rhett’s second. We had the cutest party planned for this Saturday that we had to cancel due to my health and Chris being sick. I feel like every ounce of my “momma soul” is dying inside because I so want to celebrate these big milestones for my boys. Talk about Satan trying to bring on the mommy guilt!

But I am trying to trust the Lord’s timing in all of this. I know that nothing is a surprise to Him and I trust His plan. He has yet to lead us down a wrong path. So I am trying to release my grasp and just ride each wave. And I’m also praying for Him to calm the storm before momma is tempted to jump overboard. (ha)

Thank you to our friends and family who have been texting, checking on us, and praying for us through all of this. I figured it’d be easier to just update everyone on the whole situation in one place…thus this very scatter brained post. 😉

Also, a HUGE thank you to Chris’ parents who have missed work all week to take care of our two crazy boys, which is no easy task! Plus, they took care of Chris last night when he was so sick. I seriously don’t know what we would have done without their selflessness during this time! And tomorrow my parents are coming into town…CAN I GET A PRAISE THE LORD!?! *praise hands*

We may just survive this thing, people! 😉