Hospital bed rest day 28 W24D3: The 24-hour ordeal

Here's my recap about what happened last Friday (Hospital bed rest day 26, W24D1):

It started out as a normal day in the hospital.  I was up early as usual (thanks to the frequent toilet trips and the nurses that loudly barge in at 5am).

8.15am - Dad came from KL for a visit.  He usually follows DH up to the hospital on Friday mornings.

8.30am - I was in the middle of showing dad my contractions when the Obstetrician taking care of me came in for her ward rounds with the medical officer who typically visits me twice a day.  The first thing the Obs asked me was whether I had any more contractions and I told her yes, I've been having them throughout the night (though not timed) and in fact, I was having one right then.  She felt my belly and confirmed that it was a contraction.  Things happened quite quickly after that.

8.45am - Obs did a vaginal probe and took a swap, which was awful!  The good news was that she confirmed that my cervix was still closed.  She decided to send me down to the labor ward for observation anyway, and to take the necessary precautions for pre-term labor.  I found out later that there was another triplet mother-to-be in hospital, also in her 24th week, who also had experienced pre-term contractions, and who was currently under observation.  So perhaps this is why she was also quick to react this time to my contractions.

9.00am - They whisked me down to the labor ward...the only thing I got to do before that was to brush my teeth.  The labor ward was a market place - it was noisy, fast-paced and brightly lit!  There was as long room that looked more like a long corridor, with beds in the middle and nurses, doctors and midwives walking up and down from both sides.  I could hear newborn babies crying in a distance and some baby's heartbeat being monitored through a fetal heart monitor.  It was not a fun place to be.

I was then put on an IV drip for magnesium sulfate to help protect the babies brain.  I hate being on drip but the worse was the catheter that they inserted into my bladder.  It hurt having the catheter go through my uretha and it felt awful having a full bladder and not being able to pee.  They wanted to monitor my urine output to ensure that the magnesium sulfate wasn't staying in my body.  Then came the painful steroid shot that is to help develop the babies' lungs.  That hurt like hell but the midwife who gave me the shot was pretty experience and it was over as fast as it could have been.  They also gave me nifedipine (thankfully these came in the form of pills) to stop my contractions.  Then I was told to rest...how the heck could I rest with all the chaos going around me?

2.00pm - Finally they took me out of the awful long corridor like room and transferred me to the small room just across the walkway.  This room had two beds and I soon discovered that the other triplet mother-to-be under observation was in the first bed.  She had already ended her 24-hr observation, was doing fine, and was waiting to be transferred back to the ward.  I felt jealous that her ordeal was over and mine had just started.  I also learned that she had conceived triplets through timed conception just like me but using clomid!  Yay to discover another non-IUI/IVF triplet mother-to-be!

The second room that I was in for the rest of my observation did not offer much privacy as well.  It doubled up as the doctors' workstation so there were doctors and nurses walking in and out the whole time.  The door was always left open so I could hear all the chaos that was going on.  They deliver babies non-stop here....all throughout the day and the night.  For the rest of my observation, I hears women crying in labor, newborn babies' crying as they take in their first gasp of air, and of course midwives talking loudly in the doorway.  I saw exhausted women being wheeled out of the labor warm just after delivery and midwives carrying new born babies in their arms.  I learned that in this hospital epidural was not an option for women who would go through a natural delivery because there were not enough anesthetists (and the epidural is too expensive and not considered a necessity?).  So they all had to tough it out and endure the labour pains.  I remembered my MIL telling me that it was possible to get admitted in here for delivery and be discharged the next day, and in such cases, the hospital bill only comes up to about RM10 (less than US$4)!

Back to me, with all the stuff poked inside of me, I couldn't move much or get out of bed.  So I stayed in the same position for 24 hrs.  My poor buttocks ached without relief.  I told DH that I really felt like the Princess and the Pea but DH had no idea who that was!  I couldn't drink as much as I usually did because I was afraid of having the uncomfortable feeling of having a full bladder again and I didn't feel like eating much.  My poor babies!  I said sorry to them but hoped that they would be able to toughen it up for this 24 hours.

Towards night time, the nurses who came to do 10-minute monitoring of my contractions reported that my contractions were 1 in 10 minutes or none.  My blood pressure was being monitored hourly and since it was getting low, some one gave instructions to stop the nifedipine.  Yet, I continued to feel the contractions.  I even told DH about it and he said to get the doctor to resume the nifedipine since my blood pressure was no longer low.  DH then had to leave me to travel back to KL.

I was again told to get some rest.  The doctor instructed to nurses to give me some pain relief medication that would help me relax and sleep but I refused.  I was not in pain, I told them.  I just wanted something to stop my contractions.  They told me I was just being anxious and that I didn't need the nifedipine because my contractions were irregular.  How I wished they had a contraction monitor here!

1.05am - I was wide awake.  Still feeling my contractions and timing them.  I felt 7 contractions between 1.05am - 2.25am.  When the nurse came in I told her about my contractions but she said that they only time contractions on a 10-minute basis.  I asked to speak to the doctor.    Sometime later a doctor came in...probably a houseman or a new medical officer.  I asked for the nifedipine again but she didn't dare to allow it without the green light from her superior.  At that point I decided that there was nothing else I could do so I tried to get some sleep, waking up every now and then when I felt a contraction and when the blood pressure monitor tightened around my arm.

6.30am - The nurse came in and offered to take me to the bathroom for a warm shower.  How the heck was I going to do that with the IV and the catheter?  I just didn't feel like going through all that, so they finally decided to give me a sponge bath.  The air-conditioning and warm water wasn't such a good combination for me.  I started shivering so badly that they ended the sponge bath.  They did however do a thorough cleaning down there, and that wasn't fun at all.  It was nice though to be able to brush my teeth and change into new clothes.

7.30am - I'm counting the hours to be taken off the damn catheter and the IV drip.  MIL sneaked in to give me breakfast.  She managed to meet the Obs in charge of me and told her about my contractions and wanting to be back on the nifedipine.  The Obs came in and spoke to me.  I had several contractions during our conversation and she immediately instructed the midwives, "Patient is anxious about her contractions so resume her nifedipine unless her blood pressure drops to 50."  They finally gave me the nifedipine and my contractions slowed down and subsequently stopped.

10.40am - The second steroid shot was worse than the first.  The took out the awful catheter and stopped the drip.  I waited for my bladder to fill up and requested to go to the toilet.  I was afraid of the pain that comes with peeing again after using a catheter, but thankfully there was no pain and I could pee like normal.  It's such a wonderful feeling to be able to pee again!  I'm feeling much better and am waiting to be released to the ante-natal ward (no choice, they're not sending me back to my old ward after this!)

3.30pm - I've finally got the green light to leave the labour ward.  Yipee!  Contractions have stopped.  Double yipee!

Babies, babies, during this awful ordeal, I knew you would be safe.  The Lord filled me with his peace and told me it wasn't time yet for you to come out.  I don't know how long more you'd stay inside baking, but I did know you were not coming out right now.  Mummy is not a good patient, she's not a very brave person.  But mummy will try her best to hang in there for you.