Since my  wonderful husband got me my new Mac Air I couldn’t figure out how to get WordPress  downloaded. I guess he must have figured it out cause here I am. Wow so much to catch you up on.

Last Thursday I started having a bunch of Braxton Hicks contractions followed by cramping and backache. I tried not to worry too much about it, took some Tylenol and went to dinner since I was feeling better. During the night I kept waking up with more cramping but then it would go away. Finally the next morning when a warm bath wasn’t helping the cramps and backache I decided it was best to head to the Hospital. Kicker was, I was in Orange County. My mom took me to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo and that’s when the fun began.

They hooked me up to a contraction monitor and a baby monitor and right away could tell that I was indeed contracting, and a lot more than I thought I was.  They ran a bunch of tests and did a cervix check and they all came back with good results. Baby wasn’t on her way yet. However I was still contracting 2-3 minutes apart and some were getting pretty uncomfortable.

Then came the drugs. They gave me injection after injection of a drug called Terbutalene, no luck. Then they tried an oral dose of another drug that did help but lowered my blood pressure so they couldn’t give me anymore. The next morning a specialist came in and performed a vaginal ultrasound to check things. Everything looked fine, cervix was long, baby looked great. She is now measuring 3 lbs. The Specialist put me on an oral dose of Terbutalene to see if that would stop the contractions. After 5 hours or so I felt so much better, contractions calmed way down almost stopping. Once the Dr. came back and saw that things looked better she released me and gave me a prescription of Terbutalene to fill and take every 4 hours. As she handed me the presciption she was notified that the FDA just black listed the drug. I went home hoping I could fill it anyhow because at that point I just wanted out of the hospital and into my own bed.

The pills did help slow down the contractions but the side effects were terrible. I was shaking uncontrollably and couldn’t even form sentences without my brain and mouth getting jumbled. I felt awful. The next morning I did some reading on why the FDA black listed it and after reading a few articles including this one:

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/pregnancy/2011-02-18-fda18_ST_N.htm

I  decided I wasn’t going to take it anymore. If the cramps and contractions came back then I would go to Triage at Sharp Mary Birch.