EARLY LABOUR? 26 WEEKS

Well it's been a fair while since my last stay at hospital but I'm back!

This time I'm not in Walton or Ysbyty Gwynedd but in Glan Clwyd with my little 28 week old monkey.

I went to my normal midwife appointment last Thursday - it's now the following Wednesday, the 13th - but found quite a lot of blood that morning so I told my midwife about it. I'd woken up at 4am that day with a huge pain in my stomach but managed to get back to sleep til 7am, when I was woken again with more pain. This pain came once every 50 minutes and lasted about 2/3 minutes but I was seeing my midwife at 11am so thought that I was just overreacting and that I'd tell her when I'm there. My Nain took me to the appointment and the midwife said I definitely needed to be checked out at the assessment unit at our local hospital, Ysbyty Gwynedd, so we headed off there thinking we'd be home in a few hours after the baby was monitored.

We were wrong.

My pulse was resting at 120bpm and it's supposed to be between 60-100bpm so they were a bit concerned about that (apparently it's called being 'tachycardic') and also about the "tightenings". Not gonna lie I kinda freaked out when they started calling them contractions lol! They'd taken a urine sample when we'd arrived which looked normal apart from the blood of course, but then an hour later they wanted another one - but this one came out cloudy and white so they were convinced that my water's had broken. TMI but the water kept trickling out constantly and they had to do an Actim Partus test, which is basically a swab and if it comes back negitive, then it means you probably won't go into labour within the next two weeks but if it's positive then there's an increased chance that you could.

Unfortunately, it came back positive.

Because I was only 27 weeks 5 days pregnant they transferred me via ambulance to Glan Clwyd which is about an hour away from home, because they are the closest hospital who are able to care for neonatal babies who are born between 26-32 weeks, then Ysbyty Gwynedd would be able to take babies from 32 weeks onwards. The pains were steady every hour or so, weren't increasing but the water was still leaking. I had 2 courses of steroid injections that day and night to prepare the baby's lungs if he was to make an early appearance.

It was a weekend so I didn't see many people but on Sunday night I became REALLY unwell. My eye dropped, my pressure headache returned with a vengeance - which I haven't had since before my brain surgery - and my eyes were so sensitive to the light. They rushed me for an emergency CT scan but they knew it wouldn't pick much up anyway because they didn't find my tumour til 4 CT's and MRI's later on a stronger machine, so that didn't bring anything up. They wanted to do a lumbar puncture but my family were tooootally against it which I don't blame them after everything thats happened, but honestly I was in so much pain I would have taken anything. I had a drip in for 2 days until I started feeling better and by Tuesday, my eye pain had gone and I only had a slight headache left so I didn't feel the need for a lumbar puncture.

The Doctor advised me to have one because it could be a bleed on the brain because of all my symptoms, but looking back now that I feel so much better I am bloody well glad I didn't!

Over the next few days I was told that I had a urine infection, then I didn't have one, then I had one again, then I was put on antibiotics for the urine infection, but today again I'm told I don't have one but I have an infection in my blood, they just don't know where it is.

I'm deficient on Iron too and they think I may have anaemia, so I had an Iron Infusion yesterday which ended up going totally wrong - because I'm just me and that's my life!

She put the drip on my cannula on my left hand, started it and a few minutes later it started leaking everywhere so I had to call her back in. By the time she came back my hand had ballooned because of the Iron leaking into it and it's still not totally better today. I then had to have another cannula put in my right hand and re-start the drip, but it's so high up in my hand I can't bloody bend my wrist!

So I'm a walking (even though I can't walk) disaster.

Then I had a blood test done yesterday but when the nurse put the needle on the inside of my elbow, I felt a pop halfway down my arm and suddenly had the most horrendous shooting pains! I thought I was being a baby so I didn't say anything and just let her carry on and get the bloods done and dusted. Today though, every time I straighten my arm or pick something up with it (my right arm too, typical the one I do EVERYTHING with) I get painful electric shocks sent down my arm and it bloody kills. To be fair, I'm not a wuss at all and literally will take any pain thrown at me and will never complain, but that bloody hurts. Turns out she must have hit a nerve so now I'm going to have those lovely shocks down my arm for a few months and they'll eventually go away :) fab.

I can't lift anything heavy either or it'll make it worse, but I'm on total bedrest now until the baby decides to make his appearance so there's not much I can do anyway! Hopefully he'll hang on til the second week of February which is 37 weeks - the length I'm meant to go to until my c-section under general anaesthetic - but I don't know if I'll cope that long on total bedrest either lol! We'll see...

It's now Wednesday the 13th December and I've been here a week tomorrow. I was meant to go home on Monday, then yesterday and then today but my heart rate is rising and my blood tests are getting worse instead of better. I am DESPERATE for my bed and some proper food but baby bear's health is so much more important than that right now. He's doing great, his levels are fine and he's happy! They're monitoring him once or twice a day and although he's suuuuper lazy (like mummy) or chilled out (like daddy) and the midwives have to come wake him up every 5 minutes, he's doing absolutely great.

My waters have stopped now and the contractions have totally gone. I'm in no pain whatsoever which is frustrating because I feel totally ready to go home but of course, I can't.

Today has been a good day and although they said I can't go home, I feel so much better in myself and I had a lovely visit from my little Nain <3

She brought me her homemade famous lobscouse in a flask to keep warm, a spoon, a bowl, a plate and a tissue because you know, she's just so extra! And brought 2 ham baps with her special butter, chipsticks, vimto, ribena, my favourite chocolate and an Arrowword so I am totally content right now.

What a little legend.

HOPEFULLY I can go home tomorrow if my heart rate is down but I swear the heat in this place does not help. I have a fan by my bed and I am STILL. ROASTING. I have a gorgeous rash all over my face, neck and chest which is fab so I'm super excited to get home to my bed, my Baz and CHIPS AND CHEESE.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get to go home soon please!