Happy Father's Day and...... Hospital Visit.

We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon BBQing at home. My parents, Rafi and his friend Desiree came over. In our household, we looooove a good BBQ. yum! I made nachos, colombian rice and a fruit salad. We also BBQd sirloin patties, hot links and steak that my mom brought over. Dessert was red velvet cupcakes and the fruit salad with cool whip. Delish!

                                      Luis and his father

Poor Luis has not been sleeping well. He has been on the alert and waiting for me to let him know "when." After we finished our meal, we turned around and found him sound asleep in the hammock in our back yard.  I'm glad he was able to get some rest prior to all of the "action" (I'll explain below!)

While Luis was snoozing, my brother Rafi took a few belly photos.

Can you tell how bright and sunny it was? I could hardly keep my eyes open.

My belly is HUGE!  I don't see that it has dropped much, though. What do you think?

So now for the highlights of the day! After relaxing outside for a bit, we came inside and that's when I started feeling pretty badly.  I was experiencing contractions which seemed to have no clear start or end, and now the pain was wrapping around to my right side to the back. This was new.  In addition, prior to the pain starting I had a small gush of fluid (after already using the restroom.) I had already been 'leaking' for a couple of days now, which I attributed to the weight of the baby pushing down on my bladder. However now, I was starting to grow concerned as my contraction symptoms changed; I felt that there was a possibility that my water broke prior and I was not aware. The scary part- once the amniotic sac ruptures, this predisposes the baby to infection. 

While this was all happening Luis rushed upstairs to take a shower, having the inkling that it was 'time'. We decided to make a trip to the hospital to see what was going on.  The car was packed, and we were off by 7pm with my in-laws and mom in tow. Rafi and my dad stayed at our home to wait for the news.

When we arrived the the hospital, I was sent directly to triage. While in triage I was found to be pretty dehydrated.  (Oh yeah I thought, we were in the sun all day and I hardly had any clear fluids.) The dehydration caused some uterine irritability, which was displayed on the contraction monitor. It was also determined that indeed, I was having true contractions, but they were only occurring every 15 minutes. My main concern was that fluid, which I was unable differentiate was urine or amniotic.  I had a fern and nitrazine test done, both of which were negative. Super! So it was determined that the leaking was likely not urine, and definitely not amniotic fluid; instead, leukorrhea or the mucus plug (both normal findings.) I was also checked for dilation and am now at a 2 1/2.  Fortunately, my blood pressure remains still pretty low, (the norm for me); the baby's heart rate was healthy, and after I was given fluids, the irritability resolved. 

We trekked back home at around 9:30!  Luis was quite relieved; we both agreed that it was worth the trip to the hospital. The staff at RCH was awesome; my RN, was confident she'd see me back in a day or so!