Gel Belly

I have some hilarious cousins who nicknamed me "smelly belly Kelly" year ago. Thank god it didn't catch on with anyone else... I also like to joke around with the kids I work with when they forget my name; I tell them that it rhymes with jelly, but if they say smelly, we're no longer friends. They usually like that :) anyways, instead of smelly belly Kelly, feel free to call me gel-ly belly Kelly because I get all gelled up for monitoring twice per day. I don't know that I'll ever get used to the cold gel, though and the general feeling of stickiness that follows for the rest of the day. Yuck.
So apparently the weather outside was unreal today, although I really wouldn't know because the view out of my window is of a roof, a building, and a parking garage. I can only see a few trees if I lean in on the left side of the window and look to the right, so my perspective on the weather was really limited. I know it rained all night and day, but that was about it until I turned on the TV. Since the hospital has satellite TV, the only channels I could get were local channels and I only had them on for background noise. But they kept interrupting the program with a new tornado warning every 15 minutes or so for quite a while and talked about the amount of rain, flooding, and wind throughout the area. I had no clue! I knew tropical storm Debby was churning out there, but I didn't realize it was giving us anything more than just some rain. And at one point, they showed a possible tornado about a mile directly north of our house! Scary. Hubby called about an hour after that to let me know that there was a huge rush of wind that went through and was suddenly over. Luckily there was no damage that he could see. So I guess it wasn't the worst thing in the world for me to be on the third floor of a hospital with nowhere to go today!
I've been getting contractions pretty regularly for the last three days. I really worry that Emma is going to make her grand entrance into this world soon, and I'm not ready! She's not ready! No one is ready!!!!!!!!! I saw the OB this morning and told her about my concerns about the contractions. Just as she was asking if I felt them more in one location than another, I started to have one and offered for her to feel for herself. She poked around and confirmed that I was definitely having a contraction, and said she would just order a shot of terb to give me "a break" from the contractions for a bit. I hate terb, but it does work. Interestingly enough, I read a few articles that state that it doesn't work at all and that any women claiming to have had relief from contractions after being given terb would have just stopped contracting on their own and that the terb was not the reason for the contractions stopping. However, I've had the terb four times and each time I've gone from having contractions every 5-10 minutes to having none at all shortly after the terb was administered. I hardly consider that a coincidence. So despite the awful trembling and racing heart, I was kind of relieved that she was ordering it because I knew I'd get some relief. I ended up just sleeping off the side effects (a two hour nap. I guess I needed it) which helped too, and I only had a few contractions during the afternoon. I had about five during my monitoring tonight, so the nurse paged the OB, which is what last night's nurse should have done too, and the OB said that we didn't need to do anything about it tonight. Once I rolled over on my side, there was more time in between them.
But now they're back with a vengeance and they're starting to hurt a bit. Not much- just like menstrual cramps, but it's a little concerning to me. If I have one more in the next 25 minutes, it's time to call the nurse. It's also getting close to time for my next dose of meds, which is usually when my contractions pick up, but they've never been sore like this before. Ugh. At least I've officially made it to 30 weeks!!! Yay!! The OB's new goal is 32 weeks... but at this rate, I'm not sure we'll make it. We'll see though, and I'll do everything I can to get to that point and as far beyond that as I can.
During my consult with the OB today, whom I hadn't met before today, she said "you suck at being pregnant." And it didn't bother me one bit that she said that, partly due to the way she said it, and mostly due to the fact that she's right and I appreciated the honesty. She said it in a lighthearted way, and believe it or not, I really like this particular OB. But she's not coming back until next week :( Prior to that statement, I mentioned that hubby and I wouldn't be doing this again. So her response was very welcomed- I don't want to hear the usual and obligatory "you never know what will happen" or anything along those lines, which I know are statements that are meant to encourage me and help me. Honestly, who would choose to go through this again? And it's not a matter of if it were to happen if I got pregnant again. After being diagnosed with incompetent cervix (which is what I have), a subsequent pregnancy would require a preventative cerclage. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a stitch... yes, a stitch... or two through your cervix to hold it shut. And there's a risk of all of that tearing if you go into labor and they can't remove the stitch in time. Aside from that, it requires bed rest afterward and while it's not necessarily hospital bed rest, it's still bed rest from about 12ish weeks onward. So again, who would choose to go through all of this again? And there's no guarantee that any of that would work and I feel very blessed to have made it to 30 weeks. If she were to be born now, we'd be looking at about 6+ weeks in the NICU. If I were to deliver any earlier, the results could be even more devastating.
I think I had more thoughts to get out, but it's time for me to lie on my side for a bit to see if my contractions will subside. If not, it'll be time to call the nurse. Wish me luck! If all goes well, then it's time for some Mad Men! I love that show.