Monday morning when I woke up my back hurt. It wasn't like a pulled muscle sort of hurt but more of a crampy hurt (I know my body really well and I'm good at telling the difference between pains). I figured I had slept on it wrong and just went about with my day. When I got up on Tuesday my back hurt even more. As the day progressed the pain got worse and worse. It felt like menstrual cramps in my back, ranging from 4-6 on the 1-10 pain scale. My stomach also felt tight and something just felt "off". I can't explain it but something felt like it wasn't right. I had a weird dizzy and nausea spell Monday evening, too, which was out of the ordinary. I'm honestly not one to complain about pain but my back cramps were pretty bad so I told my mom who advised me to call my doctor's office. Since it was outside of regular office hours I had to wait for the on-call doctor to call me back. When she did, she told me to come right to the labor and delivery triage unit, AKA the pregnancy emergency room. I hung up and just started crying. I had just finished making dinner but I didn't even eat, my mom and I left right away. I seriously cried the whole way there. I was SO SCARED that something was wrong with Camden... that I did something to hurt him... I texted Jake like half a million times trying to wake him up and he called me right away. It was very comforting to hear his voice and his calm reassurance that everything would be okay but I was still scared. And I felt bad for waking him up in the middle of his night of sleep, poor guy. We got to triage and they took me in right away. They had me give a urine sample and got me hooked up to a monitor while I waited for the doctor. The doctor took a couple other samples and checked my cervix then got paged and had to go. I sat there for 2-3 hours hooked up to the monitor, waiting for the doctor to come back again. It took a few minutes to find Camden's heartbeat at first. Those felt like the longest few minutes of my life. But the nurse found it and it was strong! Thank God! He hadn't been very active all day, which also had me concerned, but he started kicking and moving once the monitor was on. I think he could sense my stress or something. It was almost like he was trying to kick the monitor off my stomach because he kept kicking all around it! It was actually pretty funny. And it was cool to feel him moving and hear the funny noises his movements made on the monitor. They also monitored my uterine pressure to see if I was having contractions. Luckily I wasn't having contractions and my cervix was still closed so that was a relief. Both good signs. As much as the whole experience was scary, I'm glad that I went to triage. It's better to be safe than sorry. And it was nice to listen to Camden's heartbeat for so long! That was very comforting to me. Once the doctor finally came back, everything still looked good and she told me I wasn't having preterm labor. She didn't say what was going on or what might have caused my pain but she didn't seem too concerned about it so that put me at ease. The nurse gave me an information sheet on preterm labor and told me that I had the first three signs so it was good that I had called and gone in to be seen. She said that if my pain changed or got worse or if anything else on that list happened to call back again. A lot of people have told me that dehydration can cause preterm labor but I know for sure that wasn't the case for me. I drink 70-90oz of water a day and the nurse even commented on how hydrated I was based on the fact that my urine sample was clear, haha (TMI? Sorry!). I've also heard that strenuous activity can bring on contractions but I only do prenatal workouts. I make sure that every workout I do is safe for my little man. And if I don't push myself too hard. I'm extremely in-tune with my body so I'm confident that I'm taking good care of myself. Bottom line: this was a very scary experience but Camden and I are both okay! My back still hurts today but it's much better than yesterday. It's weird because it doesn't feel like a muscle thing or a strain from my tummy growing... I know that back pain is common in pregnancy but mine just came out of nowhere all of a sudden! I hadn't had any back pain before this, and that's why it was a cause for concern. And it was in my lower back. Those are bad signs usually. I'm just thankful that everything turned out okay and Camden is good! I can deal with the pain as long as I know that my baby is okay. So now we're taking it easy (even though I really want to workout, haha) and waiting for the pain to go away completely. For now, I'll ease it with some heat and extra sleep. Thank you all for the concern and prayers! I'll update if anything else happens. But for now, I leave you with these extremely flattering pictures of me while I was in triage, haha:
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