Uterus alert level: yellow

So, no prizes for guessing that I got a second scenic vacation to L&D. (I got the same room as last week -- no new scenery, even!) I had had a lot of contractions Tuesday evening, aaaallllmost enough to push me over my go-to-hospital threshold, but they settled down enough for me to fall asleep. I suspect they might have continued throughout the night, though, because I woke up with them in the morning. It eventually became clear they were settling in for the long haul, and after a couple hours, I called G to come home and take me in.

For a while, it looked like the second verse would be the same as the first -- get on the monitor, verify that yes, those are contractions, give me some terb and fluids, and wait a while for it to not work. However, the baby started going a little bit off-script during that waiting process, and decided he was tired of having his head squeezed every four minutes. He started having early decels with the contractions, and dropped off the monitor entirely here and there, and generally started freaking everyone right the heck out, so they quit fooling around and got a mag bag hung.

Mag sulfate is pretty much just as lousy as I remember it being from last time. I felt really miserable while I was getting the initial bolus dose, enough to make me ask for some Stadol so I could just go away for a little while. After that, it settled back down into general queasiness and fatigue, which is pretty much where it stayed. Most importantly, it got the job done with the contractions.

They took me off the mag this morning, because in addition to not having contractions, I stopped having some skeletal reflexes. Mag sulfate works by interfering with the calcium ions that cause muscle cells to contract, so it tends to stop *all* your muscle cells from contracting very effectively. So no, your uterus doesn't contract, but it also gets hard to do things like stand up or focus your eyes, or have your leg kick out when something hits the front of your kneecap. I've been off the mag for quite a few hours now, and I still feel like I'm just kind of half-melted into the bed.

Since my uterus decided to get with the program, I've been moved to a regular room, and fed, and heplocked off, and allowed to go to the bathroom. All of these things are fantastic. There's sunshine coming in my window and cool white sheets on my bed, and I'm content to just lie here and not contract and not have a baby. I'm not dilated or effaced, and nobody has said anything about yesterday's FFN being positive, so I'm assuming it's negative. I tested positive for a mild UTI, although I had no symptoms of one, and I'm kind of hoping that maybe that's what's been behind all this uterine uproar.

I fully and completely expect that I'll be making more visits to L&D over the next few weeks. I'd like to avoid having one *every* week, but Dr. Pro says if that's what it takes, that's what we'll do. There's really nothing else *to* do -- not much point to trying a terbutaline pump when the terbutaline shots never work, and I'm already on Procardia. As long as I don't dilate, she'll keep throwing me back out to home bedrest.

75 days to go.