We've hit a new record...(updated twice in middle)

Fifteen contractions this morning. In an hour. I'd say that's impressive, except, uh, that's not exactly how this is supposed to be working...

*shrug* I have to take my BP and pulse in a couple minutes, give myself a demand dose, and then remonitor from 10:30-11:30. Hopefully the extra dose will help calm things down. Otherwise, I imagine this will be an... interesting day.

I wonder if there's an award for hitting the record. Er.... scratch that. I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out. I have a feeling today I will not be moving much. My husband can wait on me hand and foot, right? Excellent.

Update: 8 contractions in my re-monitoring session. Got an auto-dose of terbutaline at 12pm. Remonitoring from 12:30-1:30. Not worried about it. Likely to go down again... that's three doses of terbutaline in a short timeframe. Even if it goes down, I may ask the nurse to call my doctor anyway, because that much terbutaline at once is making it hard for me to breathe comfortably. I think it's time to ask about repeating the Indocin regimen for 48 hours so that I don't have to keep doing this multi-dose stuff for the next few days. I dunno. I'm not feeling very assertive today, so I guess I'll just have to figure it out.

Update #2: Now I'm waiting for a call back from the doctor. Third monitoring session was 12 contractions. ... And while I was typing this the nurse from Matria called back to say she'd heard from the doctor on call (Dr. R.) and what she wants me to do is give *another* demand dose at 4pm, re-monitor at 4:30 and then decide whether I should come in to be checked. SO.... I'll update you later!

In other news.... I absolutely could not fall asleep last night, which is unusual for me. I mean, I usually can't STAY asleep, but most nights, my head hits the pillow and I'm OUT. Not last night. Not sure what the deal was, but I think it was close to 3am before I finally drifted off and I couldn't drag myself out of bed until about 10 'til 8 (normally I wake up around 6, even if I don't get out of bed that early). Anyway, in my supreme irritation at not sleeping, I read a couple blogs I've never read before and then got curious about something and got myself a tape measure...

Now, I've lost about 20-24 pounds this pregnancy (depending on the week... I seem to gain and lose the same 2-4 pounds week to week lately). But what wasn't making sense was that recently, many of my pre-pregnancy clothes have been fitting just fine. My skirts have fit me all along, but I grew out of my blouses pretty quickly after I started showing. (my skirts fit me primarily because I don't like things ON my belly; I prefer that they be under my belly... but recently, I've noticed that even my pre-pregnancy skirts are sometimes falling a little too low if I wear them and I realized I could actually pull them up around the largest part of my belly without any real discomfort other than my normal "I don't like things touching my belly" discomfort)

Anywhozit, I pulled out a tape measure and measured my girth. And sadly? My "waist" measurement (not that you can really call it a waist anymore) is only about an inch larger than it was last summer (the last time I measured my waist). I lost a bunch of weight (maybe 15 pounds in three months?) in my first pregnancy and only gained 3-5 pounds back after the miscarriage (some of which was attributable to the fertility drugs, I think). And I've lost about 20 in this pregnancy... but when you consider that the babies keep gaining weight and I'm not gaining weight... my total loss is probably much higher than 20 pounds. HOLY HECK! I wonder how much I'm going to weigh a few weeks after these babies are born. I mean, seriously, I'm overweight, there's no question. And I had a lot of weight to lose. But sheesh! I was JOKING after my first pregnancy when I said all I have to do to get to my idea weight is get pregnancy 3-4 times, but apparently pregnancy really IS the great weight-loss plan for me. How ridiculously odd.

(to be fair, a lot of this weight loss is probably due to the fact that I've been off of Depakote for a while now... I gained a LOT of weight taking Depakote, but had to get off of it because Depakote = EVIL in early pregnancy. And now I'm taking Topamax, which does have a weight loss side effect for some people... but when I last took it [at a significantly higher dose] I didn't have this kind of a drastic weight loss - not even close. Anywhozit, I think it's fair to say that I'm taking off that 20 pounds per year that the Depakote helped put on me... at a somewhat faster rate than I put it on)

Comments

[Rebecca]

My sister also had to switch epilepsy meds to Topomax and the pounds just melted off of her! She started on a lower dose and lost a crap load of weight. Once she went on a higher dose her weight evened out.

[LJ]

Dang, woman, on both counts.They don't think any of the contraction stuff could be related to the weight loss, do they? (Try telling that to the woman saying you have diabetes...)

[My Reality]

No more contraction records, ok?

[Rachel Inbar]

You're taking this amazingly well. I really liked your post about the 28-milestone too. I kept thinking about it last night when I couldn't fall asleep. I totally understand what you mean. Fortunately, what other people think doesn't have any impact on what ultimately happens.

[illahee]

oh, good luck with the contractions. sounds scary!!i, too, lose weight with pregnancy. in my case, i think pregnancy jacks up my metabolism. unfortunately, i start gaining again about six months after a baby...

[Shelby]

Just saw the two updates- I really hope you dont have to go in! I'll be crossing my fingers that they slow down now!!

[Jody]

Waiting to see what happened after the 4:30 monitoring session.I don't like the sleeplessness and the contractions in combination. I have a sneaky suspicion about your chances for hospitalization in the near future.....

[es]

I hope your contractions slow down!So weird, I also couldn't fall asleep for the life of me last night. I don't even know why, I'm not that big yet that it's uncomfortable to sleep. I actually couldn't fall asleep until after 5:00, which made me dead tired today. At least I know I'll be sleeping soundly tonight!

[triLcat]

wow. I wish my pregnancy had taken weight off. I gained like 30 lbs. Fortunately, about 25 came off right away (no effort required) but still!(over 200lbs here ;( )