Stomache-- is it labor or just a tummy ache?

Excuse all the cussing, just wanted to update everyone on what's going on about Gracee....

Is it a stomache or labor??? Read more to find out!!!


Yesterday (Thurs) around 3 am, I had a stomach ache. "Walter, my stomach hurts!" I cry. "It won't go away, the stomach hurts." I continue, "People say if I was in labor, I'd be balling out crying, but I'm not, so does that mean I'm not in labor?" Walter responds, "I don't know, Michelle!" I go and look articles online where women ask the question, "Contractions, what does it feel like?" I begin to read further about how some women felt (tight stomach, a ball up like feeling, etc). So I begin to get scared. "Walter, I think I'm in labor. I'm not sure." Walter responds, "Well, what does your instincts tell you?" I start crying, "I'm not sure. Sometimes my instincts are wrong, but I think I'm in labor, but I'm not really sure." I begin crying, "My stomach hurts!" again. "Walter, what do I do, she won't go down? She is tight. She is hurting me." I continue, "Well, if I walk around and it goes down, then its the false thing, right Walter?" Walter responds, "that's what my boss told me." I start walking around the house like crazy. "Walter! My stomach won't go down!" I continue, "What is wrong?" Walter responds, "I don't know, Michelle!!! Why don't you call your dr?" I call Johnson Memorial Hospital and ask for Community South Hospital phone number and the lady is blunt saying, "I don't know." It wasn't very helpful for a stomachache? Or at the time of thinking, was it a stomach ache??? I wasn't sure at the time. So, I try looking in the phone book, laying on my side on dad's bed, looking at my stomach, "Don't come now Gracie!," I cry. "Please just wait." I continue and all they have is a Community Health Network number for Indianapolis which isn't helpful. Information 1411 has had technical difficulties, so I wasn't able to call them. So, I call back Johnson Memorial Hospital paging my ob/gyn doctor, as the pain is getting worse and worse- with this stomach ache. I tell the pager lady the word contractions and within 1 minute my ob/gyn dr calls back, "Dr Stall here." I respond all tough and not crying, "Dr stall, I have a stomachache and I'm not sure what's wrong, but I think I might be having contractions. What does a contraction feel like?" He responds, "Well, the only best way to find out is to get checked out tonight." He continues, "When you get this far in pregnancy, your stomach will begin to feel like a balloon." - which he means tight. "Well, my stomachache won't go away and she is balled up and she won't go down like she usually does." He continues, "When you have a contraction, your uterus will get tight." I begin feeling my uterus while on the phone and indeed- it is tight. I respond, "Well, its tight. I don't know why." He responds, "Well, you know what you know what the best bet is from here." I continue, "Alright, I'll go to the hospital, but I'm tired of those ladies telling me I gotta have contractions before they can check for dilation. Can you have them check me tonight for dilation?" He responds, "Yes, if need be, I will tell them for you." My dad arrives home, "Dad, am I having contractions? Feel my stomach." I put dad's hand on my stomach, "See dad, she's hard, she won't go down. I think I'm having contractions. What does a contraction feel like dad?" Dad responds, "Hell, I don't know. I'm a man. Why would you be asking me this? You need to ask your mom or sister." I respond, "Dad, they're asleep right now and I tried calling mom, but I think I'm gonna make Jeff (my stepdad) mad." I call mom and no answer. I cry on mom's answer machine, "Mom! Mom!! My stomachache won't go away and I think I'm having contractions. Can you call me back?," I cry. Mom never calls me back due to her sleeping I guess. "Dad, the dr told me to go to the hospital to see if I'm having contractions. We are leaving now. See ya later!" I didn't know how long later would be when I said this. I didn't know what was going to be expected of me at this hospital or how many questions I'd be asked and how many confusing changes would happen and I'd get scared. I never knew anything or what would happen. We're about to walk out the door... Dad opens his wallet and hands Walter a $20 bill. We go out the door - not even saying thanks since I'm in so much pain and everyone is so worried about me at the time. We get in the vehicle and Walter goes down the bumpy road. "OH! Ah! This bumpy road.. Walter!" holding my stomache. Walter responds, "I'm trying to hurry, just hold on. Take deep breaths." I continue, "Walter, I'm not taking deep breaths. That's just plain stupid." Walter continues, "Well as usual, I'm low on gas since its not payday, so I'm glad your dad gave me a $20 bill or we wouldn't have been able to go anywhere, so we have to stop and get gas." My response, "uuuugh.. Will it take forever?" He responds, "No, I'll try to hurry." We see that idiot is working at Gas of America (the lazy guy that wouldn't take my coins one night and told me to go elsewhere until I have REAL money). So Walter is pumping gas, "Guess who's working? Its that dumbass and he's just being lazy walking around. What if you were in labor tonight and he was just standing there?" My response, "Walter!! I probably just have a stomachache" - trying to make him not worry. though, its way too late for that!! So, he finally pumps $10 of gas in the tank, goes in and has to wait on the idiot guy to ring him up, since he's acting like he's working. So after 3 minutes, Walter comes out walking toward the car. The milk man says, "Hey you left your gas thing open bud." Walter yells, "thanks buddy!," waving at him. And he told him to have a good night. Walter closes his gas thing and gets in the vehicle going down the bumpy part to get out, "Walter, that bump hurts!" Walter responds, "Its okay, we will be at the hospital soon." So, we go up 135 to County Line and go to Community South... My man drops me off at the emergency entrance, and I walk to the counter. "My dr told me to come here to check for contractions and dilation." She asks whom my dr is and I give her the name ... She goes in one office and tells a lady something, then gets me a wheel chair and I sit down in it, Walter walking aside- he must have parked real quick!!! So Walter, the nurse and I go up the elevator." I break the silence "uuugh. This thing is making me dizzy." We go to the labor unit desk and the nurse says, "Can I see your insurance cards?" My response, "Oh I forgot them! I was in a hurry to get here, don't you have them in the system." Her response, "No, we gotta make a copy of them each time you come." My response, "Well, I was in pain and was worried about the baby, so I had to come first. I just totally spaced it. Sorry." The nurse says, "that's alright," and sighs. I'm thinking *What a bitch*.... We go to my room and I crawl in bed.. Now finally Walter is being ALL nicey nicey to me. "Can you get you something to drink?" My response, "No, I'm just hurting. I want to find out why." So I'm laying there.. The nurses walk in and take my temperture (normal), blood pressure (normal) and then put contraction monitors on me. Not knowing how to read the machine, I'm thinking, *Okay, looks all normal to me! Now I can't wait to just go home and go to sleep!* yawning. Nurses come in and say, "Well, you're having contractions every 4 to 20 minutes, we will have to talk to the dr," and walk out of the room. I look at Walter, "Every 4 to 20 minutes. What's that mean?," looking puzzled and angry she didn't tell me what it meant. *Damn bitch nurse* I think.. So I'm laying there in pain with my back hurting and thinking *Oh here we go again with back pain like last time and they send me home saying she is just growing. Uugh.. this is so stressful!!* So I'm laying there in chronic pain (but not crying, so it must not be labor!!! Right?* So I'm a tough cookie... and then the nurse says, "Well, we're gonna have to give you a shot." My response, "What is the shot for?" She gets mad and rolls her eyes. "Its for contractions. Do you want it or not?" My response, "Well, I don't wanna stop labor if she's ready to come out." The nurse rolls her eyes again. "Do you want the shot or not? She's not 37 weeks, she's not ready. You need the shot.* she sounds all bitchy and she is beginning to piss me off. So, I finally say, "Okay fine, I'll take the shot, but I tell you- it won't help. It never helped me when I was born." She rolls her eyes with that look like shut up.- the nurse. So she gives me the shot and I'm laying there in pain and nothing happens- as I told her- BUT NOOOOOO nurses don't listen to me!!! So she comes in, "Well, it didn't help. I'm gonna have to call the dr." She calls me dr and my dr comes in. "Well, the nurse didn't know how to check dilation dr and I think I've been dilated for some time now, can you please check? That nurse kept wiggling her finger and told me I wasn't. I still think I am dilated. Can you just check? It feels like I am." He checks me down there as I scream and hollar it hurting and finally he says, "ya.. you are right. You're 2-3 cm dilated." My response, "I just thought I was, but the stupid nurse kept telling me I wasn't." He calmly says, "so from here, we will have to have you take an oral pill which will help stop contractions, but doesn't mean it will happen. We will see." So he tells me about an oral pill. So he walks out and goes back to what he needs to go. The nurse comes in 15 min later with oral pill and starts talking about how if that didn't work, I'd have to take a IV fluid for 24 hours and on and on she went in that terminology, acting like she knew everything. So Now I'm pissed off... "No, I'm not taking no IV fluid for medicine, unless my dr says I'm supposed to take it." She says, "Well, your dr said so." My response, "And what!! You told him to give me a medicine?" She gets mad, "Look, do you want to stop labor or do you want to get refusal of care?" My response (pissing Walt off more) as I'm arguing (so Walter says I'm arguing. Who gives a shit!! Its for the baby's well being and I wasn't told no IV fluid medicine by my dr!) ... So my response, "Ya... I'll refuse care, go home and have my baby at home if that's what you want." I continue, "I want to talk to my dr and I want him to come here and talk to me before you give me medicine." She hands me the pill... "ya, I'll take the pill, but no IV medicine, unless I hear from him first." My response, "You need to stop acting like you know everything as a nurse and be more nice." That pisses her off, "Well Michelle, what do you want me to do?" I continue, "I told you.. Call my dr." She responds, "Well, he has other babies to deliver. He can't be here 24/7 just for you." She pisses me off again. "No, I want to hear him say IV medicine before I do anything for my baby." She gets all pissed off, huffy and puffy with the other nurse in the room defending her-- they both walk out.. 2 against 1... Who do you think wins in this case? ME! I'm the patient and I'm GOING to be heard whether I piss off a nurse or not! So Walter and I start arguing, "Damn it! You know what you needed to do. Just dont argue and take the medicine." I continue, "Well, I don't know what they're giving me. It can hurt the baby." His response, "No, it won't hurt the baby. They know what they're doing." My response, "Well, they think they know it all, but they're stupid." His response, "Well, they've had the education and all that and know a lot more than you do. You're aren't the know it all here." My response, "I didn't say I knew everything! I'm just saying I'm not taking anything until my dr says it, she is mixing up the story and I didn't hear my dr say anything about IV medicine or anything like that. All he said was a pill." Walter's response, "Okay, if you want to argue." My response, "Damn it Walter! I'm not arguing. I'm just stating my side and everyone is teaming up against me." Walter's response, "We aren't teaming up against you.. its just you don't want to do anything.. You want to argue." My response, "No, I'm a mother and I want to make sure its the best for the baby first. I don't take anything without asking my dr." Water, "Well, the dr can't be here constantly and if he gives a message, you should believe it." My response, "Not after a lot of nurses give me mixed messages previously, I'm not believing this shit anymore and I'm tired of the fucked up relay service." So I'm still in a bad mood, laying with my stomach in pain and having more contractions with everyone giving me a living hell... Walter says again, "Well, if the dr starts breaking hell, I'm going outside to smoke a cigarette because I don't want to hear it." My response, "okay, you go smoke your cigarette while I delivery the baby right here. Good idea." He gets pissed off again, "I didn't say I was doing that," he walks near my bed, putting his fist up in the air angry and begins pacing. "Well, so I'm the only one fuckin stressed here and no one gives a shit. I see how it is." The dr walks in... "Hey everyone. How's it going?" - the joker type dr-- gotta love Dr Stall!! So I'm laying there upset, the nurse comes in - in a BETTER mood. How do that gradually happen after she was being a bitch? My mom and everyone thinks that the dr said something to her to make her calm her ass down ... The dr sits in the rocking chair. "So, you're 2-3 cm dilated. From here, you've taken a pill to stop contractions, so far, you're having some contractions, but not as frequent, but we will still monitor your fluids and all that stuff." I interrupt, "So did you say anything about an IV medicine if this one didn't work?" He responds, "Well, if this one doesn't work, then yes, that's the next option, after you take this pill every 6 hours and we monitor you. We're trying to eliminate the contractions, so she won't be born this early which is too early." I apologize to the stupid hateful nurse - even though I don't mean it - just to make her be a nicer nurse. "Oh, its alright." - she says. I'm thinking *oh God..what a fake person here*... So, I begin talking to my dr-- he's now rocking in the rocking chair. "So, do you understand what I've told you?" My response, "Well, yes, though if this one doesn't work, that means I take the IV thing, right?" He said, "Yes, that's right, but we're trying not to get to that point because that's the last option and we definitely don't want your baby in an incubator, on a ventillator or in Riley Children's hospital with machines working for her. Now I'm gonna have a tech lady come in and do an ultrasound, so we can see how big the baby is, just incase none of this works."

Continued... I wasn't able to post all of it in the first post, so here's the rest:

So, he leaves after I understand and so does the nurse. "See, I told you he wouldn't be mad. He never gets mad at me, Walter." Walter says, "Well, I guess he was pretty calm about it all and just knew you didn't understand and wanted to explain it better." So the tech lady comes in and does the ultrasound and says, "Awwww..she has the hiccups." She rolls the ball, "Well, she has a big head and its full of hair -- see that stuff? That's hair!" My response, "Cool," while smiling and looking at the screen while Walter stands beside me. She says, "Wow, she's a big baby, she weighs 5.6 pounds so far.*- last ultrasound she weighed 4.3 lbs. So eventually she says "you're 33 weeks and 3 days," and the dr had his set at 35 1/2 weeks and that I was okay to do a C-section if needed." She went back and told him I was no on the 35 week mark, so that's why he kept thinking *no, let's hold off, since she's not there yet*.... So I have plenty of fluids and of course, have to stay there all night like he said 24 hours and got released 9 am this morning... YAHH!! So the baby is doing WELL, but I'm released on medicine and he told me "If you were my daughter, this is what I'd do and writes the prescription for me and tells me I gotta tkae it every 6 hours with this bacteria medicine.. So, finally we leave and go by his boss (which his boss waves)-- weird timing! and she sees us in our car, so we go home. Of course- the day before she got the call at 8:30 am Thurs morning with his dead silence and right when she got on the phone his boss says, "So, how is she doing?"--and she immediately knew it was about me. He said, "Well, she's having medicine to stop contractions." And he's all scared and could barely pick the gut up to call which I thought was him being a big baby about it all!! LOL... So, he was talking to her and she and him agreed they'd talk more after more results came back. So I'm assuming today when he went to work (Fri) that he told everyone what the updates was (me being dilated and all that)... GEEE!!.... What a deli experience-- talking about labor, dilation and all that!!!


Thanks for reading.. Will keep everyone updated!!!

Ps... A stomache... how could I possibly know its labor or not? I guess its a guessing game-- they tell me, "oh count.. is it every 5 minutes or so?" All I know is if I have a stomache or any pain, I'm going in - even if I can't keep count- for ex.. the stomache I had- how do I know a count? That's nonsense!! My experience is sooo much different from every other women's counting thing! LOL

i didnt read the whole thing.. bc its soo long... but, i want to inform you.. if you cant figure out "the counting thing" then its not contractions. Contractions come in a timely manner .. if theres no timely manner its just constant, or sparatic, its not labor. You WILL know. Its like cramps but the longer youve been contracting the worse the pain gets ; the pain will not recede at all , if theyre not progressivly getting worse then its most likely not labor. trust the dr's and other people when they say you'll know, bc you definetly will. Even the braxton hicks, which i got about the last 2-3 months, you can tell the difference when it's the real thing. good luck.. i remember at the end of my pregnancy thinking every pain might be labor. so i know how it is!

They told me it was contractions and the dr says I'm dilated 2-3 cm. I'm trying to figure out if the mucus plug was lost within my discharge? How do I know if I lost it? My discharge was all gooey and white and some people told me the mucus plug can be white discharge- and isn't always the brown, pink or reddish discharge or whatever. I peed out brown chunks in pieces and stuff and asked the nurse about this and she was quiet and told me dr about it? I was never told what this brown stuff was I peed out in chunks. They always say the baby is doing well, but Sunday I went back to the hospital, felt like I was having contractions, but after drinking water, I guess it went away- the contractions. I'm taking medicine, but sometimes it doesn't help, even with the water drinking, and walking around. Its so hard...

I cannot keep count, but the contractions they said Thurs 3am was every 20 to 4 minutes or something like that? I can't remember how they said it. I was under so much stress from the nurses not understanding and telling me to count and take medicine to stop it, that I couldn't think straight.

I never had a count- it was probably off and on, but as for myself, the way I describe it is a constant tummy ache. That's just how I feel is horrible when it happens and it hurts and my stomach won't stop sticking out or soften up and my lower line below my stomach gets tight as well and my dr gave me meds for the contractions, but he said after the next week (will be 35 weeks), he was going to have me stop all contraction meds and if I go into labor- consider it the real thing. I'm so worried. Its my first and everything is so confusing and I'm not like all other women with the symptoms - mine vary and are different from time to time.

Just keep in mind--- that wasn't a question- it was a statement pretty much that a stomach ache is something to worry about and CAN be contractions- the constant going of a stomach / tummy ache can be contractions when a woman just thinks its a cramping feeling- it is a contraction because mine showed up as contractions on the monitors. Not saying all women with stomach or tummy aches or cramping feelings are having contractions BUT it CAN be contractions... just so some people know to take it serious.

im not sure what the mucous plug looks like , i never lost mine. i was 2 weeks late so they induced. surprisingly enough the day of my induction i went into labor myself but they induced me anyway to speed them up. honestly, i wouldnt be worried at all. nothing you said seems out of ordinary (to me). of course im no doctor but thats just my opinion. towards the end its normal to have weird stuff like that happen , and even early contractions. i wouldnt say anything is wrong i would say your body is actually functioning correctly, i mean your almost 35 wks, yeah thats a LITTLE early but nothing to be worried about. of course your going to worry because its your child were talking about, but everything will be fine. just take it easy and try not to stress about it. (So easy to say when your not in the situation! i know)..

As a mother, its so overwhelming with the worries we face everyday... its difficult at times and confusing. I'm doing my best as a mother to make the right choices, but maybe if mothers have a parent guide sent home from the hospital it would make things easier or had a guide for parents in the doc office would be neat to just have them handed out, but there is no guide to parenting-- each parent is different.. hehe! That's what makes parenting so exciting, I guess.

Hey Michellen, I am sorry to hear whats going on and hope everything is ok with you and the lil one right now...I was induced so have no idea about the "plug"...I hope you get thru it ok though...Happy holidays

Thanks, Cav. Please pray for our family. I will continue to keep all of you here in my prayers as well.

Michelle