After 5 1/2 hours in labor and delivery...

I was diagnosed with a very bad urinary track infection. The third one this pregnancy. So, our Saturday went a little something like this:

I woke up with pain in my lower abdomen and on my left side. I was taking it easy and just trying to rest it away, but it only got worse. Then when I went to the bathroom there was blood again, just like a week and a half ago. After this happening off and on all day, I decided to call the on-call doctor, which just happened to be my actual OB. She wanted me to go to labor and delivery to rule out pre-term labor. So, off we went to Good Sam at about 2:30. We got checked in around 3:00 p.m. and I was hooked up to monitors to watch Maxton's heart rate and to see whether or not I was contracting. They also wanted a urine sample, so I began to drink down the water. An hour later I was able to given them a sample and an hour after that they determined that there was a lot of blood in my urine and therefore that's what I was seeing. They double checked that it wasn't coming from anywhere else, but by this time we were feeling very confident that it was a UTI. This was around 5:00 p.m. They took me off the monitors because Maxton was doing well and I wasn't contracting at all. They called my doctor and reported what they had found. She wanted to rule out kidney stones (this is when I got really nervous) and a kidney infection. I didn't have a fever and by now the pain was mostly gone (I think it was part gas) so the likelihood was slim, but still... 

So, I waited about another hour to get an ultrasound on my kidneys to check for stones. Then I waited another hour to get those results and THEN we had to wait for Dr. Kendrick (best obstetrician in the world, by the way) to come and release me. All in all, I didn't have kidney stones (THANK GOD!) and she didn't even think I had a kidney infection. She just said it's a bad UTI and prescribed me a stronger antibiotic. She'll now be screening my regularly for UTIs throughout the pregnancy and if I get another one I'll have to be on a low dose antibiotic for the remainder of the pregnancy. 

I'm feeling much better today and have had 3 rounds of the antibiotics so far. I've been pounding the water, cranberry juice, cranberry pills, and cranberry pills. Anything to try and make this clear up. Apparently I'm prone to them in pregnancy even though I've never had one prior. I didn't want to even call for fear that I was being a hypochondriac and would be a bother to my doctor. Well, although nothing serious was wrong with the baby (thank goodness!! ) I did have something that needed immediate treatment or it could have become something much worse. So, though it wasn't fun spending all that time in L&D, I am glad I now know what's going on and am working on curing it. Always trust those instincts and never feel bad about calling your doctor is what I learned this weekend! The staff at Good Sam was amazing! They were so reassuring and put me right at ease. They even let me hang there while I was waiting for the ultrasound, even though technically I should have been sent to the ER. It was much cozier waiting in our own room with the TV and toilet nearby. I'm very thankful to know I'll be delivering in a hospital with such great people working there! Although, that said, I don't want to go back there until mid-late September...