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Thursday, March 29, 2012

It's A Crime

To have a pregnant woman suffer from food poisoning. True story. 

Late Tuesday afternoon I started to feel ill. I chalked it up to a long day due to our play date. I took a bath and designated that night an early bed time night. A little before 10:30 I woke up in intense pain.  I pooped, I puked, then tried to lay back down only to realize I was having contractions and was shaking uncontrollably and there was no way I could lay in bed. Was I was dying? I woke an incoherent Sam up and asked him to fill my water up while I pooped and puked some more and tried hard not to panic. UGH. I debated going to the hospital as I simply felt AWFUL and the fact that I was having contractions freaked me out, but ultimately I decided I would wait it out to see if things got worse. The hospital is an hour away and with having to wake the neighbor to come over and watch the kids, you better make damn sure you really are dying before you make the trip, lol. I decided to lay myself up on the couch and that's where I remained the rest of the night, suffering. Poop, puke, contractions. I did not sleep. Not one wink. It was a loooooooong night. 

Morning came and a call to my midwife placed her sitting on my couch telling me I looked awful. At least she came over with my remedies. She told she was fairly certain I had food poisoning. I ran through a list of things I had eaten on Tuesday and not properly washed veggies or dirty kiddo hands after going potty and touching my food seemed to be the culprit. And because I'm pregnant, I'm more susceptible to getting ill. As for my contractions, being so sick and dehydrated was causing and fueling them on. She gave me some Oregano Oil capsules to take every 3 hours to help with the food poisoning and then an herbal tincture (a little dropper bottle filled with a concoction of different herbs) to stop the contractions. She said this tincture stopped 7 past clients from going into labor preterm. Good news because no home birth for me before 37 weeks. I'm only 32 and Timothy is NOT ready to come now and I'd be crushed if he came this early and we couldn't follow through with my home birth and even more crushed because he'd wind up being in the NICU from coming too early. I'm a bit fearful of delivering early. I really need to sit back and relax....but easier said than done with two other kiddos running around. 

Anyway, since my Midwife was over, we did my regular appointment. Timothy was fine. He's head down and has appeared to have dropped. Even Sam commented later that night how my belly looked lower and not as "wide." I think some of it might be due to the fact that I'm dehydrated and not overstuffed with food anymore, but I can feel the difference in my ability to breathe better, so I know he has turned and dropped at least a bit. Timothy's heart beat was great and he was still very active, so apparently I'm the only one suffering, lol. She left and told me if things didn't start to get better to call again and of course I knew if these contractions didn't stop or got worse it was really time to head to the hospital for some not so natural preterm labor intervention.

Thankfully the Oregano Oil worked like a charm. I was able to keep some food and water down shortly after taking my first capsule. I took one drop of the herbal tincture on my tongue every 20 minutes or so and the number and intensity of my contractions started to decrease. I layed on the couch and tried to relax and sleep as best I could the rest of the day and was more than happy when Sam got home from work. I took an Epsom salt bath and napped on the couch while Sammy took the kids outside to play for a while and give me some peace and quiet. By the time bedtime rolled around I had no more contractions and I had the best nights sleep I've had since becoming pregnant. I slept like a rock. Maybe because I can finally breathe and am more comfortable with a non food and water bloated belly? I'm feeling significantly better today, though still very tired and worn out. I plan to relax as much as I can today so I'm able to take Anthony to school tomorrow. He was so upset when I couldn't take him yesterday, poor boy. 

Lessons learned: Wash your veggies well, wash your hands....and everyone else's, and natural remedies can work! 

I'm glad that nightmare is over with.

With love,
Mama Hauck


3 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! Glad you're feeling better~ how scary!

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  2. Oh my goodness, what a nightmare!! It's hard to not be scared with contractions at 32 weeks. I'm glad it's over!

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  3. So good to hear you're feeling better Becca. I'm glad you were able to treat it naturally!

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