My Mucus Plug??

Hi– This is knid of gross, but when I lost my mucus plug, it was like snot with some red & yellowish/whiteish hints of color. I passed mine in 30 minutes or so. I also had back labor. It would feel like someone was shoving something sharp up my rectum. The contractions were very sharp, you would not miss them. I think if your back is still uncomfortable you should be checked. I hope this has not scared you, but I would always rather than be informed, than just scared. Good Luck!– Carrie

Kristin,

Hi, my name is Lorraine, and I am 6 weeks pregnant with my third child. Like you, I had my first child very young…(at 15), and felt as though I was not given the same respect and comfort I needed, simply becasue my pregnancy was not "accepted". I was on bed rest for the last four months of my pregnancy, and went into pre-term labor three times. When I passed my mucus plug, I felt the WORST pain in my lower back and thighs that I have ever felt before. The pain continued for three weeks, and I delivered my son at 34 weeks. He was perfect, healthy, and the pain stopped once I saw his face. I know you may be scared, and worried, but it will be ok. You are no longer a child. You are a mother. Once that maternal instinct has kicked in, you will make the right decisions for you and your baby. And if you feel as a new mother that this pain you are experiencing is unbareable, go to the hospital immediately. Don’t wait for the midwife…just go. This is not about you anymore, it’s about the life of the baby inside you. Keep your head up, don’t let what anyone says about you bring you down, because there are MANY of us out here who know exactly what you are going through, and can surely say that everything happens for a reason. God makes NO mistakes, and you and your baby are as precious to Him as anyone else. I wish you and your baby great joy, and will be praying for you both. Good luck!

Sincerely,

Lorraine

well, i went to the doctor on monday. they said my cervix is not dilating, but it is starting to soften… ??? then i asked them what would happen if i were to have the baby now, and did they think the baby would be born prematurely, and the doctor was like , ‘well, i can’t say anything about you going into pre-term until you start dilating for legal reasons. i will tell you to stay off your feet and dont travel any further than 45 mintues from the hospital. and if your baby were born now, well, we have such good incubators these days that she would survive, she just might stay in the hospital a few weeks, but it’s best she stay in there as long as possible because anything before 37 weeks is considered preterm.’ so… i am kind of taking it that he does think im going to have the baby early… (i asked to see a doctor this time instead of a midwife) why else would he have been so stern about staying off my feet and not going to far from home & staying close the hospital?? i had an ultrasound the same day to check on the baby’s well-being. the ultrasound tech and doc said she weighs around 4 lbs., and that her kidneys are developed and functioning or something like that, and that her bladder, brain, heart, etc. looked great. i had just had a 4-d ultrasound the saturday before that (august 6) and by the way, she’s a girl! 🙂 we’re naming her Laelynn. and they said she has a head full of hair LOL but i had a head full of dark hair when i was born, so that was kind of expected. other than that, she looks just like her daddy! and she is so chubby, her little hands have rolls of fat on them and around her fingers LOL and she has chubby cheeks, she’s precious. i have 22 pics on my computer, so if anyone wants to see her, e-mail me! but anyways, i told the doctor that i thought i might have passed my mucus plug, he was just like, yes, that sounds like it might have been that.’ and then he did some kind of culture where he swabbed my cervix to check and see if there was any amniotic fluid present, to see if that was my mucus plug, and if in fact it was, to make sure i hadn’t gotten any infections from taking hot baths and stuff after losing it. but they still havent called me with the results or anything, and that was monday, the 8th. would they have called me by now if anything was wrong you think??? about the back pain– im still having the back pain and it shoots down into my legs, and the past few days, ive started hurting under my ribcage. i dont know how to explain it really, it just feels like there is a knife stuck there in the same place on both sides. other than that, my belly isnt actually hurting or anything. but ive been getting dizzy and stuff, and throwing up, and just not feeling very well, and i read in a book that signs of preeclampsia are sharp pain under your right rib cage, dizziness, vomiting, a high fever, and some other stuff, so im going to call the doctor and see if theyll make sure i dont have that, my mom is bugging me to call because she said thats not good if that happens.

well, no baby as of now… i guess she might be coming soon though. i have a pregnancy calendar counting down the days, and it says im on day 223, and that i have i think 54 days to go or something like that, and that’s if i go to 40 weeks, so either way, she’s coming soon!

ill keep everyone posted.

one more question: how long do you usually go after losing your mucus plug?? some people are telling me they had their baby the same night, and then some of my friends say they had theirs 2 weeks later, and then the doctor said he’s seen women who lose their mucus plug, and still don’t have their baby for another month to month in a half, that everyone’s different…

thanks for replying!

-kristin

I hope that by the time you get this you haven’t had a preemie! But it sounds like what happened to me. At 27 weeks I started preterm labor and was given antibiotics for a bladder infection that caused contractions. Apparently that wasn’t the only cause because at 31, 33, and 35 weeks I had preterm labor again. I felt that I wasn’t taken seriously either so you’re only choice is to follow what your body tells you and pray for the best. Since my doctor said bedrest wasn’t necessary and I felt it was I enforced it myself. I did everything I could to keep my baby healthy and she was OVERDUE! So follow your instincts and best of luck!
Sara

ok, i asked to see a doctor instead of a midwife, and went in and had him check me. but right before i left i found out he specializes in infertility or something… lol i guess he still knows what hes talking about though. anyways, i told him about my back, because the pressure started back up again really low, right above my tailbone, and when it does it, i get pressure down low in the front too. so he checked to see if i was dilating and said the same thing the other person said last time, that my cervix is softening, but not yet dilating. and he said he can’t treat me like he would a patient for pre-term unless im dilating or unless im having 4 or more contractions per hour. (next time i have a problem and they dont want to listen to me, im gonna use that as my excuse lol ill just go up there and tell them im having more than 4 an hour.) he did say the baby is in position, and that when he examined me, her head was in my pelvic ring. and the ultrasound confirmed that, she was head-down the tech said. it made me mad though, because the doctor was like well i’m being called to labor & delivery at the hospital, so ill send in my nurse to answer any questions you might have. so i was like well, aren’t you even going to look at my back? it is swollen to hell & back where it is hurting, and i don’t think that’s normal with me being as petite as i am, my back has never been ‘swollen’. and he was like, lean forward. and then he just pressed on it a bit, and said does it hurt here? i was like no. and he said here? i said no…. it hurts down low. and he said well, back ache in pregnancy is usually here. and he pushed on my lower back, but not where it was hurting. and then he was like well, 1 in 200 women experience pain where you are experiencing it during pregnancy. you are having a problem with a sciatic nerve. stay off of your feet, don’t go out unless you have to, and use someone or something as support when you do walk, because with a sciatic nerve problem, your leg could give out on you while you’re walking and it wouldn’t be a good thing if you fell. then he said the reason my back is swollen and fevered is probably because the nerve is inflamed and the baby’s head being in my pelvic ring already is pinching the nerve against my spine or something. but i dont know if thats the problem or not, he didnt really even press on the area that was hurting. but i asked ihm what to do about the pain and he said all i can do is apply moist heat. he said he wasnt going to lie to me and say take a few tylenols that itll help, because he said it’s not going to help any. he said that if it gets bad enough that he will refer me to physical therapy. i didnt know they sent you to physical therapy while you were pregnant. he said that if it gets that bad, which he said hes only had to do this for like 4 women, he said they can hospitalize you and put an epidural or something similar in place to relieve the pain. and he said me throwing up is because of the intensity of the pain, that it will sometimes trigger contractions in your uterus and in your stomach, as if your stomach were digesting food, but overworking itself, so he said it causes you to vomit. and then about the mucus plug thing- he said it could have been parts of my mucus plug, that you usually pass it in parts, but he said since he didn’t see it when i passed it, he wasn’t guaranteeing me that’s what it was because he didn’t want me holding him to it, but he said also it could have been cervical secretions from the pressure the baby’s head is putting on all of my organs and nerves right now. anyways, he told me to keep my appointment i already had for the 31st i think it is, but if i had any doubts about what i was feeling or any worries, to call and tell the receptionist that i spoke with him and he said to come in right away, and he said that should always get me an appointment booked, just by saying the doctors or midwives said it was urgent i be seen. (wish i wouldve known it was that easy a week ago lol)

so, i dont know if i should just be content with that answer to the problem for now, or what. does that sound like that could honestly be my problem?? it does kind of go with my symptoms, but i dont know. he didnt really look at my back all that long either. i dont know how to take doctors. like, i dont know if hes been doing this so long that he just knows that’s what the problem is, or if he just told me that because they were calling him to labor & delivery and he had to go. so all i can do really is sit in the bathtub and run the shower on me, because he said since he doesnt know if i passed my mucus plug, he doesnt want me sitting in a bath because hot water harbors bacteria and it could cause infection. but then he said its better for me to sit in the shower instead of standing because the steam from the shower could make me lightheaded and faint.

so what happens if you only pass part of your mucus plug like he said, and not the whole thing??

-kristin

is there something to do with the lavender that helps, or will any lotion do? i don’t live at home with my parents anymore, they signed for me to get married last august (2004) when i ended up pregnant by my now-husband. (it resulted in miscarriage in september though.) 🙁 i still go over there a lot, though. me and my mom are really close. i guess i could still get her to do it sometimes when i’m over there, or get him to do it at night. i’ve been making him rub my feet and massage my neck, so i’m sure he’ll be thrilled. LOL! 😛 i’m 32 weeks & 4 days today. do you think my baby would be moving into the birth canal already? the doctor i seen last time said something about her head being in my pelvic girdle or whatever it’s called last time and that she was putting pressure on everything. so does that mean the same thing or close to it? this stuff confuses me! well, anyways, i hope you start feeling better, too, because believe me, i know how that back pain can be! and no, i don’t sleep very well lately either lol i can’t, i toss and turn and wake up every 30 minutes with severe back pain or having to pee LOL!

well, i will have to go buy some lavender lotion then. 🙂 i’m open to try anything at this point that will relieve some of the aches and pains and expecially make me relax. i’m always so tense lately it seems like. i developed a new discomfort sometime between last night and today, and it is driving me absolutely crazy! my tailbone is KILLING me, it feels like i broke it LOL seriously though, it feels like i severely bruised it somehow. it hurts to sit, and what’s weird is that i thought if i sat on a soft surface it would feel a little better, but it actually seems to make it even more sore. it hurts the worse when i have been sitting for a while and then try to get up. you’d think that would relieve the pain being the pressure is being relieved off of it. i guess the baby is just putting pressure on everything. i just don’t see how my tailbone could suddenly start hurting at the drop of a hat. it’s never hurt before. but hey! my back hasn’t hurt nearly as bad today now that my tailbone has started hurting. 🙂 one problem solves itself, and i get another! lol

well, i haven’t had any really ‘labor’ symptoms i guess you could say lately… today i started getting more braxton-hicks than is usual, but there was no pattern between them, they were just on and off all day. they are starting to hurt a little, though. not bad, just a slightly aggravating pain. as far as the discharge thing, i passed another clump of the same stuff as before yesterday. there was no pink tint to it though, and no blood. it was just really slimy, kind of stringy, and white and clear this time… my next appointment is august 31 at 9:00am. hopefully i’ll get all my answers then, and a lot of things cleared up. my husband is going with me, and they are usually a lot nicer and answer more questions when he asks something, so i’m just gonna get him to ask the midwife everything. besides, he’s more pushy than i am and doesn’t mind being rude if he doesn’t get his way. lol 😉

-kristin

thanks for the congrats! 🙂 well, what makes me mad about the whole thing is this: ok, medicaid is there to help people who can’t afford health insurance, ya know? it’s not like the doctor’s don’t get paid, they still get their money from the government. so why do patients on medicaid get treated differently? it’s really not fair. and about them getting a chip on their shoulder when ‘a child is having a child’: they honestly should be supporting teenagers who decide to go through with their pregnancies, and have that baby. it shows a big sense of maturity on our parts. we accept the fact that there’s a little life growing inside of us, and are taking our responsibility as a young mother now, and fulfilling our duties. in my opinion, they should be supporting me, not pushing me to the side because im young and saying i have too many complaints. doesn’t the fact that i’m having my baby, and worried about her and my well-being mean anything to them? i mean, i thought that doctors were there to help us. :unsure: i care about my child, and what happens to her, i would give my life for this baby that i have never even met yet, but already love so much! and it aggravates me that they don’t even want to give me the time of day. they don’t even return my calls! you know what i sometimes think?? i really sometimes think that the reason they are like this with teenagers is because they think in their heads that we would be better off if something happened to the baby, that way we wouldn’t have that on our hands anymore. and that is sad, but that is really what i think when doctors act like that. if a 30 year old woman went in there with the same problems or questions i am having, im pretty sure they would send her right over to labor and delivery to be evaluated.

Hi- I hope you feel better soon! As far as your tailbone goes, I have a friend who had that happen just recently too! It turned out that her tailbone was pointed out the wrong way- that the baby put so much pressure on it, it was pointing out. She went to a few chiropractic visits after the baby was born and was fine. Just an FYI for you