Well, THAT wasn’t how I planned to spend Wednesday night.

Yesterday evening started out pretty normal.  Shane was out of town so my friend Joanna came over and we went on a walk/run (mostly a walk because it was hot out and I was tired).  We went down the street and around the Heights trail for 3 miles to Ruggles Green, where we had dinner and dessert.  Then we walked 2 miles back to the house.  On the way back I was sweating really badly even though it was much cooler out than when we started.  And I was sucking air; at one point Joanna said, “Are you ok?  You’re breathing really hard.”  But we chalked it up to the walk and the fact that I was talking so much, hah.

We got back around 8:30pm, and then I showered and talked on the phone with my mom for a few minutes around 9.  I was really uncomfortable but I thought it was because of the walk/run – my back was hurting.  Around 9:30 I noticed I was having a few contractions; once I started noticing I couldn’t stop and I noted that they were fairly close together, about 5 minutes apart.  I had had Braxton Hicks before but these kept coming instead of going away.  My baby book said to take a warm bath and drink a little wine to relax your body – shit, don’t have to tell me twice.  At that point I had already told Shane goodnight and it was about 11pm.  Took the bath, sipped the wine, nothing doing.  At 11:30 I decided to call my doctor’s answering service.  The on-call doctor called me back after an hour and said I should come into the hospital since I was only 32 (and a half!) weeks – they’d want to monitor me and possibly give me something to stop them, as well as run some tests to make sure I wasn’t going into pre-term labor.

I was really calm with the doctor on the phone and just said, ok I’ll come in.  I called Shane to let him know, but as soon as I heard his voice I burst into tears.  ”They want me to go to the hospital!!”  He was really calm and said he was sure everything was ok, that they were just going to check on me to make sure.  He tried to convince me to call Aimee but it was so late and I didn’t want anyone else to suffer alongside me – I already knew I was going to be there til dawn, that’s just how hospitals work.  So I changed and grabbed my stuff and headed to the hospital.

I remember the clock said 1:18am when I pulled up.  I had spent the drive bargaining with a G-d who rarely hears from me and promising to not complain about services or make fun of the rabbi anymore.  I was regretting all the times I’ve said in the past few weeks that I’m sick of being pregnant or that I’m ready for her to come out.  I knew it was too early.  But I was also trusting modern medicine to put a stop to whatever was happening!

I hadn’t even been on the tour yet; at least we can cross that off the list!  I’m now very familiar with the location of Labor & Delivery. It was weird being in a labor room.  The first thing the nurse did was run a couple of tests to make sure I wasn’t actually going into labor, those got shipped off to the lab.  I also got my first real exam – I had heard they hurt, but really the only way I can think to describe it is like someone trying to reach your tonsils.  But they are trying to reach them through your vagina.  Sorry, it’s the truth.  And she didn’t even buy me dinner, so I was understandably perturbed.  Then she strapped me up to a fetal heart rate monitor and a contraction monitor.  She came back twice in two hours to check on me and the contractions, which were coming about 3 or 4 at a time.  Once the lab confirmed I wasn’t at risk of going into labor (at least for the next week or so), the doctor ok’ed injections of terbutaline to stop the contractions.  I got 2 injections but after the first one my heart rate was already way up and it made me shake pretty violently.  The baby seemed to take it in stride and her heart rate didn’t really jump at all.

At one point I asked if I could have caused this, and the nurse told me it could be due to dehydration but that it could also be random.  Whatever, I am def going to be CHUGGING the water (and the Nuun!) from here on out.

After another hour, 2 hours (who can keep track of time?), or so they said I was free to go home.  I signed the paperwork and saw the two words I’d been grimly expecting – no exercise.  That’s til it’s cleared with my doctor, and I should see her today or tomorrow.  Could be worse, right?  Could have said no chocolate pudding.  They want me to stay home til I see her but I got cleared to work from home (what else am I gonna do?) and move around and can come and go a little so it’s not a total bed rest sentence for the next couple of days, which is a relief.

I took this picture as a preview for Shane so he knows how amazing I will look when the real thing rolls around.  I hope he is getting excited.  Man, the miracle of life sure is fugly.

I am just happy that she’s staying put for a while longer.  She still has growing and developing to do!! I’ve had a couple of contractions today but none that were nearly as close together as last night.  I think the last two were 45 minutes apart, so nothing concerning.  It was a little scare, but all is ok now!

I told my boss and friend/coworker Kyle that it’s amazing the lengths I will go to just to get out of leadership training (which I was scheduled to be at today).  Oops.