A Visit to the Hospital

I'll start out by saying, "I love my mother's cooking!" Thanksgiving was wonderful and the menu consisted of roasted turkey, cornbread dressing, collard greens, sweet potato souffle, baked macaroni and cheese, brown rice, turkey gravy, squash and my apple crisp for dessert. All of us crashed after eating our weight in food and perhaps, it was the food that got the baby going. I started having braxton hicks like crazy. After about the 15th, my mother was like, "Call and see if this is normal, or if we should bring you in." I spoke to an Amber "something" and she said that they were normal, until or if they began to appear 4 to 6 times within the hour. Mine were more random and I'd had several over a several hour period, so everything was fine.

My husband slept like the dead, literally. My mother had put a blanket down for her dog and ours (so, imagine a 116 pound Rottweiler laying next to a 109 pound great Dane) right in front of the fire place. My hubby was snoozing on the couch when he sat up all of sudden then relocated to the floor next to the dogs. It was the craziest funniest thing we'd seen all night. He stayed there for another two hours before I had to roll him out of sleep. He showered, packed some leftovers, then went to work. (My daughter stayed to sleep over).Once I got home, I ate again then got in the bed, still having contractions.

Yesterday, I was so paranoid about the potential of having the baby early, I quickly got the tree up then decided to finish up the nursery. (Thanksgiving morning, I finally finished the stenciling of the South wall). I started with the crib and was so impressed by the instructions, I was half-tempted to call and commend whoever the technical writer had been. So often, instructions are written without any mind to the person who will be assembling the product. There were so many, obviously female nuisances, that I marveled at how fast the crib was coming together. Once the crib was assembled (all by my lonesome), I went downstairs, dragged up the bassinet box and assembled that as well. Then, I took the car seat and stroller out of its box and set them against the wall, just in case. I was really tired, but proud of myself.

This morning, I awakened around 1:30 to aches in my lower back. After getting up to use the bathroom, I got back in bed and found a comfortable position. While laying there, the Braxton Hicks started up again...this time, coming much more frequently then Thanksgiving evening. I started keeping up with the times. They were between 4 and 9 minutes apart. I started to pack my bag (just in case), then called my mother. She was at my house in about twenty minutes. We woke up my daughter and headed to the hospital. Once there, the emergency crew toke forever!Two people working with only two people in the waiting room, and we sat there for twenty minutes. Finally, I started filling out paperwork. The lady attending to me says, "Are you pregnant, honey?" I was like, "Yes." Then she says, "Oh my God I couldn't even tell!" What the hell?! Do people normally carry basketballs under their shirts? I mean, really! Then she says, "I am so sorry, let's get you in here." So, she starts working on my paperwork double-time, then calls up to Labor and Delivery to get me a room.

My mother, daughter and I head to the labor and delivery area and are greeted by very nice night nurses. We get into the room (which is beautiful and much bigger than the hospital room I had with my first) and I get undressed and into the dreaded hospital gown. Once in the bed, she straps on heart monitors and a arm cuff for frequent blood pressure checks. The nurse, Amberly (the same lady, I think, I spoke to on Thanksgiving) asked me a series of questions about my medical history, preferences for delivery, etc.... I was beginning to get a little nervous, but she assured me that the baby was fine and that, indeed, I was still having contractions, but she would call my doctor to see what he wanted to do. She suggested that he might have me get a
tributelene injection, which would slow down and stop the contractions. She also said she'd check to see if my cervix was dilated. Great! Don't you just love a good pap smear?

She left for a few minutes, then came back and swabbed me. Lovely! It was unpleasant, but bearable. Then, she takes a glove and lubes up several of her fingers to check my cervix. Oh my God! I thought I was going to die! She's pretty much fisting me to find the tip of my cervix. Yikes! It felt like it took forever, then my daughter pipes up, "Mommy, is she reaching in to grab your baby?" Oh, the mind of a child. That chillaxed me right away. She let me know, as soon as she extracted her hand from my area, that my cervix was not dilated.

So, the nurse spoke to my doctor and the injection was approved. Ow! It was one of those that burns going in. Then she tells me it will make me jittery. After about 30 minutes, I was shaking like I'd drank four cups of coffee. Ironically, the contractions were slowing and she believed I would get to go home after a little more observation. As we waited, I took a good look around the room to see what would be available to me whenever the baby did come. The TV has a dual deck VCR and DVD player. Nice! I'm planning on rewatching the LOTR triology when baby finally arrives. There was a nice couch, a lounge chair, several wood chairs, and a glide rocker. There was also a billy Rubin table for baby. I liked the idea of a table like that being in the room, rather than down the hall in the nursery. You could still attend to your baby, even if he/she had jaundice.

Nursey comes back and says that the swab she took for a test I can't remember the name of, came back negative. It would have basically told us if I was due to have the baby within two weeks. Wow! How far things have come since I last delivered. My mother was like, "Great! I've got a two week window where I don't have to worry." Me, too.

I finally went home, feeling a loopy and jittery (the way I feel when I've taken a Loritab). It was snowing lightly and the air was more crisp than it had been in weeks. My mother stopped and
got us all breakfast. She stuck around while I packed the babe's bag, then took her with her when she left (I knew I wouldn't be able to take her to the birthday party in Salt Lake today, especially after nursery dear and doctor instructed me to "take it easy"). Nursey even said that if my contractions started up again, I should miss work on Monday. Thank goodness for that laptop! I can't get over how valuable that thing is going to be to me. Once my mother left, I slept for several hours.

So, here I sit now, eating leftovers and writing about the early morning's events. It was so surreal and a bit scary, all at the same time. I kept hubby in the loop and when he finally came home, he kept falling asleep as I told him what was going on. Of course, I got pissed off and he was just as mad at me for storming off like a two-year old, but I felt justified in my irritation. The contractions are still coming, but nothing like they were before. At any rate, all is well for now and I will pay close attention to my body for the next few days. I guess I'm really coming down to the wire.