our not-so-fun monday

dave and i had a lovely thanksgiving weekend. it was a bit hectic, but in a good way. and i rested up as much as i could.

unfortunately, monday it all went awry.

i woke up several times during the night sunday into monday. this is pretty much par for the course these days -- baby block likes to kick mommy awake, or sit on my bladder until i have to pee again. but i got up at 5:30 in the morning the last time, and that was a bad wake-up. i wound up throwing up and waking up poor dave, who heard me and came in to check on me and take care of me. anyway, i went to lie on the couch for the rest of the morning and try to relax. but of course i was uncomfortable and ill, and couldn't get much water into my system.

dave got up, checked on me, and got ready for work. before he left, at about 8:30, i started to get stomach pains. they really felt like bad gas pains, and i thought they were related to whatever was going on with my stomach at the moment. dave offered to stay home with me but i told him i'd be fine and to go to work. and i laid back down to try to sleep. but these pains persisted, and didn't let me sleep. eventually, i realized that i was actually in a lot of pain, and something else might be going on.

i called aunt inna to clarify if what i was feeling could be contractions. when she said that it sounded like contractions, i called the midwives. while waiting for them to call back, i threw up again, and then called dave to come home. when i spoke to midwife kristen, she told me that it sounded like i had the nasty stomach flu that was going around and that the dehydration was causing contractions. kristen advised me to get gatorade or something else with electrolytes into my system to stop the contractions from coming. so i asked dave to pick up gatorade on his way home. when he got back, i downed a bottle, and then we began to time the contractions which were still coming. they were pretty steady -- about 10-13 minutes apart. when they got to be 7 minutes apart, i began to get nervous. so we called back the midwives, and midwife kristen told me to head to the hospital. she wanted me to be put on IV to get enough fluids in me to stop the contractions.

of course, at this point we were pretty freaked out. frankly, we weren't ready for this baby to show up! especially not me. i am still scheduled for work until the end of next week, and i hadn't lined up anyone to take over my projects if i were to go early. i also hadn't purchased everything needed for the hospital yet, so we'd be essentially going with nothing. that's minor in the end, but still mattered yesterday, since we were so unprepared.

so i showered, changed, and we went to the hospital, hoping that they could work their magic and stop these contractions. after waiting for a while to get admitted into triage, we finally got in there. the nurses got me all ready and took blood and stuff, and then midwife anne came in to take care of us. i was hooked up to the fetal monitor, which confirmed my contractions but also confirmed that the baby was doing just fine (whew). they ran their tests and hooked me up to the IV (ouch). i had 2 bags on IV before the contractions stopped and they could send me home. but the good news is that they did indeed stop. i'm also not dialated as of yet, and the culture they ran to check on if the baby might go pre-term came back negative. so i guess the rest of my body is saying that it's not ready. for which i am very grateful.

we also found out that the baby's head is in fact very low, which explains why i always feel like he/she is trying to break out of there! maybe it will help in a few weeks when i'm actually ready to go. ha!

we went home after all this, and i was still feeling pretty beaten up by the virus and the days events. i forced down some more gatorade and a bagel, and laid on the couch with dave as long as i could handle it. my back was spasming from the day's problems. so we went to bed early, and dave rubbed my back until we could both sleep. i'm still kind of out of it today, and suffering from a migraine as a result, but i'm much better than i was.

a few great things came out of the otherwise stressful day:

1. we're both better prepared for the real thing now. dave did an AMAZING job at making me feel better, keeping me calm, and even laughing through the pain and confusion. and i now know what contractions feel like, so i'll be much more aware when it is really time to go.

2. i get contractions! this sounds silly, but it's not. my mom had a hormonal imbalance that kept her from going into labor, including when she was induced. she has no idea what a contraction feels like, and me and my brother were both c-sections. i was a bit concerned that i'd have the same problem, but now we know that i do in fact get contractions. that's a huge thing for me.

3. i now have backup -- a couple of good friends who are also designers said that they could take my projects if necessary. which makes me feel so much better.

4. we now know what has to get done for our real trip to the hospital, and we will make sure we get all that done by the end of the week. grandma maria and i are going to target on friday here in bk, to do one-stop-shopping for my hospital stay, and dave and i are getting all the things returned to buybuy baby that need to go back on saturday. after that, we'll be in much better shape.

so i'm home, and baby-free, which is good. i'm resting and working at the same time, and trying to make myself feel better.