Hospitals

The day after the benefit, I woke up at 5AM feeling very odd. It took a few beats for me to realize why. There was nothing at all going on with the ole' baby belly. No pain, no cramps, and most disturbing, no kicking or pushing. The books say to eat something and wait a few minutes before doing more kick-counts so I took Sunshine outside for his morning outing then ate a bowl of sugary cereal (knowing, of course, that I'd be feeling pretty darned ill within an hour or so). Sure enough, I started feeling slightly ill from the sugary breakfast but still no movements of which to speak so, by 7AM, we were on our way to the hospital to get everything checked out. Fortunately, everything was fine, but the experience exhausted us so much that, once we got back home, all 3 of us napped for the rest of the afternoon.

Two days later, it happened again. This time, the doctor advised that we go ahead and induce labor to be on the safe side since this was the 2nd time that BG (baby girl) had suddenly stopped moving. Before we could get started though, we first had to get another amnio done to make sure that BG's lungs were developed enough to survive without machines. By the time everything had checked out ok including the amnio results, it was well into the evening so we requested that inducement be postponed until possibly the next day (actually, I asked if we could just postpone it until Friday since Pumpkin wouldn't be in school that day). The doctor agreed, but the hospital balked. From their perspective, it was either now or never...or at least sometime closer to the official due date. (Apparently, being born early is a much bigger deal here in the higher altitudes than it is back home at warm, wonderful sea level.)

After much deliberation, QT & I opted to take a pass and go home instead since it was so late. My concern was for Pumpkin since he would have trouble sleeping at anybody else's house plus he had school the next morning. So, we missed our chance. :(

The next day, I experienced contractions throughout the day. Likely, they were caused by the amnio, but back to the hospital we went to get everything checked out once again. It turned out that I wasn't in labor so we were allowed to go back home that evening. We decided to keep Pumpkin home from school the next day so that we could all get some much needed rest.

After that, the rest of the week was a breeze. I even made it to my final OB appointment after all, and we scheduled the induction for the following Friday. As nervous as I am about going through labor again, I can't wait! My back hurts, my feet are perpetually swollen, and I can barely make it up and down the stairs anymore. I'll be glad to be done with this. More soon.