E.R. Adventure

Well, I guess I spoke too soon yesterday when I said there wasn't much to update on the pregnancy front.

Later yesterday afternoon (Warning: TMI) I was feeling like something was just... off. At one point, I went to the bathroom and quite obviously lost the mucous plug. I was sure that's what it was, even though I never actually saw it when I was pregnant with Tiegan. I went straight to the computer to look it up online (as I've been doing with every other little thing in this pregnancy), and everything I read warned that you're not supposed to lose it until at least the 34th week. Apparently that means your body is trying to start labor. And if that's not the case, that's still the baby's protection from infection and it's now gone. I also noticed some amniotic leaking - not good. I waited about an hour in which time I was having pretty steady, pretty bad cramping.

I started getting really nervous. I'm only 17 weeks along. If labor happened to start at this point, they wouldn't do anything to stop it. I called my mom first, as always. She is my guiding light. I never call a doctor until I talk to my mom (SuperNurse). She advised to call my doctor. I got a hold of an on-call doc, and he advised me to go to the E.R. in case my body was trying to have a miscarriage. Oh, thanks for mentioning the M-word. Now I was REALLY nervous.

Mom took me there and Jason was kind enough to leave work because he knew how scared I was. They put me right in a room. Two nurses tried listening to the baby's heartbeat but neither could find it. They spent at least 10 minutes feeling around. Scared the shit out of me. I was terrified. They blamed the equipment and said they weren't very good at it anyway. They sent me for an ultrasound, for which I had mixed feelings. If everything was alright, maybe we could find out the gender! But what if everything wasn't alright?

The ultrasound showed baby moving and the heartbeat was fine. Phew. There was still plenty of amniotic fluid. Phew. The tech was pretty crude, though. When I was asking her questions about what she was seeing, she said she wasn't looking for details. She said she was just instructed to see if it was alive, and it is.

How nice of her.

She did try to see the gender for us, but she couldn't quite tell. Bummer. Guess we'll have to wait another couple of weeks. But for those of you voting on the poll, it's definitely not twins! Just one baby in there. What a relief.

I was sent home with instructions for bed-rest until further notice. Jason works long hours so I'll be home all day fending for myself for a while. Baby might just have to forgive me and hang in there if I need to fetch something for myself! Luckily I have wonderful parents and in-laws who are willing to do whatever I need, whenever I need it. I am one of those people that hates asking for help, though. I can't stand not being self-sufficient.

This morning, Jason made my coffee, poured my cereal and brought my headache medicine & a glass of water before he left for work. He has been great - poor guy - albeit pretty whiny about having to wait on me. Last night in the E.R. while we were waiting to be discharged, all he could talk about was how tired he was & he just wanted to go home. I was thinking, uhh... what about your wife who's been in pain and scared to pieces all day wonering if the baby inside her was ALIVE or not?? Eh, it's alright. He's a great guy and he takes great care of me. I'll just wait until he's in the hospital with another heart attack and I'll sit at his bedside, complaining about how I'm tired and hungry. ;) JUST KIDDING.

Sorry for the long story. Today I am pretty sore (although the cramping has stopped), and bored out of my mind. Tiegan is at grandma Judy's until tomorrow, and I miss her like crazy. They're calling my lil' episode a Threatened Miscarriage. I hate the M-word. I s'pose I'll post another update as soon as I follow up with Farhat!