Trial Run

After our lovely Mother's Day dinner at Evvia (see below), I started to feel a little funny. I thought at first that perhaps I'd eaten too much. I had that nauseous feeling that was all too familiar from the first few months. I had one bite of dessert (should have known then that something was wrong) before I told Steve "we have to go, now." We said quick goodbyes and scooted home. My biggest event of the year at work, the golf tournament, was the next day and I still had some things to finish up. When we got home, I napped for about an hour, got up, finished up for golf and then proceeded to puke like I hadn't puked since college.

Afterward, I felt much better and hoped that was the end of it. It wasn't. After much up and down from bed during the next couple of hours, I started having what I thought were contractions (later turned out to be intestinal cramping, but what did I know?). This worried me, so I called the doctor's office after hours number and a doctor called me back in 5 minutes. He said to go to the hospital...chances are I was dehydrated and they should get me started on an IV. Mario Andretti-Giachetti got me to the Good Sam ER in about 9 minutes flat (with just one stop on Curtner to hurl). They promptly plopped me into a wheelchair and a very chipper, young orderly scooted me up to Labor & Delivery. He was far too chatty for 1:30 in the morning, but it did keep my mind off of the nausea for a few minutes. They checked me in and luckily had a room open (sidenote: I just found out that our new friend Dominic Vaccaro was born in that very same room just days earlier!). After another quick trip to the bathroom, the nurses got me settled and started to prep me for the IV and the fetal monitoring. There was a brief scare while the nurses couldn't seem to find the heartbeat. I wasn't too concerned because I had just felt her move a few moments before, but the nurses were pretty rattled and stuck the oxygen mask over my face. They quickly found her heart rate and all was fine. The next many hours were a constant up and down to the bathroom that included lots of maneuvering of the cords that connected me to the fetal monitor and the rolling IV drip. The bed was THE most uncomfortable thing ever (L&D bed = not meant for sleeping) and every time I flipped over because my hip had fallen asleep, the baby would move and the nurse had to come in and adjust the monitor. I missed my body pillow.

On top of the discomfort, I kept waking myself up seeing if it was time yet to call Meghan (my assistant) and let her know that she'd be on her own for the golf tournament. She took the call like a pro and I knew the tournament was in good hands. By the afternoon, I was feeling MUCH better but I had developed a fever and although the baby's heart rate was within range, it was sporadic. They wanted to make sure that this was due to my dehydration, not to the contractions I was having (but not feeling). So, just as we thought we'd get to go home, they dropped the bomb that they decided to keep me another 24 hours to keep an eye on the baby's heart rate. Once my fever broke, the goal on Tuesday morning was to make me have 3 contractions in 10 minutes. Easier said then done. After an hour of trying the old fashioned way (if you aren't sure what that means, email me), they started me on some pitocin and after another hour, finally I had 3 in a row, the baby was perfectly fine and I was free to go.

While I certainly don't recommend getting the stomach flu while 33 weeks pregnant, it actually was a great trial run at the hospital. Things I learned:

• We don't need the tour anymore and we know that the nurses there are amazing.
• I actually feel much more comfortable about the upcoming hospital experience now that we've been through this.
• The wheelchair didn't have foot rests. Is that so you concentrate on keeping your feet off the floor, not tossing your cookies in the elevator?
  
• They still have VCRs in the L&D rooms. And a very poor selection of VHS tapes.
  
• It's hard to shower hooked to an IV cart.
• Where were these great hospital toilet pee trays when I was trying to get pregnant?
• Oxygen kinda stinks.
  
• I now know that I hate hospital gowns and that I may just go against recent advice and buy a nice, comfy $65 gown that I will likely throw away after delivery.
• Most importantly, I learned that my wonderful husband will stay calm and composed (at least on the surface). He was a rock!