When I got to the hospital (which AJ deemed 'a resort' compared to West Penn where we had Ethan), they hooked me up to a few monitors. I relaxed in the super-comfy bed (seriously - it was awesome) and enjoyed the quiet while they kept track of the baby's heart beat, blood pressure, and movements. After a little while, the nurse came in and said I did have a few contractions, but nothing major and nothing regular. Then she gave me a little clicker device to hold and click it whenever I felt pain. She noticed pretty quickly after that my pain correlated with the baby's movement - sometimes movement I couldn't even feel! The baby is apparently running out of space and since I am fairly small, he is trying to get more room by pushing my organs around. Nice, right?
The nurse and on-call doctor also confirmed my suspicions that my joints are beginning to separate. I described my pain, and the nurse knew right away. I've been so frustrated hearing that the type of pain I've been having is normal. Granted, there's nothing anyone can do for me, but I still feel a little more validated. The nurse (who is my new bff) also suggested I begin maternity leave a week earlier. I had planned on my last day being June 3 because that's pretty much the earliest the doctor would allow (I'll be just over 37 weeks - and I had Ethan exactly at 37 weeks...). The nurse urged me to talk to the doctor at my next appointment (Friday) about making the 27th my last day.
After coming home, I immediately began to fixate on packing my hospital bag. Even though I knew nothing was wrong, there was still a brief moment when I panicked and thought I might be having a baby Tuesday night. When I was first hooked up to the monitors, I turned to AJ and said, "I don't even have my bag packed yet. What do I do?" He looked at me like I was insane, and told me to calm down and realize we only live 20 minutes from the hospital, etc. That calmed me, until I got home. I gathered my toiletries, the baby's outfit, and made a list of other things I need to pack/buy. I feel better now.
This leads me to the doctor's appointment...Let's just say that I miss the doctors I used for Ethan. My new doctor is very personable and I like him. However, I do kind of feel like my appointments are very rushed. And, I feel that I am too often told 'oh, that's normal' when I don't feel it is. I am sorry - I know pregnancy is rough on the body and I am not one of those people who enjoys any part of it. But, I do not feel it is normal to be in so much stabbing pain that I cannot walk. I feel like that at least deserves a look. My doctor didn't even ask me about my trip to L&D during my appointment. Really? You would have thought, since he had my chart, that it would have come up. He didn't even question it when I mentioned it to him. I was not happy. And, we talked about the whole maternity leave thing, and he said to play it by ear and see how things go. After all, it's normal, I guess. Even though I went up until my day of labor with Ethan and was totally fine. So, I either have 5 days left or 9, depending on how the little demon-spawn makes me feel next week. I have another appointment on Thursday, so maybe I'll have an answer then.
Ok. I'm done ranting.
It's going to be a fabulous weekend. E is currently spending the night at my mom's so that I can hopefully get more sleep in the morning. We ran some errands tonight (we bought little, tiny baby diapers! and comfy loungewear for the hospital!) and are just relaxing with the windows open since it has finally stopped raining.
Tomorrow, Ethan gets to see Grammy & Papa, whom he has been asking for since Thursday night. Sunday, my mom is going to join us to take Ethan to meet Thomas the Train. Seriously - Ethan could not ask for a better weekend! All three grandparents and a ride on his favorite steam engine :-)
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