Stork'd This is what happens if you go Skinny Dipping during Adult Swim at the Gene Pool.

Six weeks and counting. The really anxious pregnancy dreams have started. I remember dreaming a lot about forgetting the baby or losing her after she was born when I was pregnant with Ingrid. Last night featured Peter not coming to the hospital with me, me not being able to get a room in the labor and delivery part of the hospital, but instead in some open area near the cafeteria, someone coming and taking my baby away without me knowing because I had to go to the bathroom so bad and couldn't carry HER. The final crazy was that I actually had a girl instead of a boy and didn't notice until many hours later, which might have been because in my dream I had no idea how I got to the hospital and no recollection of giving birth at all.

Peter was gone for the first half of the week, to Phoenix, and my paranoia was ramped up. I was totally anxious about going into spontaneous labor and having no one at all I could have help me and fretting about what would happen with Ingrid if that did happen. Ingrid missed him terribly, and was crying for him a lot. Yesterday, she wanted to have lunch with daddy and was very sad when we couldn't.

Had another ultrasound yesterday. The young man has flipped into the upside down position, which pleases me and my chiropractor. We were unsure whether he was going to have an easy time of it, because my hips have been all out of whack from my knee injury and the limping that has ensued.

My body has been aching so much, and my fingernails have been brittle and my voice hoarse, so I talked to my doctor today. He was ready to not make any changes to my thyroid meds, because the level was JUST within range of the labs report of range. But, since I have done my homework, I know that Endocrinologists have a much lower acceptable level and I am well beyond that. So he doubled my dosage and I'll get some more bloodwork done  in 6 weeks. Hopefully that means I will start feeling better soon. My legs have ached so bad in the same sort of way they did before I started getting treated.

I can't wait to meet this little man and to start losing some weight and be able to thoroughly diagnose my knee and feel better. Only slightly over a month to go.

Thursday night, I planned to go to bed early and knit and read. I finished the blue baby hat I was working on and decided to come down and get a needle to finish weaving in the ends and show it to Peter when I was taken by surprise. As I was to the first landing of the stairs, my left knee buckled and popped loudly. It crumpled under me, I braced myself from falling down the stairs onto my belly with my hand on the handrail and my face on the wall, I think. That's the only thing I can think of that explains the cut and fat lip I have. I didn't black out, but it happened so fast, it's hard to recall just what happened to my head.

Peter came running and I'd sat myself on the stairs and was trying to gather myself. I already knew that my knee was going to be fun. I've torn the ACL in my OTHER knee and had knee surgery on it. I had him bring me 2 Tylenol immediately and I scootched on my but down the 10 or so stairs that were left and elevated my leg on the couch and had Peter get me some ice. But I was aware that I was starting to show signs of shock and even though I hadn't hit my belly or anything, the baby wasn't moving, so after about 15 minutes of discussion and shivering uncontrollably on the couch Peter called the EMTs to the house.

Please make a note that if you have to be carried out of a house by EMTs where there is a staircase you have to traverse, if at all possible, get the chair instead of the flat board. One, you feel like you're going to fall off the board, especially going around the corner of the stairs. Two, if you're a big person, or pregnant, sometimes those EMTs are tiny and not really able to bear the weight. Peter had to help with the board and there were 3 of them besides him.

As they were putting me in the back of the ambulance there were snowflakes falling on my face. :(  I started to warm up when in the ambulance, probably thanks to the oxygen they gave me.  They took me to the hospital I'm planning on delivering at, so luckily I didn't have to do a lot of check in. I'd already preregistered  for the birth so they had me in their computer system. Peter had to go get Ingrid out of bed and get her ready to go to the hospital. They met me in the ER after he'd gotten her up. She was very excited about it snowing outside. I was strapped flat on my back for at least 45 minutes or so, which is not good for a pregnant woman, so I asked for them to expedite getting me off the stupid board. They did so, realizing, oh 7 month pregnant lady  probably shouldn't be pinned flat on her back. 

The doc came in and checked me and let me off the board and we discussed x-rays. She said there really wasn't anything they'd be able to do for me even if I'd gotten an x-ray, so we opted out of getting them. They gave me a lame brace and a pair of crutches, not bothering to fit me really for either, and sent me to L&D for a baby check. I was contracting about every 2.5 minutes, very low intensity, so they kept me for observation. They kept saying soon, so Peter and Ingrid stayed. Finally at around 5 am I sent them home to get some sleep.  They got blood and urine samples and sent them off to the lab. They put in an IV and gave me 2 liters of fluid, and proceeded to stick me 3 times to give me medicine that made me feel like I'd had about 1000 cups of coffee, that stops contractions.  They were hoping 1 dose would do it, but I had to have 3.  They are willing to give up to 10 of them, I think she said. To add insult to injury, when the Dr. came in she also gave me a pelvic exam to make sure my cervix wasn't dilated, which it was not. I can only imagine what that would have been like receiving more doses of the contraction stopper. When I was texting Peter, I was stutter typing because my hands were so shaky.

All that time, they didn't offer me any sort of relief for my leg, not even Tylenol and kept me from getting comfortable by having  the fetal monitors on me. Every time I fell asleep for a few minutes they were checking on me.  Finally they got the contractions under control and the blood work they did came back with no issues, so they let me go home.

Baby is fine, but my knee hurts like a mofo. I'm pretty certain I tore my ACL, and have an appointment with an Orthopedist on Thursday, when Peter is supposed to go to NYC. I'm hoping with the RICE method that the knee will be usable by Monday in order to let him go back to work. I can have him take my car, if that's the case, so I have the automatic. I have a GP appointment on Monday, an Ultrasound on Wednesday, and the Ortho on Thursday that I'd like to be able to go to and have everything checked out. I'd also like to be able to pee when I want without asking for help, be able to do basic things like hobble to the kitchen, even with crutches, and maybe even sleep in my own bed on floor 3 instead of on the couch.

All I gotta say is that I feel like I'm in backwards town that is trying to look sparkly.

Not only were hick one and hick two embarassing their respective wives, but the tour guide was positively ridiculous. Did you know your wife won't speak to you if you don't bring HER a present for giving birth? I didn't know that either. I guess Peter is lucky. I still speak to him. He didn't give me anything for having Ingrid!

Wow! You get to labor and deliver in the same room! How novel! And use a birthing ball if you want! And have a squat bar! Okay, so it's not giving birth on the exam table in your doctors office, but most places that actually have a maternity ward have those things don't they? I'm just jaded because I birthed in the big city before, I'm sure, but the lady that gave the tour tried to make it seem like this was all cutting edge stuff. A tv in the labor and delivery room!  I'm sure it gets local channels, too!