Jenny goes to the hospital

When i was little, i had a book called Jenny goes to the hospital. it was one of those books i loved to read, over and over. Jenny fell and broke her arm, and not only did she get to have a cool cast, but they kept her in the hospital overnight, for observation, cuz she had also hit her head or something. while there, she met all kinds of nice and interesting people, got a wheelchair tour of the whole hospital, and i think she even got to eat ice cream.

i always envied her, and wished i too could have such an experience. it seemed like such a fun and exciting adventure. well, last night i got my chance. only under different circumstances. i started bleeding and having some mild contractions around 6pm, and when i looked those two things up on Google, all warnings pointed to calling your doctor immediately. yikes! they had me come in for observation and once observed, they wanted me to stay overnight to get fluids in case of dehydration (a common cause of braxton hicks). it was kind of exciting, since i wasn't really sick or anything, and the baby was fine. i got to watch tv, eat really good food (it's like room service, you call and order off a menu!), and be waited on by really nice people. i even got to see my baby on an ultrasound this morning-- and my mom did too!

the down side? i shouldn't be having these symptoms this early in my pregnancy. the major downside? my cervix is undergoing "dynamic changes", for no apparent reason. they don't really know why or what to do about it. most babies have a chance of survival once they hit 24 weeks. but even then, it's a realllly rough road. if i'm going to go into preterm labor, they can't do much to stop it. but they want to keep a close eye on things over the next few weeks, and do whatever we CAN to keep this baby inside!

on the other downside (is it possible to have more than one?), and very flukey side, gramma bernie was also admitted to the same hospital last night for a possible stroke. so it was just an allison/brown/levitan fest at Paoli Memorial! i felt the worst for my poor, exhausted mom, who probably couldn't think of a much more anxiety-producing scenario than to have both her mom and her daughter in such precarious situations at the same time and not be able to tend to each of them.

but i was fine with it. it wasn't really hitting me that this could be something really dangerous and scary. it just felt like a little adventure. i didn't feel the need to have my mom (or my husband) by my side. i just kinda went with it. what else are ya gonna do?

i was discharged at noon and dave and christian picked me up-- of course C looked like he'd grown and changed overnight, and was more interested in the big digger in the parking lot than he was in seeing me. dave took the rest of the afternoon off, and took C to the park so i could get a nap (another small downside to being monitored all night-- you don't get much sleep). dave's mom brought us dinner, courtesy of dave's sister, and it was fabulous-- even C ate everything on his plate (rare occurrance these days!). she also brought him a little wooden play kitchen she'd made herself for the other grandkids a few years ago. Christian immediately went wild over it and started playing with all of the pretend food, pots/pans/lids/spoons, etc... and opening and shutting the oven and cabinet doors. it fits perfectly in his room! great timing as i am supposed to be taking it easy. now i can even have him cook for me! :)

unfortunately i'm now waiting for a call from the doctor (at 10pm) to see whether or not she wants me to return for a repeat of last night-- my contractions have started back up-- and doctor's orders were to call if i had 6 in an hr. i've had 8. i really don't want to go back (as fun as it was the first time around, it's not like reading that exciting book over and over-- the thrill's worn off). somehow i don't think Jenny would have wanted to go back a second night either.

please little baby boy, stay in there!!!!