my birthday trip to the ER

a few days before my birthday my husband asked me if i wanted a party on my birthday. i said "no, because i wouldn't know what to do with a party. my birthday has never been a big deal!" (this is the plight of the "christmas birthdays"--everyone is coming off the tail end of christmas and by the time your birthday rolls around, few people are in town, and if they are they don't have much of an inclination to go to another celebration. my poor sister's is actually january 1st. so we're both used to it.) 

my 27th birthday quickly turned into a huge deal, but not the way i would have preferred.

earlier in the day, my husband was hard at work scrubbing down our new baby-mobile. it was given to us for practically nothing (and we are so grateful!), but the little car has been road hard and hung up wet. it needs quite a bit of elbow grease. so while he was doing that, i gave into the urge i had from the second i woke up that morning to get things cleaned up around the house. the nesting hormone had moved in for the day and i spent the better half of it organizing and cleaning (yet somehow parts of our house still look like a disaster--at least baby's portion is clean and organized). needless to say i definitely overdid it. my legs were aching so badly by the end of the day. 

eventually dinner time rolled around and i had to make the decision of where to eat. i toyed with the idea of franco's (i wanted some dang italian), and really we should have gone there. it's family owned and we know it's good, but for some reason i decided i wanted to have something new and different. both of us have only been to carrabbas once so we decided that was the place. i boxed up more than half of my chicken and pasta and we headed home so i could prop up my previously mentioned aching legs. within 30 minutes of arriving home, i knew something was wrong. 

what ensued over the next 4 hours was the most violently ill experience i've ever had. the noises that came out of my body....ugh. after being unable to keep down gatorade or even water, my husband threw on a coat and packed me up to head to the ER. i was reluctant for several reasons. 1: i hate being sick outside of my own home. it's uncomfortable and embarrassing. 2: the last ER trip we had last year with my husband was horrible--i generally associate ERs with being one of the most miserable places on earth. and 3: i didn't know if i could last the car ride. but i did. and if i hadn't been 36 weeks pregnant and afraid whatever was hurting me was hurting my baby, i never would have agreed (although he probably would have picked me up and forced me anyway). 

we arrived at west florida hospital and a very nice man greeted me at the door and asked what was wrong. my husband explained and i was immediately admitted (you say the word "pregnant lady" and people rush around you like royalty). they took me up to labor and delivery so baby could be monitored. i (of course) had to pee in a cup and they determined that i was extremely dehydrated and ran an iv with fluids. 2 bags later and still no change. baby looked fine, but i was having braxton hicks contractions every 5 minutes. while this is normally not of concern, left untreated could actually cause early labor, due to my extreme dehydration. they gave me some anti-nausea medicine which helped tremendously. after that one wore off, they gave me finagrin and then i was finally able to sleep a little and take my mind off of how much my aching muscles (from the day's activities, violent vomiting, and fever) ached even more in a hospital bed. 

bag after bag was dripped into me and slowly my urine was showing less keytones (i had to show none before leaving). during this time my amazing husband (who had nothing to sit on but a rickety lab stool, while running on no sleep) helped me disconnect from my machinery and pee however many times i had to do that, made sure i was comfortable (or as comfortable as possible), and grabbed a nurse whenever needed. he was such a trooper. i am a blessed woman. as sick as i was, i was surprised i wasn't crying for my mama, but he did such a great job that i didn't want for much (except my own bed).

and i spoke of the amazing labor and delivery staff in my last post, but i will say it again: they are wonderful. my experience at west florida hospital has been nothing but good. the ER staff was amazing, the labor and delivery staff was amazing--even though it's the furthest hospital from our house, it will be my choice from now on. a completely different story from our sacred heart ER experience last year. 

so seven bags of fluid and 12 hours later, my urine finally tested for no keytones. yay! and the contractions were much less frequent and much weaker. baby is staying put until he or she is ready to come into this world. for which i am so relieved! because even though baby would have survived just fine at 36 weeks, i told my husband i did not have enough energy to deliver a baby after all that!

i am in my own bed now, sleeping a lot and trying to get plenty of fluids. my muscles are still achey but my fever broke sometime last night, so i'm on the up and up! for those of you that knew, thank you for the thoughts and prayers. for those that didn't--i'm sorry! we had little time to worry about much else. i am just thankful to be journeying into these last few weeks of pregnancy safely, with a baby who is probably also very glad to be done with all the commotion!

and i will also not be eating carrabbas anytime soon. 

happy new year and a belated "thanks" for the birthday wishes :)