(Imported from haveyouhadyourbabyyet.blogspot.com)
(No labor yet) Jessica’s had a cold for almost two weeks now. She’s been coughing through the night and even through the day during the last couple of days. On Saturday during one of what they call “practice” contractions when she started coughing, her bottom ribs on the right side started hurting a lot. She’s been trying to put up with the pain but by midnight on Sunday she wasn’t able to any more. I figured: She’s miserable, I’m miserable, neither of us can do anything about it, they can do something about it in the hospital, what are we still doing here? And so we went to the hospital.
Sidetrack: The entrance to the emergency room parking is designed for a VW Beetle to barely fit through so both sides of the entrance were heavily damaged by the few cars that are actually bigger than the Beetle. So after you somehow make it to the intercom unit at an angle, you can’t reach the button you need to push to get someone to open that darn thing. So we parked at the normal parking. No, I didn’t get frustrated. :)
When you walk into the emergency room, you see all kinds of pain and suffering of people that have obviously been sitting there for hours. That always helps put your emergency in a new context and perspective. So I’m trying to support Jessica as we stand at the receptionist desk since sitting was a lot more painful for her than standing. After about three minutes, a very scary man (long greasy hair, long beard and lots of tattoos that have blend together long ago) stands up and tells us that the receptionist desk is open only during the day and that no one would come to help us there. He directed us to the security desk and that’s where we got some help. It’s interesting what kind of different costumes Jesus will put on when He comes to help us.
After a few minutes in the ER triage the nurse decided it would be best if we went to the OB floor so they could monitor the baby and make sure the pain wasn’t really labor. I wheeled Jessica up the the OB floor and they put Jessica and the baby on the monitor and concluded that the baby is doing well and confirmed our belief that this pain was not related to labor. They gave her all kinds of medicine that I can’t spell the names of, but nothing helped calm her pain or her cough. I was so exhausted that I told Jessica to move over on her bed and I took a few short 5-10 minute naps. Wonder how I’m gonna do at the birth :) Anyway, at 3am they gave her morphine and she was out like light. Or lamp. Or whatever you guys say. Sorry :) I’m tired.
They pulled up a pink/yellow/baby blue recliner (respected veteran) for me to sleep in and that’s what I did until about 8am. Jessica didn’t cough a single time within those 5 hours which is an all-time record from the last two weeks. In the morning, our OB showed up and decided to prescribe antibiotics, blah-blah and blah-blah-blah medicines for Jessica to take for the next 48 hours. If the pain doesn’t decrease, they will probably induce labor tonight. If it gets a little better, Jessica has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and that’s where they will decide if and when to induce. Until then, they sent us home. Andrej out.
Today, Baby Ciho and I had our 37 week OB appointment. We are now going every Friday to see the doctor and will continue until the baby arrives. However, it COULD be sooner than we think! I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but I really really really want this baby to come soon. Dr. B checked me today and confirmed that the baby’s head is down and that I am already 2 cm dilated and about 25% effaced. I know this may not mean much as I could hang out at a 2 for weeks, but at least that’s 2 cm closer to where I need to be, and without any pain. (Read more …)
