Yikes!

We had an eventful day with Baby G today.  I am right at 26 weeks, and went to the third day of school excited about the fun little lab I was doing with my students (who seem REALLY great this year).  Everything seemed normal.  Then, after hearing a couple times "class was so fun today!", I was walking down the hallway and  - bam -  felt like my water broke.  Ummmm.....that's not supposed to happen yet.  So I pulled my co-workers into the workroom and explained the situation, and within about 10 minutes I had called my doctor's office and was off to St. Luke's labor and delivery per the nurse's instructions.  And, oh yeah, I was freaking out.  This is the second time I have been surprised by the phrase "you need to go to labor and delivery now."  When I am 37-40 weeks pregnant and someone says this to me, I will be fine with it, but right now it's not what I want to hear. 

They quickly got me checked in over at St. Luke's and immediately got me strapped in with a HR monitor for Baby G.  I was SO happy to hear that little heart beat (since I had no idea what was going on).  After a few more checks, they said my amniotic fluid levels were fine, my cervix is all closed up as it should be and everything was good.  My water didn't break (I won't get graphic), this can just happen sometimes (chalk it up to some of the really strange things that happen during pregnancy).  While checking my fluid levels, Baby G was checked out too via ultrasound and she's right on track for 26 weeks and doing great.   We also got further confirmation that she is, in fact, a little girl (since she was moving so much at the 20 week ultrasound I wondered).  So, things were looking up, we were happy that our little girl was doing so well and not in any danger.  After the ultrasound they strapped me back up to the HR monitor and contraction belt to monitor for a bit, and the nurse curiously asked me if I felt any cramping.  Hmm....nope.  She left and I looked over at the monitor and noticed this rather frequent rise and fall on the monitor.  Well, then I felt it.  I watched the little line rise on the monitor and felt a little squeeze right in time with it.  Contractions??  What???  The nurse came back after about ten minutes and told me I was having contractions (yes, we know), but luckily a quick little shot of medicine can calm those down at this stage.  After the shot (which apparently makes you jittery), everything stabilized as it should and we were able to be discharged with instructions for rest and water and when to call if all this madness happens again.  I laughed to James that the shot didn't make me jittery and then laughed at myself when I tried to sign my name on my discharge instruction forms.  My signature looked like a sixth grader's because I couldn't hold the pen still! 

After all this fun (read:  me near tears with James repeating that everything was going to be fine), James and I were able to grab some lunch and I have been resting all afternoon (with time to write the blog). 

I will be in my rolling chair for the majority of the day tomorrow.  

Cute little foot at 26 weeks: