Peanut Scare

Before I tell you the story of yesterday, I want to reassure you that Peanut is fine and I am too—just a little sore.

We were in NY for the weekend for a baby shower (that post will be this evening, I hope, but I have to get some work done first) and I woke up yesterday morning with pain in my side and radiating across and around my belly. Within half an hour the pain had gotten so bad that I couldn’t move and was having real trouble even breathing through it. Our doctor hadn’t called back and while I had no idea what was going on, it obviously wasn’t good, so Joe and I went off to the ER.

Long story short, there were contractions (caused by they never figured out what—possibly irritation from whatever caused the initial pain in my side, possibly an infection—they gave me antibiotics just in case) but it hadn’t actually prompted labor yet and so they were able to stop the contractions with a couple doses of drugs. They did bunches of tests and found no other warnings of pre-term labor so are pretty certain this was an isolated event, and monitored the baby through the whole thing and Peanut was perfectly fine and content throughout.

It was a rough morning because for a couple hours there we were scared Peanut was going to be a very early preemie, and at a hospital where we knew nothing about their preemie care. We are getting antsy to have the baby here, but only as a healthy full term baby, and we know that our little Peanut is still too little for life outside. Now that it is all over, we are mostly just relieved and grateful. I get anxious at every twinge and have vowed not to be more than 20 miles from our hospital again until the baby is here. But while I’m more anxious about the next couple months than I was, I am decidedly less anxious about the actual labor and delivery because it has been somehow demystified.

The whole episode was somewhat traumatic, but we all came through fine and the doctors don’t seem concerned about the next couple months, so we are trying to convince ourselves that it really is all okay. And rationally we are there, but honestly we’re a little jittery. And so every time Peanut kicks or moves (while it hurts like crazy because I’m so sore) I feel a wave of relief wash over me. We’re just so grateful Peanut is okay.