Drama Queen

Yesterday I fell in the shower.  One minute I was standing there fretting about a new stretch mark and the next I was falling through the shower curtain and banging my stomach against the side of the tub before finally catching myself on my hands on the bathroom floor.  My immediate reaction was one of 'get it together.'  I turned off the water, grabbed a towel and then started getting dressed.  All the while I kept thinking to myself, "shouldn't I be panicking?" but was also thinking "deodorant, find the numbers from the doctor, chug some water, should I do a kick count?, where is my phone, will probably need to cancel going to Baltimore today."  Once I was dressed and searching for the phone numbers I just lost it and broke down crying hysterically.  How was I so stupid?  What if something happened and I got all this way, almost 8 months, and lost the baby?  How would Joe ever look at me the same, since this was all my fault?

I managed to pull myself together enough to call the triage line where they told me to hang up and call Labor and Delivery.  I lost it again.  I took deep breaths while the phone rang twice and then with a shaky voice told them that I was almost 34 weeks pregnant and had fallen in the shower that morning.  The nurse immediately asked if I had hit my stomach and I sobbed "yes" and then choked through answering my name and that yes, I had someone to drive me in while she instructed me to come straight to L&D.  I tried to compose myself yet again, and then walked into the living room and tearfully announced to Joe's sister that I had fallen and needed her to drive me to the hospital.  

On the drive over we chatted a little bit and I realized that my knee hurt and that I had fallen first onto my knee and then onto my hands and stomach so at least that broke the fall a bit.  I really just felt like I was in shock.

The doors to Labor & Delivery were plastered with signs that read "Congratulations!" and I snickered to myself that this wasn't exactly a congratulatory moment.  The nurses were waiting for me, in fact as far as we could tell there was only one other woman there with her husband.  They had me leave a urine sample and assure them that I had no blood or leaking, then took me to a room and hooked me up to fetal monitors.  Evidently I was having some small contractions, but I never noticed them.  Once I heard the heartbeat and felt the baby kick at the monitor I felt instantly better.

Christine kept trying to get a hold of Joe (I decided not to call him until we got to the hospital since he was all the way downtown and would have completely panicked, especially if I had been talking) while the nurse busied herself making me comfortable and going over some questions with me.  A few minutes later the midwife came in and said that the heartbeat and movement was reassuring, but they were going to do an ultrasound to check the placenta and were a bit concerned that if the contractions continued they would have to do an internal to see if I was dilating.  The contractions eventually eased, Joe's coworker drove him to the hospital in record time, and the OB on call did an ultrasound that showed a head-down baby with an attached placenta and plenty of amniotic fluid.  I stayed hooked to the monitors for about three hours before they released me with instructions to call if I noticed any significant contractions or noticed any fluid, bleeding, or decreased movement.  Oh, and no intercourse for a few days.  Hi, Joe's sister!  Glad you came to the hospital with us, aren't you?

I came home and took a nap and got plenty of hugs from Joe, who insisted on buying a non-slip bath mat on the way home from the hospital.  I'm sore in about twenty places today, both from the fall and the subsequent panic, I'm sure.  But I'm ok, and the baby is ok, and there are just 6 weeks and one day until my due date so hopefully everyone stays just fine until then.

When I left L&D yesterday the nurse cheerfully said "see you soon!"  To which I silently responded: Holy.  Shit.