Watch Out for the Fricking Icy Patch

The weather has been weird. On Wednesday it got really warm and then poured rain. The sidewalks flooded. Then the temperature plummeted and yesterday it snowed non-stop all day. The snow hide the frozen sheets of ice that had formerly been rain puddles and, in spite of my best effort to walk with care and having completed 2 miles of walking earlier that day, my right foot happened to land on one of these ice sheets and down I went. My right leg slid straight out in front of me, my left leg buckled and I dropped straight down onto my left knee, bending forward with a thud. Once the initial surprise of, "oh crap, I fell!" subsided, the thoughts started rushing. Had I hit my belly? How much had I bent forward when I hit the ground? Too far? When I got up I had a wave of dizziness and that's when I got scared.

I got home, pounded a glass of juice to get baby moving and lay down to wait for reassurance. LB didn't make me wait too long, 10 or 15 minutes before s/he nudged me a bit but by that time the internet had done its worse. I'd googled "falling while pregnant" and every article recommended you call your doctor. So I called with the expectation she would reassure me, give me some information like, "Count 10 movements in the next two hours and watch for spotting" or something. Nope. Not the case. She told me to come straight to the hospital to monitor the baby. I was completely shocked because that seemed like such a drastic reaction but she was very firm about it. Now I felt scared both for LB and for myself. The last time I had one of these on my wrist was the day my mom birthed me. 

Now is when I tell the cyberworld that Joe is the best man in the world. He was calm, took control of his frightened wife and didn't even skip a beat in spite of having to miss an improv event he was meant to be hosting and potentially having to miss the first show with his new group. He didn't even give it a thought, just made the calls he needed to make, gathered me up and took me to the hospital. I would have been a complete mess without him there helping me, sitting with me, telling me I didn't need to be afraid and just grinning and saying, "it's an adventure!" It made me feel a million times better and made a situation I was very upset about seem a lot better. He is going to be the best dad and birth coach or whatever in the world.

The staff at Crouse were great. They got us settled right away and a very kind nurse strapped some monitors to my stomach to monitor LB's heartbeat and my muscles for contractions. LB sounded great right away with a strong, steady heart beat and didn't wait very long before s/he started making its dislike of the heart monitor known by punching it repeatedly so we heard wump wump wump SMACK wump wump wump wump SMACK. That's our baby! Feisty as usual. Honestly, it was those shenanigans that really reassured me, because that is the baby I know and love, going about its business. 

Anyway, they kept me hooked up for almost an hour, gave me a sonogram to make sure nothing looked amok, drew some blood and since baby and its home seemed just fine, sent us on our way. Really, a pretty painless experience, we were there for about an hour and a half with basically zero waiting on the medical staff. The nurses were really kind and reassuring and it was nice to see my familiar doctor. They all made an effort to make me feel comfortable and not embarrassed for having to make a trip to the hospital as the result of a stupid little slip. The whole experience made me feel less frightened of the hospital in general, which I'm sure is a good thing since I'll be back there soon enough.

Anyhow, that's our story. Very, very thankful that LB is okay and for such a kind spouse who took very good care of me and is handling all the stress of his life right now beautifully. I couldn't be more proud or happy. Now I might return to playing the new game LB and I made up a little bit ago - Bop the Mug. The rules are I get to balance the mug on my belly and LB has to bop it. I think I lose when the mug bopping makes me laugh too hard to continue balancing the mug on the belly. LB loses when s/he ignores the game. LB is currently winning.