Be careful what you wish for...

Well most of you know that me being a word person, words have a profound affect on me. So I find it ironic that after swearing I would never have a baby in November again, I am due two days after Jake's birthday. This week I have been mourning the fact that I would have had my third baby by now and instead I have to wait 11 more weeks.
Yesterday Mari was being really still (very unusual for her). When I couldn't remember feeling her kick at all by 3 p.m. I started to get concerned and started keeping up with movements, or lack thereof, on paper. I took a shower and noticed my belly was rock hard and thought maybe I just had overdone things as my back was hurting really bad by this point as well. Around 5:30 I did the juice and laying on your left side and all of that and she still wouldn't respond. I called the hospital and they said to lie on my left side for 30 more minutes and call back if I still didn't feel anything. By this point I had eaten some soup, drank four or six big sips of James' coffee and drank some cold milk. I tried to stay calm and called the hospital back. The told me to come in (they are around 50 minutes away) so I grabbed some stuff for Jake and James and I rushed to the hospital. We still couldn't feel her move, but we could hear her heartbeat on the monitor. It turns out that (a) she was asleep-they can tell this by her movement and variations in her heart rate (b) she is running out of room since she is measuring three weeks bigger than she is supposed to (c) I am HAVING CONTRACTIONS that is why I couldn't feel her move. You think I would have noticed CONTRACTIONS! They are still short and irregular and some of them I was not even able to feel. I am not dilated at all and my cervix hasn't moved down yet or anything, but I am only 28 weeks (almost 29 weeks by the doctors' estimate, but I disagree with their due date). When you have a contraction your uterus tightens up and you can't feel anything move inside it. When they made me lay on my back she woke up and started thrashing about as usual. I told James that next time I will lay on my back instead of my left side (they told me to on the phone to lie on my left side) because apparently she REALLY does not like me lying on my back. They monitored me for awhile and did some lab work just to make sure I didn't have any other preterm labor signs and everything else came back great--No dehydration, no Urinary Track Infection, no high blood pressure, sugar or protein or even blood in my urine. We discussed the fact that I had contractions and started dilating with Jake at 34 weeks and that it is possible that I had these same problems with him but was not hooked up to a fetal monitor until 34 weeks (because I had been having Braxton Hicks forever with him--since month 4) and it wasn't until they became pretty regular and 10-13 minutes apart that I even mentioned anything to the DR. At the time they prepared me to have an October baby (his due date was Nov 30) and I had to go in for additional monitoring every week and he didn't show up until Nov 25th, so I am not as concerned as I would be otherwise I guess. They gave me a whole list of things to watch for and since I am booked for this Wednesday they will do a followup then. Apart from that no real restrictions -just to take it easier than I have been, etc. Also they told me to take Tylenol PM as it can stop false contractions (I was having tons of Braxton Hicks--that is why my uterus was rock hard--but only a few real contractions). I guess this weekend I will pack my bag for the hospital after all... Pray Mari bakes long enough to be healthy but not too long so I don't have to have my c-section on the 29th! I do want another baby in November, I really do!

Oh and Jake was charming his way around the labor and delivery ward. They gave him a sticker that said "I'm a big brother" and a carton of milk (we were there for quite awhile). While we were trying to keep him entertained we were asking him questions and I asked him how many fingers he had. He said ten! I thought maybe it was a coincidence so I asked him how many toes he had and he said ten! I am so amazed as this isn't something we have directly taught him but something he has picked up on his own. Sure, we count his fingers and toes but I didn't realize he understood number as a quantitative measure of anything yet. He is a smart little monkey. I am currently teaching him what all the different buttons on the radio do (as well as what ones not to touch on a computer). It is amazing how much he understands. He got very excited when they hooked Mari up to the monitor and he even pointed and said Baboo a few times. He tried to answer questions that the nurse was asking me as well. As it was a late night, none of us got a lot of sleep last night and so it will hopefully be an early an uneventful night for us!