Scare February 24, 2009

I had my first real pregnancy scare this week. Sunday night Mike and I went out to dinner with some friends for an annual restaurant week excursion.  After we got home I started having cramps.  I thought maybe I was going to have some intestinal issues, and since I don’t like to talk about such things (but have actually become much more comfortable talking about them since being pregnant) I didn’t say anything.  I think I fell asleep for about an hour, but was up at 3:30 when Mike woke up and I told him I had cramps.  By that time I had realized there was nothing intestinal going on, and it felt like menstrual cramps.  I was planning on calling the midwife first thing in the morning, but he talked me into calling at 3:30 in the morning.  Partly I couldn’t sleep because of the pain, but partly I was worried that something bad was going on in there.

The midwife said that based on what I was describing, she wasn’t too worried (cramps were constant and I wasn’t having contractions or any other signs of going into labor) and said maybe the baby was just having a growth spurt and putting added pressure on my uterus.  I was able to get another hour or two of sleep after that.  Monday I was a little lethargic and not feeling a whole lot better, so I called to see at what point I should start being concerned. (As if I hadn’t started already…) They said I should come in today if I wasn’t feeling better.

This morning I had to go to court to testify at a preliminary hearing against the homeless man who was apparently living in our basement and stole our bikes (and our laundry detergent, interestingly) and was feeling a little better, but not 100%.  So I went in to the midwife this afternoon and met a new midwife with crazy Mormon hair (you know what I mean?  Long straight hair with the crazy curls up-and-away from her face in the front?) who called me “Steph” as soon as she met me (a pet-peeve).  She checked the baby’s heartbeat, which was fine, checked my cervix, which was “soft-ish” but fully closed, and said that everything looked fine.  She didn’t have an explanation, but at least I know my cervix isn’t dilating and nothing seems to be wrong with the baby. 

So, I ditched out on book club tonight to stay home and rest.  Hopefully I’ll be feeling better enough by the weekend to continue with our party on Saturday.  I invited 26 people over (whoops!) for turkey – I have to pick up the turkeys (!) tomorrow at Whole Foods – so hopefully I won’t have to cancel on everyone.  I’ll just take it easy between now and then.