My doctor wanted to see me sooner rather than later, so we bumped my appointment up a day. I’m so glad we did that since the visit alleviated a number of my concerns. Despite the continuing contractions, I haven’t dialated any more since Saturday. The baby’s head is really low, though, which increases the risk of my water breaking early…and because of the risk of infection, I’d have to deliver then. The good news is even if Claire were born today, chances are she’d not end up with long-term health problems. However, she would probably have to be hospitalized until her original due date or thereabouts. Some of her organs, such as her lungs, are not fully developed yet.

Anyway, if my contractions were to start up agan with renewed vigor, the doctors wouldn’t go to great lengths to stop them. We’re hoping that Claire will stay womb-bound for another 2-3 weeks, though. Cross your fingers.

I’m so thankful that I didn’t have to start bed rest earlier on in my pregnancy. It’s not quite what I expected. I don’t get to sit propped up in bed eating bon-bons. No, bed rest means laying down. I’m not supposed to sit or stand any longer than 15-minute periods. This keeps the pressure off of my cervix. It also restricts the types of activities I can do. I’m not quite skilled enough to knit while laying down. *sigh*

I’ve been reading a lot. I finished the Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay. What a story-teller he is! Beautiful language, intricate plotting, and very human characters… I also finished the Time Traveller’s Wife, as was highly recommended by Susan and Kerrie. They’re right. It’s a great read. I could hardly put it down I’m currently reading Eragon, a fantasy novel written by a young man who lives near my parents’ home in Montana. It’s not the most sophisticated novel, but enjoyable enough for long days in bed.

I’m not the only one getting impatient with this pregnancy. Claire thought it was time for her to come on Valentine’s day. Unfortunately, it really is too early for her to make an appearance. She still has quite a bit of developing to do.

I’ve been having a lot of contractions throughout the past couple of months(?), but wasn’t too worried about them since I had a lot of Braxton Hicks the last time around as well. I think my uterous is just hyperactive. It went into overdrive on Saturday though, and the contractions weren’t just the somewhat uncomfortable variety. They became downright painful and more and more frequent. Those that I noticed came about every 10-15 minutes for several hours and it didn’t matter how much water I drank or whether I was laying down or doing jumping jacks. They kept coming, so I finally called the doctor. This was a momentous decision for me, since I don’t want to cry wolf. The doctor on duty told me to go to triage to have the contractions monitored.

As soon as we got to the hospital, I couldn’t feel the contractions any more and was certain that the nurses and doctors were going to think I was just another hysterical pregnant woman whom they could pat on the hand and send on her way. It turns out that I was still having regular contractions even though I couldn’t feel them, which means that the painful ones I was having earlier were really strong.

To see if they could stop/slow down the contractions, they gave me a couple of shots of terbutylene. Talk about unpleasant stuff! With it in my system, my face became flushed and I developed uncontrollable tremors. It didn’t succeed at stopping the contractions either. When that failed, the doctor decided to give me something else, the name of which escapes me right now, and after monitoring the contractions for another period of time, decided that they had slowed down enough for me to go home.

I’ve been confined to bedrest until I can see my regular doctor on Tuesday. While I once joked about wishing that I would be given such an order since I was so exhausted, I didn’t realize how difficult remaining bed/couch-bound was going to be. I hate having to ask someone else to do everything for me.

It was OK yesterday since Robert was home, but I don’t know how well it’s going to go today, since he has to return to work. Robert was going to take Sam to daycare, but Sam has developed a fever and a bad cough and we can’t take him there. I don’t know anyone I can call to come over to help. My brother is leaving town; my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are working; my parents are off in Chicago having a good time…

So, the plan is to let Sam watch as many videos as he can stand. This should minimize the number of times I have to jump up and get something for him. Eventually he’ll go down for a nap and daddy will come home. Wish me luck!

I need to go lay down now. Sitting in this chair for so long was probably not a good idea…but I really needed to “talk.” I’ll try to post a little news after my appointment on Tuesday.

I found this personality quiz via Kerrie’s weblog and had to give it a try:

You are Mohair.
You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that’s okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

It’s a funny result since the few times I have actually worked with mohair, I swore I’d never use it again. Of course, I’m not very good at sticking to resolutions…

I’m finally getting over my cold and my elbow isn’t giving me quite as much trouble as it has been. I may not pick up any knitting for another week or so, just to make sure it’s completely healed. Then again, I might not be able to resist knitting the last few rows of the right front side of my Elfin cardie. We shall see how disciplined I can be!

I?m trying to think of something cheerful to write. I don?t like to whine too frequently here. Unfortunately, I?m not one of those blessed women who goes through pregnancy very gracefully. I?m delighted to be having the baby. I just wish I could have laid an egg instead!

We haven?t been able to communicate to Sam the fact that he?s going to be a big brother soon. He thinks tummies are called ?babies? and the baby swing is called a ?baby sister.? I guess he?ll understand well enough once she?s actually born.

If you’ve sent an e-mail to me recently and I haven’t responded, I have a good excuse. My inbox has been deluged with virus-ridden e-mails: 300 or so of them in a couple of days. I’ve been deleting them en-masse, so it’s entirely possible that I accidentally deleted legitimate e-mails. If that’s the case, I’m really sorry!