Extra Birthday Fun - not so much.

Yesterday, 7/3, was my birthday.   Yup, I'm a 4th of July weekend baby and as a little girl, I always thought the fireworks were for my birthday.  HA!  Before blogging about the extra excitement that occurred - let me say first.  Everything is fine.  The baby is good.


The day started out fantastic!  My husband gave me a beautiful card.  It talked about raising a family together - and I thought - how awesome that we can exchange cards like that now!  He obviously thought so too because he hand-wrote in it "I can't wait to raise a family with you.  I love you."   Inside the card was a gift certificate for a spa day.  Manicure, pedicure and a pregnancy massage.


Have I mentioned how much I love this man?????  Normally, I'm not a girly-girl, as most of you know.  At the moment, at 7 months pregnant - PERFECT gift.  I was just thinking the other day - I need to take off my old toe polish...but reaching my toes consistently is a little too hard to make that worth it.  LOL


After the card, we went to breakfast.  My husband isn't a breakfast person, but since it was my birthday he took me out for pancakes.  :)  We then watched some tennis and went shopping for some games for our family that's coming next weekend and a curtain rod for the nursery.  I know, we're exciting people.  LOL.


Then we went to the movies with my friend Sarah and her husband.  Good times....until we got home.  There was a bunny eating my garden - our neighborhood has a bunny problem.  We always let our dog Cassie "get the bunnies", because she loves chasing them off and never actually does anything to them or even get close.


So, I got out of the car (Mark was still pulling it in to the garage) and told Cassie let's get the bunny. I was watching the dog and the bunny as I came back around the corner...and wearing flip flops.  Apparently, this is a dangerous combination when pregnant.  My shoe caught on the edge of the garden/sidewalk barrier and I went down faster than a lead balloon.   Despite my attempts to change trajectory....I landed hard - mostly on the baby belly.  (my knee did get pretty banged up too).


I just laid there stunned for a minute after pushing myself off the belly.  Mark flew out of his car as though he'd been shot out of a cannon.  It was one of those falls - that if I had not been pregnant, I would have been laughing at myself and trying to get up fast before anyone saw me because I was too embarrassed to be hurt.  Having a baby in my belly sure changed my perspective.


I got up and walked inside and things just felt different.  (I'm sure because I clinched every abdominal muscle that I didn't know I had).  My belly was sore and I was scared.  Turn on the tears.  Mark told me to lay down - he got a cool rag to wipe off my bloody knee and some neosporin.   I'm terrified I hurt Bug.  I can't feel her moving either.  I send Sarah a text message as a comfort measure.


Then we pulled out the iPad to do some internet searches on falling while pregnant...and Marked pulled out the "When to call the doctor" list from the birth classes.  On the list?  Falling or a direct blow to the abdomen.  I'm crying again....still no baby movement.  Mark tells me to call the Doctor.  I do a perfect impression of an idiot and say "his office is closed."  He reminds me that their recording will have who I should call after hours.  Oh.  I call the Doctor on call, leave a teary message and wait.  She calls back in less than a minute.  Tells me that in these situations at my stage of pregnancy they want me to go to the hospital and have the baby monitored.


For some reason this calms me down.  I think because, intellectually, I knew the danger from the fall would be the placenta separating.  I had no bleeding or contractions...but I can not SEE the placenta, nor can I see the baby.  Knowing that we are going somewhere to check those things reduced my stress a million times.


Luckily, because of the pregnancy, we don't have to do the emergency room.  We checked in right at the maternity floor and were back in the maternity triage hooked up to the monitors in less than 10 minutes.  As soon as I heard her beautiful heartbeat, I took a deep breath and relaxed.


In the two hours we were there we got a lot of fabulous practice for labor.  (fabulous is sarcastic).   I got to feel what the monitors for contractions and for heart beats felt like.  We got to experience the triage room outside of a tour.  I got to experience the lovely painful internal exam without petroleum based gel. (ow)  And I got to experience the joy of having my cervix checked.  I was 1/2 cm dilated...probably from the fall.  But, no blood, no amniotic fluid and no contractions.  After two hours of the baby having a steady, regular heartbeat, they said the baby is good and we could go home.


Not exactly the way I intended to spend my birthday!  I called my Dad after we were released.  I started with "everything is fine", but when I said we just left the hospital - he still got the nervous-my-kid-is-in-danger sound to his voice.  Makes me realize how lucky and loved I am.


Today - I am rather sore....as expected.  I was warned that I would be sorer than I thought I would be...because all of my abdominal muscles most likely tensed as a protective measure for the baby.  They didn't lie.  But, as I told the doctors, I can deal with sore as long as my daughter is okay....and she is. She's been kicking away all morning.


I've been given strict orders by friends, family and husband to not fall again.  Not that I fell on purpose the first time.  :)


Bottom line - today is definitely a rest day for me!  Until next time!