Benched: a stay-on-the-couch journey

Oh lovelies, what would I do without all of you. Thank you for your warm, supportive comments. I read each one several times and drew much comfort from them. Thank you.

I went back to the Pleasantville Birthing Unit on Thursday for another non stress test and squeezes of the arm through the sphygmomanometer (a fun word, ain't it). Gummy continued to showboat her good health for the nice medical staff, while mama Augusta was again looking a bit dim. Fine with me; I'm a little bit more robust at this stage in my life than she is. I had only taken 3 doses of the lab.etalol and it had not made much of a difference yet. My readings were not great.

Dr. Smiley was on call that day, which brought me a good measure of comfort. She said I was done with work. No more commuting. No more working. I was able to negotiate for the rest of Thursday and all of Friday, but on the promise of working "lightly"* The readings also showed I was having contractions. Couldn't feel them at all, but Dr. Smiley wanted to check my cervix to be sure. The u/s I had last Monday showed it was long, but she thought it would be worth checking if was starting to open up. But no. Closed for business.

I went back to see Dr. Smiley at the OB office on Friday morning. She liked my b/p a lot better at that point. She wrote me a note for my employer, and said she would see me again next Tuesday, at which point we would talk about eviction notices. She has stated that Gummy is not staying in there longer than 37/38 weeks. 37 weeks is on Monday, women. MONDAY.

So, mental gymnastics are being performed to ensure proper wrapping of the mind around this new reality. Next week or the week after is a lot sooner than March 11. But a healthy Gummy and a healthy mama is our goal. And Dr. Smiley has all my trust. If she says this is what needs to happen, we will abide (not without asking all kinds of questions of course, but she is used to that by now).

So I have to work on my resting techniques. I'm not a pro, but I'm being asked to work on it. There is still a list of things to do BG, but I'll focus on the essentials. There are a few work-related loose ends to tie up from home. And then there will be a birth, during and after which resting will be elusive.

Stay tuned. I can predict with annoying certainty that my next post will be all about my freak out over induction versus caesarean section.


* ambiguous enough that I can't feel completely guilty for breaking my word and staying at work until 8pm on Friday. Not wise, but patient work tugs notoriously at the heartstrings and cannot be ignored. And there is also the ethics code and the ever present fear of being sued.