I’m almost at the third trimester now, and things are going swimmingly. The baby is measuring on dates, my blood pressure has remained low, and I feel like I’ve hit the pregnancy jackpot – I am well aware not all women are this fortunate in mother nature’s lottery.
And yet – this healthy pregnancy is giving me very little in regards to artistic inspiration. I have nothing to write about!
Although there was that embarrassing little trip to the emergency room last week.
Let me explain.
I woke up at 5am that Sunday with a swollen, sore stomach. Went to the loo, went back to bed, but the pain started to worsen. I got up with my son at 6am and lay on the couch as the painful spasms gripped my stomach and lower back. At 7.30am or so I woke my husband, S. with words to the effect of ‘owww… sort the kid out, I’m in paaaaaain.’
Next I tried indigestion tablets, Panadol and a hot shower – the warm water at least providing some relief. At this point memories of my posterior labour with Finn started flooding back and I started to worry – maybe this was something baby related and not just a nasty stomach bug.
After more than three hours of excruciating pain I decided to call a telephone nurse and ask for advice. Instead of placating me, the response only flamed my paranoia. “Get to the hospital within an hour”. Fuck!
In a panic, I phoned my parents to ask them to look after Finn while we headed to hospital (entertaining a toddler in a waiting room for an indeterminate number of hours? No thanks). They were heading out of town for the weekend, but very kindly turned the car around and headed back our way.
Once Finn was safely in the care of nana and papa, we headed down to emergency. As soon as I declared I was 23 weeks pregnant I was offered a wheelchair and whisked off down to the labour ward to be examined by the midwives.
I should add that by this point I was starving and a little dehydrated as the telephone nurse had told me not to eat or drink anything. Between that, and the still-agonising cramps, I was not a happy camper.
A pleasant midwife came along shortly and checked the baby’s heartbeat and my blood pressure. All good. She laughed when I told her I was starving and sent S. off to fetch me tea and toast.
I was given Panadeine Forte for the pain and told to wait for the Registar to give me a quick check-over before I could leave.
In between being called to perform emergency c-sections, the young female Registrar found time to examine my cervix and confirm it was rightly closed, indicating that labour was not imminent.
No, she could not say what was wrong with me, but it was probably “just gastro”.
We were then left to it in the lounge and wait for the Panadeine to kick in while watching real labouring women come and go, wearing slippers and breathing deeply while their partners anxiously carried pillows, heat packs and overnight bags.
Hearing a brand new baby cry from the theatres was a heart-warming reminder that soon I’d be back here again, this time hopefully for a full-term birth and not a stomach bug!
Have you had any embarrassing pregnancy scares? Share them below.
are you serious…i thought there was going to be something interesting and funny…boring and time wasting crap
Well jean, who got out of the wrong side of the bed on Monday morning. I always find Amber’s blog entertaining, would you have found it more interesting and funny if she’d been faced with a real emergency?
No embarrassing scares, in fact the very opposite. With all three of my pregnancies I had many visits to L&D with contractions. Each and every time I was in L&D the staff took my concerns seriously.
At 23 weeks you are very correct in getting checked – I don’t see anything embarrassing about this at all. If it turned out to be anything more than a tummy bug you where at the right place. If you are at all worried when pregnant, get yourself checked as soon as you can.