A Night at the Hospital...

God truly is good.

I have had some serious nausea the past four days (including throwing up Thanksgiving morning...yum!). I was worried that I may be getting Third Trimester morning sickness. But, when I woke up yesterday morning after sleeping 13 hours and still feeling like I couldn't get out of bed, I had a fever, and I was throwing up again...I knew it was something else. My lower abdomen was cramping like it hasn't cramped since before I was pregnant and some of the discomfort wrapped around to my lower back. I thought I just had some tummy troubles. My friend Jamie recommended I call my OB to make sure it wasn't something else.
I called Dr. Levin's answering service last night and literally within a minute, I was on the phone with her! (Reassuring!) She had me describe what was going on and she advised me to go ahead and go to Labor and Delivery at my hospital to make sure I wasn't having contractions. Hearing the words "Labor and Delivery" is NOT something that a 30-week pregnant woman wants to hear! After a slight freak-out moment (what did I do wrong? what's going on? what if...?) I called Steve who turned his car around immediately and took me to the hospital. (I spoiled his Spurs vs. Rockets evening...sorry, love!)
We got to the hospital and in no time they had me hooked up to monitors--one to monitor Malachi's heart rate and one to monitor contractions. It turns out that I was in fact having contractions but I wasn't in labor. Praise God!! My doctor said that I must have a stomach virus and was dehydrated from that. Sometimes with a stomach virus and all the things that go on from that inside your stomach, your body responds by having contractions. I wasn't in labor or anything, praise the Lord, but at least now I know what contractions feel like (for when it really is time). They were going to keep me overnight for observation but because Malachi was so active (he wouldn't stop showing off for them), they said he was unaffected by my virus and the contractons. Yay, Malachi! She sent me home to rest, drink gallons upon gallons of Gatorade, and keep watching my little man move and groove. I see her for my 30-week appointment on Monday so I will keep you posted from there.
I must say that my wonderful husband was amazing yet again and didn't complain once about how we had to spend our Saturday night. He was supportive and encouraging the entire time and made me feel like nothing was going to go wrong. Thank you, Steve. I love you more than you realize.