Sunday, March 21, 2010

Stairs: Did You Know You're Supposed to WALK Down Them?

Yeah, falling down the stairs while pregnant is not a good idea. I did that this morning, and let me tell you, it's not fun.

I was following Bryson and Baylor down the stairs, when my sock slipped against my compression hose and made my foot slip out from underneath me. I grabbed onto the railings on each side of me, gripping for dear life as gravity took me down the stairs. Unable to regain my balance, I hit a few stairs with my rear end, settling finally on the third stair from the floor. Since my doctor said to call if I fell at all, I called up their office and they told me to head to the emergency room to get checked out.

That was not what I had planned for today, to say the least.

After getting Baylor fed and dropping him off at my parents' house, we made our way to the hospital. Upon our arrival, I told the guard at the entrance that I was 38 weeks pregnant and had fallen down the stairs. Apparently they take that sort of thing very seriously, as she came out from her booth and quickly got me into a bariatric-sized wheelchair. They bumped me ahead of the lady who came in just ahead of us, but when they realized I wasn't having any pain or leaking any sort of liquid things slowed down a bit.

I got checked in in the ER and was wheeled upstairs to maternity triage with another pregnant patient. They got us situated in our respective rooms, told us to get into gowns, and informed us where the bathroom was if we needed it. The nurse also informed me that they like to monitor pregnant fall patients for FOUR HOURS afterwards ... so we called my sister and let her know that it was going to be a while. After using the restroom, I got out of the compression hose I had so carefully squeezed myself into this morning. Then it took my husband and I, two college graduates, a few minutes of analysis before we could figure out how in the world the hospital gown went together.

Once I finally got into the gown, they hooked my belly up to the machine and I sat for a few hours. With nothing to do. I tried to sleep a little, but the bed was really uncomfortable and I was starving. Bryson took out his old cell phone and his new work phone and started entering in all his old contacts into the new phone. I had a few Braxton Hicks contractions, but that was all the action I saw. Finally, at around 1:30, I was deemed safe to leave and we headed home.

Today's lesson: wear shoes all the time. Especially when going down the stairs.

One week and one day left ...

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