Fun with 24-hour monitoring

Note to self: rainy parking lots create slippery shop floors. I slipped and shot my feet out from under me on a slick hardwood floor on Friday evening (surely scaring the store employee half to death and bringing thoughts of "EEEEK! LAWSUIT!" into her brain). I fell onto my butt, but thought it would be wise to call the midwife on-call at the hospital just to be careful. Well, as Brian said (mostly facetiously), the lesson from this is "Don't call Triage." The midwife brought me in with the warning to pack with the assumption that I'd be there for 24 hours of monitoring of baby.

I got there at about 9:30 PM Friday and ended up going home, finally, at 7:00 PM on Saturday. Not quite 24 hours, but close enough. Now that I think about it, it was almost exactly the length of time of my labor with Maia--about 22 hours. Anyway, the concern with a fall (or a "trauma" of any kind--car accident, physical abuse, etc.) is a condition called placental abruption, in which the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus before the baby is born, thus cutting off baby's blood and oxygen supply. This is one of the few circumstances in which a true emergency Cesarean is performed: running Mom's bed down the hall, no Dad in the O.R., general anesthesia, etc.

The hospital staff was kind enough to give me a private labor and delivery room rather than the usual spot for a woman in my situation, which is a narrow bed in the Cesarean recovery room (not private). They probably felt sorry for my pathetic, clumsy self! I did have several contractions overnight and baby's heartrate dropped a couple of times, but that type of stuff didn't continue at all throughout the rest of the day, and so it most likely was baby just smooshing the umbilical cord with his/her shoulder or hip (something we'd probably see with every baby if we monitored them all the time). I read my book and magazines, tried to sleep, bargained my way out of the "clear liquids only" policy (and therefore got to eat a Zingerman's sandwich midday), and spent some time hanging out with Brian, Joanna and Maia when they visited a couple of times.

My next regular appointment is on my due date this week, Thursday. I will plan not to fall or get in any car accidents before then.