Adventure

I missed Poetry Thursday yesterday, but with good reason. I was in the hospital writhing around in agony, begging for drugs. Ever had kidney stones? Apparently they are fairly common for pregnant women, although I suspect I had a particularly bad case.

So! That was my first overnight at a hospital, my first long IV drip, my first experience with those awesome beds that move fifty different ways at the touch of a button, and my first experience of hospital food. It really is as bad as everyone says!

Between my bouts of begging for drugs, I was panicking about the baby. The nurses obliged me by checking his heartbeat every hour or so and checking him on the ultrasound while they were looking at my kidneys. His heart rate went down as my blood pressure went up, but by this morning, both he and I were back to normal. He seems to have enjoyed the whole ordeal and his narcotics-induced rest, and was extra lively this morning. The nurse couldn't find his heartbeat for more than a few seconds at a time as he swam from one side of my belly to the other.

If I had to be in the hospital for something, I wish it had been something a little less prosaic and a little more romantic, but at least I'm feeling better about labor; it can't hurt more than peeing a bunch of sharp rocks, right?