Possibly the Worst Night of My Life So Far

On Wednesday, December 28th, the week after Christmas, I had a very frightening experience. I won't go into detail, but basically I had experienced some symptoms that were bad signs, and I was afraid I was about to lose the baby - right after we'd announced our pregnancy to our families. I was very anxious, but I tried to keep calm, because I didn't want to inadvertently make anything worse. I got Aaron and we got dressed (it was about 10:45pm and we'd been just about to go to bed), and he drove me to the St. Joseph ER, which is thankfully just down the street from our house. We ended up sitting in the waiting room for about 2 hours, which I guess isn't too bad by ER wait-time averages. But I was anxious, feeling sick, and already exhausted. Once they got us in and put me in a bed, I felt better, mostly because the bed was much more comfortable and they heated up a couple blankets for me. They took some blood, hooked me up to a saline IV because they were afraid I was dehydrated already, and then didn't come back for about an hour. Aaron was a real trooper, and sat next to the bed, holding my hand, and saying comforting things.

Finally, the ER doctor on duty stopped in and said they still had to wait a little longer on the blood tests, and asked me several questions about how I was feeling and where it hurt and for how long, etc. Then he said he was going to send me over for an ultrasound shortly, and he'd check back in with me when he had those images and the blood test results.

The ultrasound was like the saving grace of the whole experience; Aaron and I got to see our baby for the very first time. I had expected something only vaguely humanoid, but the screen showed me a very human-looking little person, and he/she was apparently feeling great, flipping around and making lots of little jerky movements with their arms and legs. It was magical. I cried, and immediately all the anxiety was lifted; the baby was okay, everything was going to be okay. The nurse/ultrasound tech was smiling, and was very kind to us both.

I was wheeled back into my original ER room, and after another hour or so (I'm not exactly sure - I may have dozed on and off) the doctor came back in, and said everything looked fine to him, and asked when my next appointment with my OB-GYN was. I told him it would be that coming Monday, in just 3 days, so he said that I should call their office later that day, after I'd rested a bit, and tell them that I had been in the ER and that the ultrasound images could be accessed by tomorrow afternoon. He told me to take the day off and stay in bed all day, though, just to be extra careful.