Mother's Day Scare

Mother's Day is not supposed to be scary. Especially when you are pregnant. And on a long weekend of a vacation. However, we figured out how to make it happen, and were in the emergency room again this past Sunday, this time in Charleston, South Carolina.

The weekend started out nicely. Our church blessed us with a free night of babysitting, so our friend, Christina, ended up watching Elsa for us Friday night while we grabbed a bite to eat (and were able to sit at the bar -- a true treat these days!) at Taqueria del Sol, and then went over to Twain's to play a few rounds of billiards together. It was nice to get out alone, especially since our nine-year anniversary was Wednesday and Mother's Day was on the horizon.

I cheated just a bit on my gluten-free diet while at Taqueria and got the beef red chili sauce on my enchilada, which I have recently learned does contain flour. However, I have done so in the past without much repercussion, so I figured the amount of flour actually in the sauce is probably fairly minute; thus, I do eat it from time to time. However, early Saturday morning I awoke to some stomach cramping that felt similar -- though not as severe -- as the cramping in my intestines the morning after I ate the pizza a few weeks back. Needless to say, I wrote the cramping off to intestinal issues due to cheating and ate about four antacid tablets before climbing back into bed for a couple of hours.

Once Elsa was awake, we got up and got going as quickly as we could with packing the car to head down to Charleston. My aunt and uncle, from Oregon, and my parents departed on a Caribbean cruise yesterday from Charleston, and we had all decided to meet down there Saturday to spend a few days together, sightseeing and such, before they headed out to sea. Jarrett and I find the drive to Charleston quite tedious, and remembered it quite well from our two previous trips down there -- once for our honeymoon, and another time a few years later -- but we knew it would be worth it. I rarely get to see my aunt and uncle, so we knew it would be a great opportunity to visit with them, and to round the trip out just perfectly, my parents agreed to watch Elsa one evening so we could go out to dinner to our favorite restaurant (discovered on our honeymoon), McCrady's.

We arrived at our hotel in Mt. Pleasant, just over the bridge from Downtown Charleston, mid-afternoon on Saturday, and met up with my parents and aunt and uncle there. After unloading the car, we decided to drive around and check out what Mt. Pleasant had to offer. It seems like an extremely lovely place to live, but we could not, at least immediately, find anything to really do. We did, however, come across a playground and a huge expanse of grass that lay in front of the bay, so we all got out and let Elsa run around and see the water and boats. She also ended up making a friend of a five-year-old boy who was flying a kite, and with some coercing from his father, he even let Elsa take the reigns for a few minutes. She seemed quite taken by the whole kite-flying experience, and did a great job holding tightly onto the handle as the red kite soared in the sky above her. After our outdoor fun, we drove around some more, trying to find a decent restaurant at which to eat dinner. The parents of the little boy led us in a few possible directions, and we settled on one of their recommendations on Sullivan's Island. The food was not outstanding, but it worked, and my mom at least seemed pleased with her first taste of shrimp and grits.

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, and then my parents and aunt and uncle took Elsa with them on the ferry out to Ft. Sumter. It was my and Jarrett's plan to go into Downtown Charleston and stroll around, but we were fairly delayed in actually doing so. My stomach cramps got pretty bad again overnight, and Jarrett woke up not feeling so hot himself. At this point, because he was feeling rather ill too, we both started blaming Taqueria for bad meat or something. We finally made it into town and looked around the Charleston market until it was time to grab lunch. We chose Southend Brewery, as we remembered eating there before and thinking they had a fairly diverse, American menu. Neither one of us were feeling too much like serious seafood or anything super fancy. Jarrett ended up with a BBQ pork sandwich, and I had a Casesar salad (minus the croutons, of course) with salmon. The the decor of the place seems to have gone quite south itself in the past number of years, but the food was still pretty good.

(Note that the following section includes descriptions of bodily fluids and such, so if you find that gross, you might want to stop here.)

We met up with everyone back at the hotel, as my parents had reported that Elsa seemed quite tired after her big boating adventure. Jarrett and I were debating whether to still go ahead and go out to a plantation with them, but in the end decided to stay behind and let them go ahead while we rested with Elsa. It took some time to get Elsa to settle down, and while we were still attempting to do so, I used the bathroom and noticed tiny specks of blood in my urine. This combined with the fact that I was still getting the cramping off and on began to alarm me, and Jarrett told me I should go ahead and call the midwives just to at least get an opinion on things. Anjli was on call, and she asked me some questions. We ruled out a few things over the phone, and she just said that she would like me to come in at some point in the coming week so they could check things out and that I should just call her back if things got any worse. Well, a little while later, after getting Elsa to sleep in the bed between us, I went again, and this time there was not only little blood specks in the dark, red-tinged urine, but also what looked to be some fairly tiny pieces of tissue. This had me and Jarrett and little more freaked out. I called Anjli back, and she said she would like me to go ahead and get to an emergency room that had a labor and delivery department. I asked her if she could tell me at all what she thought might be going on, and she said she did not want to scare me, but at this point she just wanted me to get checked out and make sure I was not going into preterm labor. This really scared me.

I called my mom on her cell phone and begged that she not freak out because I already was. She was a good mom and was able to stay pretty calm for me and said that they would immediately head back to the hotel to watch Elsa since she was asleep. (I later found out they had been at the plantation for only  20 minutes or so, which made me feel terrible, but they all said they of course did not mind.) After about a 60-second complete mental breakdown, seated on the foot of the bed, with head in hands and tears down cheeks, I pulled it together as much as possible, and Jarrett and I headed downstairs after about 15 minutes once my parents had arrived.

On the way to the hospital, I was still feeling the cramping, but I also felt the baby move around quite a bit, which helped relax me in knowing that she was at least still kicking. And thankfully the hospital was not far away. It probably took us ten minutes at most. We parked, walked inside, were (after a call upstairs to labor and delivery) nearly immediately sent back to a registration desk, and after some fumbling on the registration lady's part, were walked upstairs and instantly put into a room. The hospital seemed nearly deserted, but beautifully new. I asked, and I guess they had just had their one-year anniversary of being open, so we were surrounded by niceness for sure. The nurses were great too. After changing into a gown and giving a urine sample, I was hooked up to a fetal monitor. The baby's heartbeat looked great, and after many minutes of monitoring (while getting checked in), it was determined that I was not experiencing contractions. Not too long later, one of the nurses checked my cervix and said that it was nice and thick and fully closed. Relief. I was so happy to hear that I was indeed not in labor.

We had to wait quite awhile for the results of the urine analysis, and in the meantime I was hooked up to IV fluids (and they took some blood during the process, just in case) because the two nurses helping us decided that it looked dark enough that I must be dehydrated. They were also pretty certain at this point that all signs were leading to a urinary tract infection, which was music to my and Jarrett's ears. Sure, it still kind of stinks, but it is about the best outcome we could ask for. The nurses were also talking to one of the doctors over the phone, and they decided they were probably going to start me on an antibiotic, but the doctor wanted to get into the hospital first and see the results of the analysis. Finally, after the first bag of fluids was in me and the nurse had started me on a very slow drip of the second, the doctor arrived, but it was still quite awhile before we got results. More questions about my medical history and previous pregnancy (which contained no complications whatsoever) were asked, Jarrett and I sat around chatting, etc. The results eventually did come back, and there was definitely blood present in my urine, but no ketones (the presence of which would indicate dehydration), and the presence of bacteria came back inconclusive. So the doctor and the nurses were fairly puzzled, and the doctor decided to send off the sample for an even more in-depth analysis, the results of which will be sent to Intown Midwifery once received. They still decided to go ahead and put me on the antibiotics, and in later talking to Anjli again, she felt this was probably a good move.

So, all in all, everything turned out okay. Thank the Lord. I currently have, and have had in the past, friends who have had to deal with so much worse during pregnancy, so thus far I am lucky. And I give much thanks for that. Now Anjli has just asked that I come into the office at some point this week (am now scheduled to go Thursday morning) to have things checked out some more by them. I am not quite sure what they will do, as since I am now on antibiotics, nothing is obviously going to show up in my pee, but I guess we shall see.

Jarrett and I even made it out of the hospital in time to still make it to our dinner reservation at McCrady's Sunday evening. It was to be a belated anniversary celebration, as well as a Mother's Day treat, but it ended up being so much more than that. It felt like a blessing all around. It was a much-needed relaxed meal after such an afternoon, and the food and ambiance did not disappoint, even after the nine years since our first visit. Our meals were maybe even more delicious, and certainly more inventive, than what we experienced the first, and especially the second, time we went. Jarrett started with a pasta appetizer, which was dressed with clams, mushrooms, and some sort of tasty sauce, and I started with a lobster and scallop dish that was so incredibly unique, and so very tasty. For our entrees, Jarrett had halibut on top of greens and I had the duck, which came with turnips, ramps, and the best mushrooms I have ever put in my mouth. For dessert, Jarrett got their take on a deconstructed Snicker's bar, and I had the creme brulee. After dinner, we enjoyed one drink (mine was a delicious strawberry-basil mocktail) at "Charleston's Tightest Pub," Squeeze. It was all just truly fantastic, and such a nice time out to celebrate our lives together.

Our weekend ended with a shared activity among all of us, which was great -- an hour-long carriage tour around Charleston. Jarrett and I had been on one before, and have been on so many Charleston walking tours that I have lost count, so we had heard most of the history before, but it was still very enjoyable (especially once Elsa moved up onto my mom's lap -- she does MUCH better with her!). Lunch before my parents' and aunt and uncle's departure for the cruise was somewhat ruined by Elsa's overtired mood and my non-rational ways of dealing with it all, but it was all smoothed over, for the most part, before they left. As they went to park their car and board a shuttle to take them to the cruise ship, Jarrett, Elsa, and I walked down to take a closer look at the boat and explain to Elsa that Grandma and Grandpa were going to be on that boat for several days. She thought that idea was pretty cool, and talked about it all the way back to the car. And we hopped in and drove off with the childish chatter of boats, bridges, and trips in the back seat. It felt like a short trip, but it was certainly an eventful one. And one we surely will not forget.