Sunday at the Hospital

Well, life doesn’t always go to plan does it? Especially when you have to spend your Sunday in the hospital. It is a pathetic story… at least to me.

To preface this post – I work out. I work out hard. I work out hard 5 days a week. I work out hard 5 days a week for an hour each time. I am 25 weeks pregnant. This is a feat! When I work out, I do either swimming or an elliptical. Swimming feels good with my belly and the elliptical gives me a good work out for my arms and legs while being good on my joints.

I worked out 5 days last week. So yesterday, it was beautiful weather and I felt like I could do 6 days. I was feeling the need to get out of the house. So we drove to the park and I walked around the trails for 2 miles with Abi in my jogger. I walked at a fairly good pace and was pleased with myself even though I knew I didn’t take a full workout like normal. It felt good to be active. We finished about 5:30pm.

Around 7 pm I wasn’t feeling really great. I started having pain in my girly area. I decided to take a bath to help ease some of the pain. After a 20 minute soak, I couldn’t get out of the tub. I had to slither out like a snake and then I could get to my room. Then, I couldn’t get dressed. At this time, I knew something was wrong. I called Dan to get some reassurance and to inform him what was going on. He just said I needed to get some rest… which I felt I also needed to try.

I wrapped up in a blanket and Abi and I came downstairs to watch a movie since it wasn’t her bedtime yet. We watched about half an hour and then decided to go to bed. It took me about 25 minutes to get up my 14 stairs. The pain was getting worse. I called Dan in tears because I couldn’t crawl, walk, bend, or roll into bed. Plus, I had to get Abi into bed (on my floor) and she requires a decent amount of work.

I slept fitfully! I couldn’t turn from side to side, I couldn’t get Abi comforted with all her night terrors (usually 3 to 6 a night), and the pain kept getting worse. I prayed for the night to end quickly. I wanted to call Dan around 6 am but couldn’t reach my phone and needed Abi to help me. So at 8 when she woke up that was the first thing I had her do was get my phone off the dresser. I could not get out of bed. It was scary. It was like someone took a baseball bat to my girly area and whacked it 42 times… maybe 56 times. Dan said he would make some phone calls to some friends to come and help. He had Abi go downstairs and get us bananas off the counter to eat for breakfast. He also had her help me get some clothes on. That was interesting and I laughed. Just so grateful that I have her.

After that she “helped” me get to the restroom and then down the stairs to unlock the door. It was so painful and so tough. I kept feeling like, “if I can make it down the stairs, I should be able to get us breakfast and shower and get ourselves to church.” It was really discouraging for me. Especially for being alone.

We had friends come over and give me a priesthood blessing, dress and take care of Abi, and get us breakfast. Even through all the pain during the night I knew that our baby was okay. I never questioned her safety. I knew that it was my body and not something wrong with her. I know that the spirit was with me and comforting me through this reassurance. I also knew that I was cared for by the 5 people who showed up to help me! Talk about humble pie for me.

Then my mother-in-law came over and we headed to the hospital. I had called my Doc and he said that he really wanted to make sure that I was okay and that the baby was. So we packed up and drove over. They hooked me up to the monitors. The baby was kicking and moving so much they couldn’t find the heartbeat. It worried me for a minute but because she was moving so much, I felt again, that reassurance that she was okay. She kicked from 8 am until 2 pm nonstop. I don’t know of any baby in the womb to move that much… seriously, non stop. I think that it was a tender mercy of the Lord to make her so active.

After evaluating the baby and myself for a couple of hours the conclusion was that I just over did it! Walking over did it for me?!? For how hard I work out, I was really frustrated with my body. This is where I think it is pathetic! Walking! Just a different movement than what I have been doing. Just the way the baby is sitting in my tummy has put a severe pressure on my pubic bone and has caused muscle strain or bruising to it.

Thankfully the baby is healthy just like I knew she was and all my vitals were good too.

So here I sit… in pain. I am banned from lifting anything and exercising for a couple of days. Although, I am so tempted to get myself to the gym tomorrow. I heavily rely on that physical movement to boost my spirit each day. And it isn’t like I can go out and walk around the block slowly. Just nuts!!! I am still in major pain and getting more and more discouraged as I can’t do normal things… like take a full gallon of milk out of the fridge and sitting on the ground to change Abi’s diaper.

However, I have some of the best of friends and family who have offered to help me in the simple ways they can. I am so grateful for Abigail too. She has been my light through today. She has been such a little nurturer to help me as best she can.

When I had those good moments with Abigail today, I remembered the time I was driving home from the hospital in New York after a Dr. appointment and I had a reassurance from the spirit that having a girl first was what Heavenly Father planned for us. I was told that on that drive that she would be my friend when my husband was gone. And here I am seeing that come to pass. Just so grateful.

So here’s to my To Do list waiting for a couple more days while I rest. What am I ever going to do?