Thanksgiving Not Quite What I Expected While Expecting

So, Thanksgiving took an unexpected turn. . .

After my getting up at 3am, I finally got back to sleep around 5:30 am only to be awoken just before 10am with the worst pain in my right side. It lasted about ten minutes and then went away and I felt fine. Several hours later while getting ready for our fancy Thanksgiving lunch, who should find herself in the shower with the worst pain again? Uh. . .that would be me.

So, Craze calls the doctor on call, who thinks my symptoms sound down-right weird, but tells me to go the the triage unit of the women's hospital since she's worried I might be having a gall stone attack or an appendicitis or something else entirely, possibly related to my liver. Long story short: we drop off the in-laws at the nice down-town restaurant around 2:20pm and head to the hospital for what should be about an hour's worth of blood tests, only to actually be sent home just after 11 pm after almost nine hours of early and quite painful labor. No gall stones, no appendicitis, nothing but contractions every 2-3 minutes on my right side (oh yeah, and vomiting. . .that was fun), but I never dilated enough to be transferred up to the actual delivery unit. And I am too far along for them to give me something to make the contractions stop and not far enough along for them to break my water and get things rolling. Like being stuck between a rock and. . .well, another rock.

So, I got sent home while still contracting and throwing up in the car with a prescription for blessed, pain-relieving Oxycontin and Ambien to sleep. I'm still having contractions now (Day 4), but at least I can take a pill when and if they get really bad and am not hooked up to IVs and monitors like in the hospital. And thankfully, after my first night at home, my vomiting has also taken a blessed vacation.

I feel like I'm really in limbo now. Not sure if I'm going to have this baby any hour, any day or if this will all just stop and he'll wait it out 'til his 12/21 due date.

My in-laws were great, hanging out in the waiting room after lunch until it was time to check out. Then before heading back to Detroit yesterday my mother-in-law made food from all the previously purchased organic ingredients (beef stew, meat loaf, turkey salad) and helped Craze fold laundry. It really was an odd sensation to have someone doing so many things for me since I've been pretty much fended for myself from a young age. Weird but really very nice. As I've said before, I am very lucky in the in-law department.

As of today, I slept until around 1pm and then hung out in bed watching TV with the Bug and the Alley Cat for another hour or so. I'm drinking a lot of water and watching a lot of Christmas movies on Hallmark and Lifetime. My "big" little baby is still wriggling around periodically. Thankfully, he seemed none the worse for wear on the hospital monitors during my 9-hour labor ordeal. We're still not sure when we'll meet him in person. I guess time will tell. . .

Not Sleeping It Off. . .Unfortunately

The in-laws arrived very late on Wednesday and are now sleeping soundly (I hope) down in the new guest room.

Cleaning, unfortunately, took way longer than anticipated and since I did keep putting things off, left me achey and complainy when I finally finished this evening. Now that my house is clean and mostly organized, groceries bought, pumpkin bread baked and turkey breast roasted, you'd think I'd be ready for a good night's sleep. Instead, I went to bed around 12:30ish, got woken up by a noisy Craze at 3 am and have since been wide awake on this very early Thanksgiving morn while Craze and the doggies slumber away in the bedroom. (Though I just noticed that the Bear must be having some kind of bad dream as he actually sounds like he's growling in his sleep! Well, at least he's actually asleep.)

We are headed out tomorrow (aka later today) for Thanksgiving lunch to a fancy downtown Chicago restaurant right in Millennium Park (home of "The Bean" and, in Fall/Winter, the picturesque Millennium Park ice rink) which should be fun. I'm excited about having someone else cook for me and do all the dishes afterwards!

I was amazed, watching Oprah this morning, when she said she's never cooked a whole turkey. I swear, I've cooked at least 20 of those poor, de-feathered beasts over the years. Probably closer to 30 even (between Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners) but I don't want to exaggerate. This year with only 3 weeks and 3 days until my little baby is due to arrive, I'm more than happy to leave the roasting, cooking and clean up to others.

So, after sneaking down to the kitchen for a cup of decaf tea and a slice of the afore-mentioned pumpkin bread, I'm really hoping, at 5:20 am, that sleep is about to catch up with me again. Hoping, but not really feeling it unfortunately. The complete irony of pregnancy is that people constantly remind you of all the sleep you'll miss out on once you become a parent. Though they never seem to relate the terrors of all the sleep you're going to miss out on during the nine months when you have more time and inclination for uninterrupted rest. So unfair! Oh how I look back now on my nights of easy slumber with relish. Total comfort. No nightly trips to the bathroom. Hardly ever waking up with only two hours of sleep and then being wide awake for no reason. I have always LOVED sleeping. Now, unfortunately, I find it hard to achieve for more than a series of cat naps interspersed between bathroom breaks.

Let's just hope I'm able to stay awake later today during our Thanksgiving feast!

Thanksgiving Soon Upon Us

The organics have been bought but still more household chores to be done before the in-laws' arrival tomorrow. I totally recognize I'm getting boring and repetitive where my Thanksgiving cleaning is concerned, but I can't help myself.

I've had such a hard time sleeping lately that it's been a real chore to get myself geared up to do much of anything. I'm in pregnant Zombie-mode much of the day.

That said, today's the day. I made a start last night and I should be able to get it done in a few hours if I just keep my focus. Then one last trip to pick up non-organic fruit and veggies (and I will sneakily remove the labels to disguise their non-organic origin) and I am done.

But before I make my way to finish up my dust-free and clean abode, I'd like to wish one and all a happy and safe Thanksgiving. May everyone have the opportunity to break bread with people they love and take stock, even in these tough times, of all the good things in life.