A Bump on the Head and an Afternoon in the Hospital

Eli sustained his most painful-looking owie to date a few days ago (this still is a pretty mild scrape - we have been very fortunate in this area of toddlerhood). We were getting his shoes on in the laundry room (after he tossed all of my shoes from their rack onto the floor so he could drive his cars in their spot). I picked up all but one of my shoes, and wouldn't you know it, that was the shoe that he stepped on, rolled his ankle, and fell most awkwardly scraping his forehead. It just looked painful on the way down. For a couple of days it looked like he had a 3rd eyebrow over his right eye, except this one was red and scabby. He has recovered nicely from this incident and is no worse for the wear. (Nope, the trip to the hospital was not on this date, nor was it for Eli).



Yesterday, I having started having contractions pretty regularly. I've been having Braxton-Hicks contractions since about 14 weeks and did the same with Eli, so initially I wasn't alarmed. We stopped at Costco in the morning with other errands to run afterward. After Costco, I just wanted to go home and lie down because my contractions were getting pretty hard. They weren't the real labor contractions, but they were getting to be strong enough to make me have to stop and breathe through them.

So, we went home and I called the Dr's office and asked to have the nurse give me a call when she got a chance. I kept off my feet and drank lots of fluids and started timing my contractions (standard procedure for this - I have done this before). They were pretty consistently 3 - 5 minutes apart. Again, they weren't the baby producing kind, but still were pretty strong.
About 1:00 I still hadn't heard back from the nurse and decided to try a hot bath to see if that did anything. It didn't, and the baby wasn't moving around as much as he normally does. That was the part that was making me nervous. So I called the Dr's office again and told them I was having regular contractions and they found a nurse for me to talk to. She had me come into the office for a non-stress test.

I got to the office and they strapped me up to some equipment to measure the strength of my contractions and the baby's heart beat. I was so relieve to hear that whooshing-galloping noise of his little heart! Whew! He still wasn't moving around much, but his heart rate was strong. My contractions were still quite regular and were off the little chart in intensity. The doc on call (my dr. was out for the day) had me get an ultrasound. Everything looked great and the contractions weren't productive at all. You know, this isn't the best method to get extra peeks at your developing baby, but it was so wonderful to see his little face on that screen again! I got all choked up when I saw his perfect little face and tears started welling in my eyes a bit! Total pregnant mommy moment!

So everything is in working order except for my body's desire to get a good workout and build those muscles for the big event in a couple months. I guess there are even subconscious parts of me that are overachievers! They sent me over to the hospital to get a shot to stop the contractions. I thought I would just pop in and get my shot and be on my merry way. Alas, no. My afternoon in the hospital was as long (if not longer) than this post! The nurse kindly told me that yes, I in fact needed to don their skimpy little gown and make my self at home while they strapped me up for another non-stress test to make sure the contractions stopped. I acquiesced with minimal foot-dragging and hopped onto the bed. The nurse administered the shot and it did its job.

Let me just take a moment to tell you that this shot has pretty much the same effect on you as would downing three or four RedBulls on an empty stomach. Not the most pleasant thing in the world, but it was nice to have the contractions stop.

So, I went home with prescription in hand to stop any future contraction marathons and orders to take it easy until I see my Dr. on Tuesday.


That is the end of my dramatic saga on the incident. All is well that ends well, I guess. The baby has been moving around enough today to make up for his lack of movement yesterday, which pleases me greatly.

Onto more fun things. Eli seems to have passed through much of the initial "two-ness" and his charming demeanor has returned. He has started adding (a lot) to our prayers whether it be over the food or nighttime prayers. It is so cute! When we are saying thanks for things he will throw in items including but not limited to: cereal, spoons, hot rod cars, Daddy home from work, Grandma, Grandpa, the garage, dirt bikes, trucks, moon, bubbles, applesauce, etc. I love it and really need to catch this on video. When I am tucking him in at night, we have to say good night to just about everything that pops into his little mind, which is no small number of items on our checklist! It cracks me up the things that he comes up with!

This morning, Brandon was wearing a jacket that has a motorcycle on the back of it. Eli is totally entranced with this jacket! So Brandon put it on him. It looked so cute! He looked like a combination of Yoda and Zero from Masters of the Universe.

(Zero is the little floaty guy above He-Man)

He thought it was pretty sweet to be wearing Daddy's jacket! I just love this little kid. He is so darn smart and so aware of everything going on around him! I never knew little kids could be so cute or so entertaining!

Use the force, Luke!