Friday morning, Elliot & I woke up to the contractors showing up 1 hour early. That NEVER happens! We were then trying to finish getting ready to leave with the contractors doing work. I told Elliot he should put his sandwich together, but, of course, he was too busy being lazy. We then were surprised by our insurance agent – we forgot we made an appointment with her. In the midst of all this chaos, we were trying to finish decorating a cake for my niece, Stephanie, since we were planning to head up to NJ for her bat mitzvah! We decided to keep it simple – a basic 9×13 inch cake with an edible image of her facebook page on top. Elliot wanted to help, so he started icing the cake – mistake #1. He had the cake upside down on the tray, and he got crumbs all over the icing :(. I was so frustrated – and didn’t have enough icing to fix the problem. We tried flipping the cake back, but it broke in half because of the weight of the icing. So, I was then sitting there trying to repair the cake. Then, I went downstairs to print out the image . . . and, naturally, the printer was out of ink! Elliot offered to help refill the cartridges – let’s just say, that was a disaster, too. Elliot took FOREVER – he spent most of the time looking for gloves. Something about Ellilot when we are on a very short time frame makes him slow down . . . he moves like molasses when I need him to hurry! After all of that, Elliot didn’t fill all the cartridges that needed to be refilled, so the printout looked terrible – the colors were all off. Even worse, it took him so long that the icing crusted, so I couldn’t get the icing sheet to attach. I was SOOOO frustrated!

We then had to take Nugget (I couldn’t leave her here with the contractors) up to my friend’s house so she could watch her for 1 hour while we had our ultrasound. The plan was to grab the dog then go straight to my brother’s house to drop her there overnight. As we were driving to the ultrasound, Elliot realized he forgot his phone. We were so late, we didn’t have a choice but to keep going. This little factoid becomes important later on . . . .

We arrived for our ultrasound about 10 minutes late – only to find that the doctor we were supposed to see had left a few minutes before – sick! The office was all backed up – we waited over 1 hour to get our ultrasound. We had a different tech again – and we have learned that some under-measure, and some over-measure. We had one with a generous hand – who informed me my cervix had grown larger than it had been even at 28 weeks (3.5 cm). That didn’t seem right to me, but it gave us our “green” light to go on our trip. We then met with the doctor, she re-measured some of the images, and said she thought the cervix was closer to 2.4 (which made more sense). Regardless, there were no signs of imminent labor, so we decided to head out for the weekend.

We stopped and picked up dog food, dropped my dog off with my brother and SIL, then went on our way. We arrived in decent time, and had dinner with the family. There was a bit of family drama (as usual) and then we had cake with everyone back at the hotel. My stomach was bothering me, and I was up pretty early not feeling well. When I finally got Elliot awake, he complained he wasn’t feeling well, either. I assumed he was playing the “me, too” card, and I was totally unsympathetic. We went to breakfast, and I could barely eat anything. I had 2 bites of oatmeal, 1 piece of scrambled egg, 3 frosted mini wheats, and a bite of the home fries.

We got back to the room, and I called my mom, who informed me she had been up all night puking. At that point, I realized that it was pretty likely we all caught a stomach bug from my niece (who was getting over a stomach bug on Thanksgiving). I no sooner hung up from my mother when I began puking. I spent the next 6 hours throwing up, with bouts of diarrhea thrown in the mix. It was NOT a fun day. The whole time, Elliot complained he wasn’t feeling well, and mostly slept. I realized I was having a lot of cramps and contractions, so we called the midwife. She suggested I drink more fluids and increase my meds, so I did. At 3:00, I decided to join my SIL, Jodi, for a manicure/pedicure (actually, I asked her to tell me where I should go to get one, and she offered to make the arrangements for me and keep me company). I was really feeling horrible – my stomach was out of control, and I realized I was having contractions every 4 minutes (and they were pretty intense).

Now, here is where things get interesting. Since Elliot forgot his phone at home, I gave him my cell phone to use while I was getting my nails done. I had my niece, Stephanie, send Elliot a text to tell him to get back to the hotel asap. We returned to the hotel, and I went to our room. I was waiting over 1 hour, and the contractions were getting worse, and Elliot still wasn’t back. I started to panic about having the baby there. I had no cell phone, and couldn’t call anyone, and he had the car with all of my hypnobirthing stuff in it, so I couldn’t even listen to my recordings and relax. I decided to call Jodi in the hotel, and ask her to hunt down her husband, Steven, and Elliot and get them back ASAP. When I called their room, Stephanie was FREAKING out about her bat mitzvah. I couldn’t get her to talk to me, and she threw the phone on the ground. I started getting mildly hysterical while trying (unsuccessfully) to calm her down. I finally spoke to Jodi (I had to insist) and she managed to get in touch with Elliot who was on his way back.

When he walked through the door, I LOST it. I told him what was going on with me, and at that point, he went to the bathroom and started throwing up. So, he wasn’t in any position to help me for a bit. I called the midwife, who told us I should go to the hospital to get IV fluids. She really felt that my contractions were induced by dehydration, not actual labor, but said that if we couldn’t get them to stop, it could cause my water to break. I knew I’d never leave the hospital if I went, so DH & I decided not to do that. When I was in the hospital at 28 weeks, I was able to avoid the IV by drinking 40 ozs of water in 30 minutes, so we decided to give that a try. I was taking my terbutaline every 3 hours, and I GUZZLED the water down. We got the contractions to slow a bit and lessen in intensity. We made the decision to get dressed, go to the bat mitzvah, and if everything held steady, we decided to head home right after the service and skip the party. We didn’t tell everyone exactly what was going on, but at 8:20, we were on the road back home.

Well, by this point, Elliot’s stomach issues were as bad as mine. AND, I was pumped full of water. Let’s just say we hit EVERY rest stop and hotel at every exit the entire way home – it made for a long trip. Elliot puked a few more times, we were both dealing with diarrhea, I had to pee every 5 minutes from all the water, and neither one of us had really eaten a meal since Friday night. It was NOT a pleasant ride home, but at least the traffic wasn’t terrible.

When we got home, we called the midwife, and she said I should keep taking the meds, see what happens, and call her in the morning. The contractions are still 4 minutes apart, but much less intense. I have not been able to get a hold of her today, so I’m not sure what is next. I don’t
know that it is worth it to keep taking the terbutaline for another 24 hours – I feel at this point it is more of a hindrance than a help since we can’t make the contractions stop. Regardless, I only have a few more doses left, then I stop and we have another appointment tomorrow morning. We’ll see if this baby decides to make an appearance this week!

So, after all of that, we did make it to the service, we dealt with a horrible stomach flu, and we didn’t get to stay and enjoy the food or the party. But, we did make it home safely, with only 2 of us in the car! I’m just so relieved to be back home again.