Friday, July 17, 2009

Week 36 tummy

I went in for my appointment last Wednesday.

And in what seemed like a two minute whirlwind the following happened: My OB listened to the heartbeat. He said I have that pregnant woman out-of-breathness.

He did a Group B Strep swab in two orifices. Yikes! Knew about the hoo-ha but wasn't quite prepared for the butt swab!

And then he did the hoo-ha exam and determined that: the boy is head down (yay!!!); I'm not at all dilated; that in all likelihood, I'm weeks from delivery.

How does he know all this so fast?

And then he was all, doing great, see ya next week! Call if your water breaks!

At which point I realized I'd forgotten to ask him if I could drive to Charlottesville for the weekend for Nick's work retreat.

It was a perfunctory question, I thought. The only reason I asked was because Betty made me promise I would.

Because you know my bag was packed for the long weekend of hanging out with fun people at a country club with a spa. I bought a tankini (which I think is a stupid word), and I was all ready to get a preg massage and hang out with cool women and float in a pool and just lounge.

And he said no!

He didn't exactly say no. He said it's too risky, and if my water breaks, he's not having me come back to DC, and I'm stuck delivering in Charlottesville.

My water breaking? I wanted to say dude, they told me the statistics. You really think I'm going to be in that itty-bitty 12%? Nearly four weeks ahead of my due date?

But instead, I said OK, I'd take the route of caution.

Although I will admit to you that my first thought was this: Lie! Lie to Betty!

Lie to Betty, lie to your OB, and go have fun for the weekend!

Because I'm still like 12.

Then I realized that it's not actually about me, nor is it about Betty. It's about the boy.

And I'm not only a liar but a giant asshole if something does happen. Even though odds are slim.

I called Nick, sobbing. "Why? Why is everything so hard? Why don't I get to go? How come I never get to have any fuuuuuun?"

But as it turns out I do get to have some fuuuuun. I'd already taken today off, so today is a lounge with Betty day.

I slept late. We're going to Upscale Resale shortly. And, as fabulous Jen is briefly back from Macedonia, and we are having dinner tonight. She is engaged, and we have a treeeemendous amount of catching up to do.

And Nick is coming back this evening, and we have all kinds of nice things lined up for tomorrow.

But you know the boy is just going to hang out in his little pool, and that water is not going anywhere for the next several weeks.

Ah, well. Better safe than sorry. Never my prior motto, but not a bad one.

Happy weekend, all!

14 comments:

  1. Booo on missing the retreat. But yay for time with Betty and fabulous Jen, and for having a lovely weekend, yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay but if you DID lie, you could pretty much guarantee that your water would break and you'd deliver in Charlottesville. But then you'd have an empty uterus for your birthday so I'm pretty much undecided on which is worse: missing the fun or getting busted for lying. Eh. Have a good weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dagny - It's going to be a weekend of good things! Hugs to you!

    Hillary - I did think about this, I really did. And then Nick and I talked about having a 36-week baby who would need to stay in the hospital. And how dreadful it would be to give birth and then have to live in a hotel until the kid was ready for the trip to DC. Which THEN made the decision very easy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. But would it really be all that bad if you went to the retreat? Also, what Hilary said.

    In any case have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sucks to be a grown-up sometimes. I hope you have a great weekend here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The backup plans sound amazing - hope you're having a fantastic time right now! Congratulations to Jenn on the engagement :) Have a happy weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry to read that you'll be missing out on relaxing fun. Hope you have a good weekend nonetheless.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You really truly look amazing. GORGEOUS, GLOWING, I love you this pregnant!!! You're really beautiful!

    Hang in there this weekend. xoxo, MPD

    ReplyDelete
  9. not going to lie. I went to Vancouver when I had less than 3 weeks to go. and I lied (more like fudged) to the OB.... Although she knows I'm the type to do something like that. The funny part was the customs guy who was all suspect about letting me in the country. Like I was sneaking into Canada to give birth. Ha! I've been to all their hospitals for work. I'll take the fancy Chicago suburban hospital thank you very much! I drove 45 minutes OUT of the city to get there.... either way, you'll have a fun weekend with everyone - and you can get a massage near home, right??? - Carrie

    ReplyDelete
  10. delivering in C'ville wouldn't be so bad... my girlfriend is one of the best OBGYNs they have, i would have highly recommended her : )

    but oh well, there will be future massages and future lounging... and you'll be baby-carrying-less and there will be wine involved... much better!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Marie - Probably all fine, but we would be twitching the whole time, and poor Betty would be left here to fret.

    restaurant refugee - That's totally what it comes down to, isn't it? Being grown up enough to make what you know is the right decision when you don't want to.

    HKW - She is so totally in love glowing happy! It was awesome to see. And if I'd been gone for the weekend, I wouldn't have gotten to see her at all, so that was lucky, actually.

    Fearless - I'm really glad they didn't call me from the pool yesterday. :) But it's beautiful here today and we've invited ourselves to a friend's pool.

    MPD - Thank you, my friend! It's all good, and so nice to not be at work yesterday.

    Carrie - I am way too much of a first-born-rule-follower to do that. That's hilarious, although I suppose they have to be suspicious of it, but it just seems so unlikely for Americans.

    And weekend is great so far. It was just a momentary feeling very sorry for myself.

    notsojenny - They have excellent facilities and doctors...but it's still not home! And yah, future everything - with my own baby-less body!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Bummer about the trip! But he's right - we want you safe!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. You're not missing much. There's nothing to do in Charlottesville. People say things like "apple picking" and make-up-stuff-to-do. Now, if you were missing a weekend in Paris, Shanghai or St Petersburg, that'd be different. Sides, your boy's gonna be better chillin the most with you and Nick on a slow-and-easy weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ah, boo. Though sometimes, my favorite vacation is honestly just staying at home. All of the relaxation with none of the travel stress. xo

    ReplyDelete

Tell me about it.