Rough Night...

I have two weekend's worth of posts to finish up (including pictures!) but I doubt, highly doubt, I'm going to get to them today.

We had a really rough night last night. No...we weren't up with Joseph, we were up with Gertrude*.

Around 11:30, I started spotting. Figuring it was normal and nothing to worry about, I called the on-call doctor to get confirmation that I can just go to bed. Her stance was that it wasn't normal and was something to worry about and please get over to Sierra Vista for an exam and monitoring.

I hung up the phone and looked at Chad, cozily drowsing on the couch, and sighed. Why doesn't this sort of thing happen at 11:30 in the morning?

I woke him up and we tried to figure out logistics. On the plus side, this was a great trial run for actual labor. On the down side, we realized that we were woefully unprepared. I spent a few minutes packing an overnight case for Joseph and then we called Rachel to see if we could drop him off. We woke him up, bundled him into the car and drove to SLO.

Side note: I don't know if it's a sign of how old we're getting, but on the drive down, we realized that it had been years since we'd driven that late at night. For me, the last time was when I drove to San Diego when Rachel was in labor with Benny.

We dropped off our very sleepy boy who promptly cuddled against his aunt and went back to sleep. We made it over to the hospital in minutes and sat in the ER to be admitted.

Side note: Second child syndrome is in full swing. Chad sat in his chair and dozed off while we were getting the paperwork copied. A drastic contrast to his inability to sleep while I was in the hospital with Joseph.

We went up to Labor and Delivery and had a moment of "uh-oh" when they had us sign paperwork that would allow them to work on Gertrude if she was born. When they handed us the papers, I looked at the nurse and said, "Ummm...I'm only 34 weeks."

"Yes, but babies are born at 34 weeks."

"Yeah, but I still have six more weeks. I don't have her room started, her car seat out of storage or even a solid lead on a name!"

She laughed and said, "It's not like she's going to wait until you're ready!"

I got hooked up to a monitor, which showed a nice, strong heartbeat. And regular contractions. They were registering fairly low, which is why I wasn't feeling them, but they were the reason for the spotting. After conferring with the on-call doctor, our nurse - a very, very nice young woman who looked way too fresh and relaxed to be working at 2:00 in the morning on a very busy night - administered a shot that, excuse me, stung like hell. But it stopped the contractions. We stayed for another hour or so - Chad dozing off again while I was examined. (Joy!) We were finally released with a cheerful, "Have a great night!" We drove as far as Ken and Sue's and then tumbled into their guest room, too exhausted to think.

Side note: I have hazy recollections of staying out way later, dancing, drinking, hanging out with friends. Seriously...when did I get so old??

Bottom line...everyone is okay. Gertrude* just wanted to alert us to her imminent arrival and let us know that we need to get on the ball.

First on the list...furniture. Yes...that's how unprepared we are. Second on the list...name. Seriously need to get it finalized.