Third Time’s A Charm?

Ok, I know it’s only been two days, but we were at the hospital today. Again. After our last visit hardly did anything (read: nothing) to combat her nausea, and fairly unrelenting “pukies” throughout the night and into this morning, we decided to return yet again. Only this time we took the midwife’s recommendation to go to the hospital downtown, which is strictly at pregnant woman’s/children’s hospital, instead of the one down the road that we had been to twice before.

Let me just say that it was well worth the trip.

We didn’t go to the ER this time, which was a definite plus; the midwife said that we should go to the triage unit, which definitely ended up being a better move. It was nicer, quieter, and overall a much less stressful environment. I knew we were in the right place when, almost right after we got into our room, the nurse came in and greeted Jesse with a noticeably sympathetic “Hiiiiii…” accompanied by a little smile. We could tell we were in good hands.

It was about 10:30 a.m. when she came back with the usual I.V. paraphanalia, and was able to get Jesse set up pretty quickly. Instead of just saline, they gave her a saline-glucose mix (and some nausea medicine) to help replace some of the blood sugars she had lost due to not being able to eat anything. It had gotten so bad that her body had actually started using her fat stores for energy (that’s not good).

It wasn’t too long before she had gone through two bags of the stuff, during which we found out from the nurse that pregnant women should be drinking a gallon of water per day. You read that right – a GALLON. She was actually able to keep down some broth and fresh fruit for lunch, and some saltines later on. We were both very happy with her dramatically improved condition.

But here’s the coolest part. The doctor came in at about 5 (yes, p.m.) to talk to Jess and give her the whole pre-discharge speech, but not until after she brought in the ultrasound machine in! Now, I had of course seen the baby before, when it (“it”?) was about 6 weeks old.

I was not prepared for what I was about to see.

All of a sudden I was staring at a living, wiggling little baby. And it was my baby! It was facing right at us, I could see both arms and both legs clear as day! He was moving around so much, stretching those little arms and legs and moving back and forth like he was training for a marathon! I have seen my fair share of ultrasound footage, but nothing has ever compared to that feeling. The doctor said the baby’s heart was beating strong at 130 bpm. If you look close, you can see a little set of eyes, ears, and a mouth!

A baby! A baby! A baby!

It was kinda sad, though, because Jess couldn’t see the screen from where she was at, and the doctor was in a bit of a hurry and forgot to adjust it before she turned it off. I told Jess all about it, though, and after describing his little movements she busted out laughing, saying, “He dances like his dad!”

Shortly thereafter we were on our way out, at just after 5:30. Overall we had a very good visit, and will definitely not be going anywhere else if the need to go back arises. The wife is still in good spirits and not complaining of any nausea, so her treatment was obviously top-shelf. Hopefully things will continue like this, and we can put all of this ickiness behind us. Talk to you all again soon!