Rinse and Repeat
Exactly one week after our midnight trip to the ER, the event repeated itself last night with exactly the same symptoms and the same outcome. Only this time, we waited as long as we could hoping to ride this one out in the comfort of our home. In fact, during one of my puke breaks, Bill and I were pleasantly entertained by our Little Peanut as he flipped and turned nudged and shoveled, making a bulge with his little behind here and a hard spot with his tiny foot there.
At 5:30am, we finally decided to go to the ER because I was getting quite weak. Though we didn't think it could be pre-eclampsia 'cause all my blood and urine test results have come out normal and many of the symptoms didn't apply, we thought it'd help just to get a saline IV to keep me from throwing up every time I had some water. With the experience from last Wednesday, we knew exactly what to expect once we were in the ER. This time, however, we went to the ER in the bigger branch of Tri-Service Hospital (where I had my surgeries) because Dr. Liu had clinic hours there starting from 9am. I felt better knowing that he'd be able to come see me if anything went seriously wrong.
Shortly after 9am, they pushed my bed up to OB-GYN. It was quite "interesting" 'cause we got to see the Obstetrics section of the ward, which we didn't see during all my previous stays in the hospital. In the ultrasound room, we were half-guessing which doctor we might see ('cause pretty much all of them know us). It was a pleasant surprise when Dr. Sun appeared from behind the curtains. He's been my favorite resident since my first surgery 'cause he's so easy to talk to. Seeing it was him made me feel a whole lot better right away.
Through the ultrasound, we saw Peanut practicing breathing on his back with one foot resting on the knee of the other leg ("Just chillin' and gettin' ready for the outside world, mom.") Then he flipped to face away when Dr. Sun tried to take a look at his face. Although it's only been a week since we last saw him, he seemed to have grown and plumped up even more. Dr. Sun did an overall check-up on Peanut and told us that the amount of the amniotic fluid was sufficient for him to be moving around. "Everything looks good, "Dr. Sun said, "the baby is very active."
Then we were wheeled to a Labor Room to monitor fetal heartbeat and to see if I was having contractions. It was quite an ordeal getting settled. At first, it took the nurse a while to locate Peanut 'cause he wouldn't stay still. Then we discovered the reason might have been the fact that this little guy was having some major hiccoughs at the time. While the nurse continued trying to get a grip of his heartbeat, we chatted about why fetuses have hiccoughs. "He probably had too much to eat," she said. "Well then," I replied. We exchanged a look and both started chuckling. All joking aside, it was both amusing and comforting to know that my little boy managed to stuff his tummy while I spent the entire night puking my guts out. Mommy's so proud of you, Peanut!!! That a boy!
We got home before noon in the blazing sun (it always takes me a while to return to real life after time in the hospital).
"I wonder..." Bill said, "'Cause you know how all the doctors told us Peanut's quite active.... I wonder if that means he's gonna be..."
"Rambunctious?" I finished his sentence.
"Or just a terror," Bill attempted to downplay it a bit. How is that better than being rambunctious?
"I don't know. Were you a terror when you were little?" After all, like father like son, right?
"Hell yeah!" he replied with almost too much pride, I thought. "My mom had to tie up the door during nap time 'cause I didn't want to nap."
"What? I thought you were a sweet little boy." I heard slight panic in my voice. I thought of calling Bill Senior or Donna right away.
"I was sweet, but I also just didn't want to stay still. Okay, we need my mom to verify this, but the story I remember is that I'd stand in my crib, hop in it to move it to the door, and open the door."
Okay, you have to be super impressed with the innovative thinking and determination involved in this little story like I was. However, instead of throwing my arms in the air, grabbing Bill and kissing him all over the face to show how proud I was of him as a little boy, I remained calm, "How old were you then?"
"Like 2, I think?!" As Bill tilted his head so very slightly trying to recall, I thought I saw a faint smirk caught in the sunlight across his face.
Well... we still need Grandma (or anyone who has heard about 2-year-old Billy hopping his crib to open the door) to verify the story. Meanwhile, I take temporary comfort in knowing that, when he's 2, Peanut will still be too young to secretly turn on the computer in the middle of the night to read and learn from his daddy's story.
6 comments:
No hopping involved; I guess he figured that out pretty quick.
What he DID do, however, was even smarter.
His crib had those skinny little 2 inch plastic wheels in each of the 4 corner legs. Billy would stand at the head or foot end of the crib holding on to the top edge and start rocking his body back and forth.
He discovered that this rocking action was transferred into bed motion. He also discovered shortly thereafter that a little timing and body english resulted in directional motion.
Finally he discovered that body rocking, body english, and locomotion resulted in making the crib go where he wanted it to go including the bedroom door which he'd manage to open and try to get his act and his crib through said door.
Soon thereafter Mom and Dad came up with the brilliant idea that we could tie a rope from his bedroom's doorknob to our bedroom's doorknob which effectively locked his door. All this did though was keep him in the room and slip, roll, banging, bouncing around at his will. He would also manage to open the upper dresser drawers and rearrange their contents all over the bedroom at his will.
And "will" is what it was all about after all. We soon learned it was a lot better on the bed, the floor, the bedroom, the clothes, the diapers, Desitin and anything else in his path, as well as our nerves, to just let him get up!
The next thing we tried was the medieval dual foot restraints...
Billy's most favorite thing to do was to "walk" his crib over to the window, and just look out!
I would be outside watering, and there he was.
As for the "medieval dual foot restraints", it's true....sort of.
His feet turned in so much that the doc put him in a brace that held his feet pointing out. The brace was made of cute little white shoes attached to each end of a bar. The bar was about 16 to 18 inches wide. The shoes were bolted on the bar and the angle could be adjusted. He learned to "walk" with the brace on. He would use his hip to throw out the right foot then the other hip to throw out the left foot.
Now add to that, he could do it wearing a blanket sleeper that was sort of like a sweatshirt that zipped up the front, but was closed at the bottom. So it was like he was in a bag. Hard to explain. Anyway, he could "walk" in the "bag"!!
Even tho' he was very inventive in doing things, he was a very sweet little boy.
If he asked me something and I said no, or not right now, he would, in a sweet little voice say "OK mommy"....and that was it, he would not bug or whine.
I have another cute story.
When he was about 5, we were talking about going about school. I told him he would be going to the Christian school. He wanted to know what was different about Christian school and Public school. I said well, in both schools you have reading, math and spelling, but in the Christian school they teach you about God.
We had a couple of neighborhood kids named Shane and Paul, and they told Billy they didn't believe in God.
One time Billy and I were talking about Shane and Paul because they had been mean to him, and I was teaching him about being a Christian and treating people kindly, and Billy said: "Oh, I know, Shane and Paul go to the "Public Church, you know where they don't teach you about God".
Out of the mouths of Babes!!!
Love you two and a half.
Mom
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the awesome stories. I can't help but feel so proud of young Billy (and I bet you are too). Can't wait to see how Peanut outsmarts his parents.
The part about him learning to walk in the bag made me think of a penguin...
Not much has changed since Bill was 2 then. He still doesn't go to bed when he should.
Just an aside here: I did some research on the foot bracing treatment and they now say it did no good...!
Apparently studies have shown that the problem was that the leg bones "twisted" as the grew which caused the toes to turn in BUT as the child continued to grow the problem corrected itself.
hey kate - glad you're both alright! but how unpleasant!
re: Peanut being active: i wouldn't have expected anything less from parents such as yourselves! :)
Speaking from personal experience, Lisa?
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