How we almost had a baby

Tuesday was the weekly prenatal appointment. I arrive at the office in plenty of time to read Conception magazine, which is always traumatizing and I ALWAYS do it. I need to stop, but I figured that there are only a certain number of times I have left to read it, and so I indulge in it.

J arrives. She signs in, sits down next to me. We chat about our Labor Day weekends. I complain about my sunburn and she talks about the BBQ she went to. She never fails to make me laugh. She's tired and stressed out becuase she has a huge day ahead of her. She has to have forms filled out for leave she's taking, so she spends some time talking to the Insurance person about them. This makes her really tense.

Then we troop back to the exam room where the Dr. does his exam and then informs her she's crossed a certain thresh hold in one of her stats. He wants to send her to the hospital for monitoring. And then we have the following conversation:

D: so if the level doesn't go down, I usually induce.
J. Ok. So when are we planning to do that? Friday, Monday?
D. No. Immediately.
Me: Holy Crap. You can't be serious.

I never say Holy Crap outside my house. Crap, yes. I say it frequently since it's my all purpose swear word. But I'm slightly annoyed that I lost my cool. I apologize, excuse myself and start calling people in the following order: Alex, my mom, who I cant reach becuase my phone slightly insane, my grandma so she can call my mom for me, the agency, the other mom I babysit for, and my friend N, whose computer is on the fritz and cant reach her email.

We go to J's house to pick up her hospital stuff, grab some grub and go to the hospital. I am immidiately relegated to the waiting room, where I am condemned to watch bad soap operas and read trashy magazines. I call Alex again, the agency, my mom calls, and then... as if possibly having a baby in the next 36 hours werent enough, our church calls.

Apparently someone donated enough money to pay the birth servives fee at our agency! That was shocking enough, since it was totally unexpected. But we didnt necessairly have the money at the moment, and weren't sure where that was coming from. But now we know. It's a HUGE load off my mind.

So I call Alex again. He is equally as stunned.

Back to the baby. J is still back there. She texted me that she was super bored, and thats all I know. I try to check on her, but I am in line behind 5 extremely pregnant women who are all breathing deeply and trying to be calm. An hour later, I get to talk to someone who says I cant go back there. So I wait for 30 minutes and pick up the phone that calls the charge nurse. She tells me to hang on, and then the doors open, which I assume are for me. So I walk through only to be yelled at by some nurse. I apologize profusely and scurry back to slum it some more in the waiting room.

Finally J comes out. She had fallen asleep and they woke her up to discharge her. No baby today. I hav mixed feeling about that. Mostly, I was glad nothing was seriously wrong with her.

So I drive back to Raleigh, having used TON of cell phone minutes (good thing they roll over!) and I just go to bed. It was exhausting. I'm still exhausted. I can only imagine how tired and tense J is.

Adoption is not for the faint of heart. Just sayin'.