Ahhh..Beach...The Big Scare !

It was Sunday. The first full day in the OBX. On tap, a walk on the beach in the morning for some family sea shelling and a couple jumps in the waves of course. Then we had decided to do the pool early and then the beach in the afternoon. Simple. And a perfect first day in my opinion.

After eating my Kashi cereal with milk AND a full glass of orange juice, I started to get us ready for the pool. Making sure to drink a bottle of water while doing this, since it was going to be a hot day. After I got everything together and Lew loaded the car, we were on our way to the pool which is just a couple of minutes away.

The pool was nice and cool and just felt so good on this hot day. I got out after about an hour or so to read my book. Mean while, I have finished another bottle of water. Getting a little too hot, I decided to get back in the pool after about 30 minutes of reading. Let Lew have a break from watching Will and played with Will and practiced his swimming with him.

An hour or so had past, everyone was in the water once again and I felt a cramp. I thought it was from swimming since Will and I had been playing around. But when we started to pack up and go back to the house for lunch, I could barely stand up straight. I thought, how could I pull a muscle? I am in pretty good shape and have been swimming with Wil all summer long. As we got to the car and I sat down, I felt my stomach tighten and I couldn't breathe for a second. The tightness went away. Thank goodness.

As we got to the house I had another tightening followed by that cramp again. I didn't tell Lew because I didn't want to freak him out. So, I quickly got into the house and went to our room to lay down. Looking at the digital clock on the night stand, I realized that these were more than braxton hicks contractions, because they were coming almost every 40 seconds. Lew came looking for me and he could see the worry in my eyes.

We decided that I should just rest and try and take a nap, that the heat probably just took it out of me. Paranoid, I watched the clock and the contractions slowly started to slow down and come less frequently. I finally fell asleep for about an hour but was quickly woken up but a really hard contraction. I went to the bathroom to check to make sure everything was okay and it was but I was still freaking out. By this time it is nearly 3:30, I haven't had anything to eat since the morning and I haven't had anything to drink in about 2 hours.

I go upstairs to the family room and sit down and the contractions really start coming and they are fierce! Like, my poor little guy was looking like an alien in my stomach bad. We called my ob's on call service but knew at this point that we were going to the hospital. Lew gave me some water which I started drinking but between the contractions and being worried, I could barely get it down. By 4:30 my ob hadn't called us back so, we just left. Lew's mom watched Will and we were headed back to the main land that was an hour away!

The contractions were so bad that I had to stop and wait for each one to pass before I could walk down all the stairs to the car. I could see the panic on Lew's face and the determination to get us there. The hour drive turned into a 40 minute drive thanks to Lew's efficient and safe driving!

The contractions were not that bad at the hospital, so I was hoping nothing was wrong at all. They quickly checked us in and a wonderful nurse from labor and delievery came and got us. She asked a round of questions and was so nice to us, I didn't even feel like I was at a hospital. I got changed into one of the lovely gowns and peed in a cup. I got hooked up to monitors and we were relieved to hear our little guy moving and his heart rate nice and steady. BIG SIGH here.

She checked my urine levels and said I was so dehydrated, I was almost of the ph scale. Yikes! All that I had to drink that day was clearly not sufficient enough and she said I should be drinking a bottle of water for every hour I am awake in the heat. She was sure with some fluids and a muscle relaxer to calm down the contractions, that I would be okay.

A blown out vein, 1 bag of iv fluids, some weird muscle relaxer, graham crackers, apple juice, an italian ice and one jug of water later. I was free to go. Thank goodness. The contractions had stopped and I was feeling better besides my abs and back hurting like crazy.

So for the rest of the trip I drink about 120 ounces of water a day. By Friday I had to include a gatorade in there because I felt like I was going to float away. I normally drink a lot of water but being that I am hydrating for two, I needed a lot more than I had anticipated.

Note to self, if you question how much water you have had to drink, drink more!

My lovely souvenier from the OBX. And not to worry, my little dude is very active and I am seeing my ob this week. And yes, we did give them a piece of our mind as to why we never got a return phone call.

With this scare, we have now started to get all baby stuff out, cleaned and ready. But, he better stay in there tell Halloween!