Now my vent:
Aaaaaaaah! Just had to get that out. I'm now 8 months pregnant and am getting to know our local hospital a little too well. I went in about a month ago for monitoring because I hadn't felt the baby move in several hours, through what's usually her most active time. Of course she she started moving just as they were hooking up the monitors.
Then 2 weeks ago I went in because I was having sudden lower back pain, nausea, and contractions. Turns out I wasn't in pre-term labor, but I was contracting at regular intervals, albeit very mildly, (about 3 minutes apart). We found out that I had a mild infection and was badly dehydrated, even though I average 65-96 oz of water a day, (I keep track with a graded water bottle) plus some milk and occasionally juice. They said the heat and the infection were likely to blame for the dehydration. After 5 hours (bringing DH to nearly 24 hours without sleep, since he works early mornings), 2 IV bags, and a narcotic pain-killer with really unpleasant side-effects to stop the contractions, we were able to go home.
My third (and hopefully final visit until I'm having the baby) came this morning, and had absolutely nothing to do with my pregnancy. Last night around 8pm I was at work at the very clean, lovely restaurant that employs me when my ankle started to itch, I checked it out and saw a red bump. I figured I must have already had a bug bite and my sock must have irritated it. A few minutes later my other ankle started to itch & i discovered another bite. By the time I left work I had another on my calf. I'm sorry to say I was a little slow on the uptake and it wasn't until a couple hours later, when suddenly my legs started itching, that I took off the pants I was wearing and discovered 8 or 9 itchy red bumps. I checked my legs for any signs of a insect, decided they could be hives, took Benadryl, and threw my pants in a hot wash just in case something was lurking therein. The Benadryl stopped the itching and the larger ones even started to shrink, so I thought maybe it was just an allergic reaction. A strange allergic reaction, as it was on my legs instead of the trunk of my body, but I was tired and figured if it was something biting me, I'd be able to see it or it would be in my pants that were in the middle of a scalding wash. I had no trouble through the night, but woke up this morning with nearly 20 red lumps on both of my legs, all from the knee down. I called my OB, because as I'm pregnant, I run everything by them first. They told me to get to the ER. I was in and out of the ER astonishingly quickly, in about 35 minutes. They said either I got a couple of bites & am having an allergic reaction to them, or I brought whatever was biting me home with me, most likely the second. Aaaah! The nurse said it looks like fleas. FLEAS!? I have no pets and I picked up fleas at a restaurant frequented by middle-aged to elderly upper-middle-class/lower-upper-class customers? Is nowhere safe? I stripped the bed, and am keeping DD out of our bedroom DH comes home in an hour and can vacuum everything, including the bed. DH slept next to me all night and has no bites, so I'm hopeful, but I have these horrible visions of treating a house infested with fleas, or something even worse. I keep imagining having to find a place to stay for a couple days while we bomb the place, then having to rewash every article of clothing since I'm pregnant and not supposed to be anywhere near chemicals like that. I just finished washing and organizing all of the new baby's clothes, as well as reorganizing all of my daughter's to make room for everything. Am I going to have to re-wash everything in the drawers, too? We're going to have a newborn in this place in about a month! All this is going through my brain of course as I try to exert every ounce of will-power not to itch my legs. As if I wasn't uncomfortable enough already! The prescription they gave me takes the edge off the itch, but it's still there. Deep breaths, deeeeep breaths... Sorry for the novel. I am GW's daughter, after all, and it was this or bury myself in a huge bowl of ice cream and let the tears flow.