Bumps in the night

… So Kates and I spent Thursday night in the hospital.

While we were catching up on our “American Idol,” Kates started feeling dizzy. Her heart was racing and she wasn’t feeling well …

We had hoped with some couch time and rest it would pass. But by 10 o’ clock, Kates’ symptoms had been smoldering for a couple hours and not going away … We did the Internet research. We looked up the symptoms in her women's health book … And finally we decided it might be too risky to wait any longer; we went to the hospital …

Inside the emergency room, Kates told a woman at the desk she was 33 weeks pregnancy, feeling dizzy and ...

Before we knew it, a nurse was whisking her away in a wheelchair, I was trailing them, and we were riding an elevator to the birthing floor, where a team of nurses was waiting for us. Within a minute of arriving, we were in a birthing room, Kates was getting into a gown and a nurse was asking me for all the vital statistics …

Interestingly, during our birthing class the night before we were given a tour of the birth floor and the rooms, so this was like deja vu all over again ... And up to this point, a part of us was thinking perhaps we were overreacting and after a quick check we'd be heading right back home. Then there was that other part of us that was thinking of the worst scenarios -- from preeclampsia to God knows what ...

As fast as the nurses got us into a birthing room and put Kates in a gown, I'm thinking, Aw, c’mon we’re not having this baby tonight, are we!?

A check of Kates' blood pressure and all the other routine tests showed no problems, and we seemed destined to be heading home for the night. But before we did, the nurses wanted to do an EKG to be safe ...

We waited another half hour to get the results from that ... Then a little after 11, our nurse returned and said the test found an arythmia in Kates' heartbeat -- we were staying for the night.

Kates made a list of things she needed from home (As if this whole episode wasn't a wake-up call that we'd better have a bag packed and ready to go from now on ...), and then I was off to our house -- in yet another snowstorm ... great! -- to retrive an overnight bag for her and some things for me ...

By midnight, I was back at the hospital with bags and laptop over my shoulder ... As Kates took the laptop and made arrangements for being out of work, I tried getting comfortable in the room's recliner and flipped through the TV channels -- the hospital had just about every cable channel except ESPN (Wha!?!), so I eventually settled on Letterman ...

But worse, for me at least, was the so-called recliner. The night before at our birthing class, the nurses had been bragging about how comfortable the chairs would be for fathers. But after a night in one of them, I beg to differ -- sure, the seat of the chair folded out for its inhabitant to put his feet up, but its reclining capabilities were zilch ... The best I could do was put a pillow behind my back, curl into one side of the chair with a blanket, strap on my iPod and try falling asleep with The Weepies ... I managed to fall asleep by 1, but it was one of the most uncomfortable nights of sleep in my life ...

Kates told me later that it was 1:30 before she turned off the laptop and got to sleep ... And by 7:30 in the morning, a nurse was knocking on our door to check on us and fill us in on what was to come. The hospital also had contacted our doctor -- who we'll call Dr. Fabulous from here on, because it kind of rhymes with her real name, I'd rather not use her real name for the purpose of this blog, and she really is fabulous -- and she was on her way ...

Soon Dr. Fabulous arrived and reviewed everything once more with Kates. There were more tests and checks. Doctor confirmed that things still looked good and on track. And finally by 11 a.m., we were being discharged from the birthing floor and sent to the cardiologist on another floor ...

There, Kates was fitted with a heart monitor, which she has to wear for the weekend. She can't take a shower, and with all the wires hooked up to her body, she looks like a human time bomb. Don't get on a bus, I told her ... She's resorted to calling it her junk -- like when I got out of the car this afternoon and started walking ahead of her: Hold on, I got my junk, she says. It was a hilarious moment.

We left the hospital a little after noon, exhausted, but thankful that -- for now, at least -- all is well. And if that's the only bump in this whole pregnancy road, we'll gladly take it ...

Oh, and we found out she's started contractions even though she's not feeling them yet...

Nice.