Just for practice?

I've definitely had better days.  So has our little tot I imagine.  Or I could be wrong.  The past two days he has moved into a new spot.  I'd like to have some witty name for it, but mostly it's just hell.  It hurts.  I get sharp shooting pains and then lasting pain that gently dulls but never goes away.  Stop you in your tracks, bending over pain.  It's awful.

  I'm not a fan of this new place of his.  We were all in happy land.  He was around the middle of my stomach and I could see him move and play.  I much prefer that.  I blame my workout video.  After doing the crunches, he moved to this new spot.  What else can I blame?  I feel like there are a few other things.

At any rate.  Today Derek and I were headed out of town for our Babymoon.  So excited about finally getting a little together time.  After leaving the store for a few last things I realized that I really hadn't felt the little guy move in a while.  I'd just been attributing the pains to being a result of his movement- but really, I have no idea if that's what that is.  So, I got in the car and shared my worries with Derek.  We decided to do the kick count.  And for the next two hours on the way to meet the grandparents to drop off Mingo and Haplo we sat in fear and silence as I tried to feel him kick.  As I hopelessly looked for any small movement that I could find.  After 1.5 hours and one little movement we started panicking a bit.  Okay- well, maybe after an hour I started trying to find the obgyn's on call number.  At 1.5 hours we called our Obgyn friend Suzanne to ask for her advice.  I drank a sugary drink, I layed on my side, we yelled at the belly to try to wake him up.  Nothing.

Fear.

We met Ginny and Winston, passed off the dogs and headed to the emergency room just outside of Concord.  I had to get in a wheelchair and they wheeled me off to the labor and delivery area.  All the staff were very friendly.  When I told them I hadn't felt the baby move you could see the concern on their faces and they sped things up.

Finally I got into a room and they put the heart rate monitor on me and after a second they found that precious heart beat.  Derek and I had never felt more relieved.  It was a little surreal to be in there.  It was completely scary to be worrying about our little guy and not  know that he was okay.  It was pure joy to hear his heart beat.

We sat for about 45 minutes while they monitored his heart rate.  Derek sat with me and I learned that my first thought was corrrect- with each shooting pain was a movement.  You could hear the movements on the monitor and they were always accompanied by the sharp pain.  So, wherever he was, whatever he's doing down there, he's hanging out with some nerves that hurt and the pain is masking the feeling of his movement.

At about midnight we were out of there knowing the baby was okay.  It was too late to head to St. Simons so we headed home.  A much easier drive with conversation and a few laughs now that we were assured little Tot was okay.  Whew.  Let's not do that again.

Derek is marking it down as good practice for when we go into labor.  I'd prefer to of not had the practice.