Waiting game

Little black arrows dotted the printout. Lots of them. Above that, a squiggly line ran the length of the paper.

On the bottom, another calm, steady line showed a small rise in the middle, not enough to cause alarm.

After being hooked up to a contraction monitor Friday afternoon when I had absolutely no contractions (well, except for the one immediately after I stood upright), I went to work. Nurse T. said that's the baby's way of telling me to take it easy. Honestly, I don't know how much easier I can take it!

What I had underwent was a contraction stress test, when a fetal heart rate monitor and uterine contraction monitor are strapped around the belly, and you wait, in my case, for 30 minutes. I also had to push a button each time I felt baby move. Each click of the game-show-like "buzzer" resulted in an arrow below the heart-rate line. He was a wiggle worm, as usual.

Since about a week ago, I've had several contractions daily, and when I called the doctor's office for something else Friday, they were stunned another call I made Monday wasn't followed up. So I went in to get checked out.

I've been on modified bed rest since. After a day of lying around -- mostly on my left side -- I am bored, tired (what?) and still having several contractions. Oop, there goes one right now, 10 minutes after the previous one. What I do know is I definitely want this baby to stay inside for at least another 3+ weeks, even though he'd have a really good chance of surviving if he was born this premature.

So here I sit, another day. I still can't lift a thing, so Mom's coming to the rescue.

I also promise to keep you all posted!