A Humbling Moment

Nothing like checking into labor and delivery because you think your water might have broken, and being sent home because as it turns out, you just wet your pants.  Yeah.  That happened.  As Molly said, pregnancy is so glamorous.

Here's what happened: I woke up at 3:30am the other night after having had pretty bad contractions, to throw up.  More glamor.  I often thrown up, and most of the time when I do, I wet my pants a little bit.  (This story keeps getting better, doesn't it?)  So when I was done, I looked to see if I needed to change my pants, and was shocked to see that there was a TON of fluid on my shorts and on the floor.  I wasn't sure if my water broke or if I just wet my pants a ton without knowing it.  The liquid was clear, but my urine is mostly clear anyway because I drink so much water.  So how to know?

I would have maybe let it go, but if you break your water that is exactly what you should not do.  Bad infection possibilities and all sorts of bad things.  The next morning I called my doctor and explained this whole crazy story and begged to just have an office visit to see if it broke.  But my doctor wanted me to go into the hospital to get a specific test that would be most accurate, that they didn't have in the office.

So in I went.  Checked in, got the gown on, answered all the questions, got hooked up to all the machines.  The whole ordeal.  Two tests, and two hours later, it turns out I just wet my pants.  Awesome.

I left thanking the nurses and let them get back to the business of delivering actual babies from people who are truly having them.  They all assured me that I did the right thing, saying that if it had broken and I hadn't have come in, they'd all be talking about me at the nurses desk wondering if I'd not read a single bit of literature or listened to anything anyone had been telling me.  That made me feel better.  Then one nurse told me that after she was already a labor and deliver nurse for quite a few years, and on her third child, she was sent home three times from labor and delivery for false labor.  That really made me feel better.

Moral of the story: Our bodies are strange as it is.  Add pregnancy and they do even stranger things.  Who's to know what to do?  Well, I guess better safe than sorry.  Still, hopefully next time I'm checking in there I come out with a baby.  Not just a good story for the baby book about that time I wet my pants.