The Undiscovered Country

When all I can do is laugh

One thing I’ve found - and expected - with this my first pregnancy is not knowing what to expect. Confused? Me, too.

Let’s see if I can rephrase. Never being pregnant before, I have no idea how my body will respond. I’m super-sensitive to every little twinge, flutter, pain, and ache. When something unusual happens inside, I think, “What’s that? What’s going on? Is that normal? Should I be concerned? Do I need to call my doctor?”

Kind of annoying, really.

I did have two little scares so far. I say so far, because I know I will experience many more. Yippee.

The first one took place Tuesday morning.

After I used the bathroom first thing, I moved to flush the toilet. I noticed floating in the middle was a small lump of pink with an equally pink cord attached.

“Oh, no,” I whispered. Did I just have a miscarriage?

I ran into the kitchen and retrieved a spoon. I didn't want to use my fingers lest I damage it further. I then fished out the thing to take a closer look.

It was a lump of pink string with hair wrapped around it.

How it got there, I have no idea!

A big part of me knew it wasn't the baby. There was no blood and I felt no pain. Still, my relief went pretty deep at discovering it was only string.

Then! At 2:15am Thursday morning, I again went to the bathroom and was struck with a terrible, sharp pain in my lower abdomen. I tried walking, sitting in my chair, laying down on the couch, but the only semi-comfortable position that didn’t make me want to either puke or cry in pain was lay balled up into a fetal position in bed.

I came very close to waking up Dave and have him take me to the hospital. I didn’t, because in spite of the terrible pain, I remembered experiencing it before - when I ate an entire bag of prunes in one sitting.

Yep, I had a severe case of gas. Within 45 minutes, the pain had subsided enough I fell back asleep. One thing’s for sure, I will never again eat 15 stalks of fresh, grilled asparagus for supper. But like with the Prune Incident, they were so yummy, I couldn't stop!

Hmm. Makes me wonder if I should avoid going to the bathroom from now on. That’s where all the scary stuff happens. There’s always Depends!

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I end this with some seriousness. Most of us look forward to Memorial Day weekend as a way to usher in the summer with barbeque’s and other outdoorsy fun. However, two people yesterday reminded me of what Memorial Day really means. When you are done here, please see David McClain ’s entry "Invalid Entry" . He mentions there a new gal who will be observing Memorial Day much differently than most of us. You should read it if you haven’t yet.

I also wrote a piece several years ago about how I discovered the purpose of Memorial Day: "Remembering Memorial Day" .