Field Trip Day!

My Mom came up and spent most of the day with me yesterday.

Late in the afternoon, my Mom was leaving the room to go get a chocolate bar (even though we are well-stocked with chocolate in the room), I asked her to check with the nurses to see if I could go on a ride with her downstairs.

Fortunately, Dr. A was right there, and he said we had 30 minutes. It may not sound like much time, and it isn't...but it got me downstairs and outside. First we went to the gift shop, where we tried on the hats. It's been so long since I've been downstairs that the Halloween stuff has come out! It was odd to think I'd been in here long enough...but then I cheered up when I realized I'll be home with our baby before Halloween actually gets here.

Then we headed outside. Mom drove my wheelchair down to the very opposite end of the hospital, where we sat for a few minutes in the sun, looking at a very pretty water fountain. It just felt SO good to breathe fresh air and sit in the sun.
It's amazing how observant you get when you've spent a month staring at four walls and nothing else. Suddenly I realized how much we take for granted in our day-to-day existence as here I was trying to notice every litle flower, plant, and thing that passed in front of us.

As we went back towards the door, I saw a Mom with her two little girls outside. The bigger girl, who looked to be about 3 or 4, had monitors glued on her chest and an IV port similar to mine. She looked as thrilled as I did to be outside, while Mom chased down the baby who was crawling into my path on the sidewalk. I thought about how just 8 months from now or so, I'll be chasing down my little cruiser!

Then it was time to head back. My nurses today, Jean and Judi, were both at the nurse's station as I headed back to my room. Jean checked her watch and joked that I was a minute late (she's an Army Nurse going back for a tour in Iraq soon, so I wasn't going to argue). That's Jean on the left and Judi on the right.

I didn't realize how many rooms away I'd moved until my trip yesterday either. The row I'm on is known as Ante-partum Row, or "Ante-Land" to the nurses. We're all the ones who are on strict bedrest until we deliver and I'm now the most senior girl here. Not just in age, mind you, but in gestational age for the baby and/or the length of time I've been here. I haven't figured that out yet.

It doesn't matter much, except that I'm that much closer to getting out of here, because our girl will be born soon. And I'm all about that!