Santa, this is not at ALL what I asked for, or "Xmas Night in the ER"

I really don't mean this post to sound overly dramatic, because this is all a "natural process" right? So I apologize in advance for any drama that creeps into the tone, but yes, we did all spend Christmas night in the ER and there is a wee-bit of drama in that, right? Right?

I think Pluty was getting a bit jealous of all the exciting new babies at 2C1H, Baby Dragon and Schroe so she got a bit restless...that or I should have been a bit more clear about what I wanted for Christmas and asked Santa for hydration!

So heres the story. We generally spend Christmas Eve and Day with W's extended family on Long Island (yes, there is drama in that statement alone..despite the fact that she was raised jewish, her dads family is VERY christian so we get the best of both holidays). Christmas day is generally spent gorging ourselves on several rounds of homemade italian food and treats, chatting with second-cousins-twice-removed and watching the glee of santa's arrival for under 12 crowd. That was very much the case this year, until around 5pm when I start getting "fairly strong" braxton hix contractions. We are down to 4 weeks until the due date and only in the past few days have I started to get a few tightening-s. I am someone who likes to do a few practice-runs before I dive into anything so I have been pretty excited about their arrival. But this one was different, it was accompanied with pretty severe back-pain and immediately brought on a spree of vomiting (which is not all that unusual as I am still on the every day "morning sickness" thang..). Anyways these "braxton hix" and rounds of vomiting continued roughly every 30 minutes for about 3-4 hours, at which point I was completely dehydrated not to mention exhausted and a bit worried. We called our midwife after the first two and she assured us that unless we started seeing more than 4-6 an hour, it was "normal" and W's aunt is a labor and delivery nurse so she provided some additional reassurance that since Pluty was still moving around like crazy, all was ok. Then around 11pm, I started to shake uncontrollably, W started to freak out and W's aunt thought that we should "swing by the ER" as I was probably so dehydrated that they would need to slip in an IV. Christmas night in a "strange" hospital was NOT my idea of a good time, but I was too tired to protest so off we went and I have to say, if anyone has to spend Xmas night at the hospital, the Huntington Hospital on L.I. certainly was better than I would have ever expected. They did indeed hook me up to IV as soon as we arrived as well as a non-stress-test that confirmed that both my and Pluly heartbeats were normal, but contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. Since my cervix was completely closed I was definitely NOT in early labor, however the dehydration had exacerbated the contractions and they wanted to give me a shot to stop them. After a few frantic attempts to contact our midwife (its now 1:30am) in the midst of less than ideal cell-coverage, we gave up, got the shot and went home to a few hours of blissful sleep.

The next day we spoke to the the midwives who felt that we had made the right decision, indicated I might have something called "anxious uterus" (really? there is such a thing?) and prescribed a strict regime of hydrating and rest. If it weren't for blizzard conditions (in both NY and Boston), we would have headed home "just to be safe" as the midwife suggested that they _might_ come again.

Unfortunately Boxing Day night (last night) ended up being a repeat of the previous night because as soon as I went to bed I wasn't able to down my prescribed 8oz every 30 minutes, which triggered a few more hours of practice contractions. Last night we were better prepared - pulled out our Rainbow Mediation script and tried all the tricks in the book. Some worked, others less so...As soon as I had been up for a few hours, gotten through the vomiting and started to hydrate again, they stopped...but Im not sure I can do too many more nights of this...I guess it is good practice

Anyways, all and all, not the ideal way to spend Christmas, but at least it makes for a good story...
We are hoping the weather lets up this afternoon in Boston and we can head home...hopefully we have had are drama for the past 36 hours..