Time for some pineapple juice

Watching Shamu

My due date came and passed with some excitement. It started off as a normal day. I had to get a non-stress test since I hadn't had the baby yet. It is part of the standard procedures now for women who go past their due date. They want to check the fluids to make sure the baby still has enough. Apparently, that fluid has an expiration date and will go away after a certain time. Some women have no fluid left by their 40th week. Another part is to monitor the baby's heart rate and make sure she is still moving. Everything checked out fine and I have to go back for another one next Tuesday if she is not born before then.

Since I wasn't having contractions, Jerry went to work (after I told him to--the NST is not a big deal and is quite boring). He had made arrangements for Celeste (his aunt) to watch G while I went to my appt. Her youngest son goes to school very close to my house so after she dropped him off at school, she stopped by. We hung out. I went to my appointment. I came home. All quite normal. We decided that we'd all go pick up Ivan, her youngest son, at school then go to lunch. G loves Ivan and the feeling is mutual. So, we were literally walking out the door. I'm clearing stuff out of the car, Celeste is grabbing her purse, Grayson is walking in the garage just like normal. Then I hear him doing a whining cry. Not a full blown traumatic cry, just a whimper. Honestly, I didn't even go to get him. He is at a very whiny stage and this sound is usual. Celeste sees that he has a little blood on his chin. I look and it is cut. We don't know what happened or how he did it. I try to clean it up and notice that it is not wide, but pretty deep and is starting to bleed more. We wondered if he needed stitches. Luckily, Celeste was there to keep Grayson and me calm. He actually allowed her to hold a cold pack on his chin for a little while. He did not even want to come to me and only wanted Celeste to hold him. That was fine by me at that point because I was freaking out a little. I called Jerry and asked him to come home because we needed to go to the ER since Grayson split his chin and told him that there was blood everywhere. Celeste calmed me down and said that there wasn't blood everywhere (she was right--again, freak out here). So he came home and off we went to the ER.

The ER was not busy at all. In fact, we were home an hour and fifteen minutes after we left. Jerry knew one of the nurses and she took great care of us. By this time, Grayson had calmed down. That is, until they strapped him in the papoose. They put some numbing cream on his cut to help with the stitches. I thought that is all they did. Jerry later told me that they put a shot of a stronger medication directly in his cut. I did not know this. Jerry told me that he purposely blocked my view at that point. So they stitched him up (only two stitches) and off we went.

All I kept thinking the entire time was, 'Please don't let my water break or start having contractions now.' I mean, we were already at the hospital. Convenient-- yes. Optimal timing-- no. So we headed home, exhausted from the day. Well, I don't think Jerry was exhausted but G and I were.

This morning we all went to Sea World. I spent all week taking it easy, staying close to home, not planning anything. Now, I'm to the point where I'm planning and doing things. If it happens, then it happens. We saw the penguins, sharks, and of course, the killer whales. Grayson loves going to Sea World. The passes make it so convenient to only stay for a little while. On our way home, we stopped by the store for some pineapple juice. A friend told me that right before she had her baby, a lady stopped her when she was walking around her neighborhood. The lady told her to drink some pineapple juice to speed up the labor process. This friend drank some the next day and her water broke that night. It's worth a try. We'll see how it goes.