Flash Floods

Thursday night was an adventure, to say the least. We had severe thunderstorm warnings all day that suggested heavy rain, hail, wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour; even tornadoes. We got all of the above. And flash flooding in my town. Hubs had gone to a friend's house before the storm; way out in the boonies. Mom and I ran out to the store to get a few things she wanted. Of course, we heard all sorts of exciting stories about severe weather in the capital, so we ran down the hill to see. Mom insisted that we could get home via the low road, but alas, as I had warned her; it had flooded in front of the local newspaper and that road was closed. We went back and tried the high road. It was also closed. We tried a sneaky back way that normally leads straight to our house. Blockaded. So I hopped out to see if there was any way to get down to the house, where the munchkin and Mom's hubs were waiting for us. By now I was also trying to direct hubs and his friend to the house, as they had lost power due to the storm. I sent Mom back to her sister's and hubs back to his friend's house when I discovered that the water was thigh-high and moving very quickly. I sloshed my way back to the house to find my street a veritable river. The main road was impassable and firefighters were arranging a voluntary evacuation. Not so much fun. In addition, by 12:30am Friday, the basement was flooded and rising fast. I barreled down the stairs and started throwing as much up to my stepdad as I could, and he piled it into the kitchen. Unfortunately, given my condition, I was only able to save about eight boxes worth of their stuff. By 4:00am, the basement was flooded to within a foot of its ceiling. We decided that if the water continued to rise (instead of spreading back out into the yard and the street once it reached the windows) and threatened to flood the first floor, we would evacuate. Fortunately, it didn't. By some inexplicable phenomenon, we never lost power, despite the circuit breaker being submerged for a good chunk of the evening. We didn't lose cable or internet, despite all the damage outside. The only thing we did lose was hot water, but we made do by heating pots of it on the stove, so no real harm there. On top of all this, our little sump pump magically became the little engine that could! By 7:00am Friday, the water in our basement had been more than halved in volume. By 11:00am, we were down to no more than two inches. It did rain some more, and that caused the level to rise a little, but nothing nearly as significant as it had been.

The whole area has suffered damage. Way out in East Podunk where hubs and his friend were, an entire section of road had been washed out and was impassable. Someone's car had been lodged in said washout. It didn't take too long to sort that mess out, but by the time it had been resolved, every road that might bring hubs home had been closed due to flooding. RAWR! Said I. I'm not going to say I wasn't worried that I might go into labor while he was gone. Thankfully, I did not. Despite heaving and hefting and moving and being on my feet as much as I have, Princess Wiggle-Worm is still firmly lodged in my guts.

Today was "muck-out-the-basement-day." What. A. Mess. We found a bunch of stepdad's pictures of his kids, including his late daughter, so my project was to save as many of those photos as I could. There are still more pictures to wash and dry, but thus far I can proudly announce that out of 150+ photos, I have not lost even half a dozen people photos (I'm sorry, but given the sheer volume of work to be done, I am not going out of my way to save a bunch of pictures of landscapes and zoo animals. Pets, fine. Zoo creatures, no.)

That said, I am tired and have very swollen feet and ankles. So I bid everyone good night and sweet dreams.

Breech? Vertex? Breech? Vertex?

Went up to the big hospital for my weekly poking and prodding (not really; they're actually very non-invasive) and had a good laugh at the hospital staff's expense. We had an ultrasound last week, and confirmed that Princess Wiggle-Worm is definitively vertex (head-down). The week before that, the doctor palpated my belly and said she was certain the baby was head down. The week before THAT, another doctor palpated my belly and charted that yes, she also believed the baby to be in vertex position. Apparently the week prior to THAT, this same doctor was concerned that Wiggle-Worm might be breech. That concern has somehow pervaded my chart, despite all medical evidence to the contrary. So hubs and IF and I are sitting around post-blood-pressure-taking and confirming-of-medicines-I'm-taking, and the doctor comes in and says "So I heard a rumor that you're breech." My poor IF's eyes looked like they were gonna pop right out of his head.

I explained to the doctor that no, Princess Wiggle-Worm is NOT breech; that she and another doc had surmised this through external palpation, and that the ultrasound was very clear last week. I also told her that the head nurse had called me several days after the ultrasound, concerned about the same thing, and I had corrected her as well. She went to check the photos from the ultrasound and came back and told us that basically what had happened was that the head nurse had gone to correct the original note where someone had written that Wiggles was breech, and instead of overwriting the first note in the system, the computer had basically duplicated it. All is well, and I've been given the "go-ahead" to start labor whenever I like.

Hahahahahaha!

Also, yesterday was mine and hubs' second wedding anniversary. Hooray! After the appointment, we decided to use a gift card very kindly given to hubs for his birthday my my ex's sister (have I mentioned that it's really nice to be able to get along?) to Denny's, and then headed to Barnes & Noble to dig up hubs' second anniversary present. Dinner was good! Hubs got a maple bacon sundae. He says it wasn't BAD, per se, but that he wouldn't order it again. I think it was that the bacon was hickory smoked instead of just plain bacon that killed it. Ah well. We did get a gift certificate to my favorite restaurant, but the logistics of it weren't going to work out with the child care situation, hence opting for Denny's. Good thing, too. I got violently ill on the way to pick her up. Sometimes Princess Wiggle-Worm doesn't like it when I eat, so she squashes my stomach and forces everything back out. I'll be glad when that's over with. Woo.

Lazy Surrogate!

Wow, I suck at keeping this thing caught up.

As of today, I am 36 weeks along (read: nine months). Human pregnancies are actually 40 weeks (ten months), but since most women don't realize they're pregnant during the first month, the average lay-person calls it a nine-month process.

Monday one of my closest friends and I went up to the big hospital for my weekly check-up. The doctor there (last name HAMMER! How badass is that?!) confirmed that Princess Wiggle-Worm is indeed head-down and seems to be posterior-facing, which is good. I'm measuring exactly where I should be for dates, Wiggle-Worm's heartbeat is very healthy and I'm already between two and three centimeters dilated.

Had some very intense Braxton-Hicks contractions last night, but a glass of water and some relaxing on my left side helped. Only four weeks to go and I can sleep on my tummy again! WOO HOO!!!