Meanwhile, Back at the Fort

Another obscure/odd post title. Hah! I'm waiting to reveal what yesterday's was just in case some of the late-afternoon checkers get there and guess. I guess it's not as obvious as I thought it would be! :)

I think that the things you do at the end of your pregnancy just prepare you for the fact that you're never going to be able to get things done after the baby (babies) are born ever again. I had a "fetal stress test" this morning-- which sounds creepy, but is just where they put monitors on you, check the babies' heart rates, look for them to spike and go back to normal twice (they spike, apparently, when babies are active) and once that's happened you go home. They also monitor my tummy for contractions, of which I don't think there were any to speak of during the hour I sat there. Maia was apparently having a sleep-in-- we went at an ungodly (for us) hour of 8 am and she, unlike her brother who takes after her dad in this already and kicks me from 5 am on-- was still very still and her heart rate slower than his. They had to use this gadget that administered a little BUZZ like an alarm clock (complete with a vibration) on my tummy, down low, where Maia is. To wake her. She was clearly NOT amused (nor was Sean, but he was awake anyway). Both of their heart rates spiked up, and Maia butted my cervix with her head several times after. Poor little thing-- I HATE alarm clocks, and she now has a pre-birth trauma to push her right along the path of that too.

But after the test, I got to go stand in line at the pharmacy with all the retirees (the military base in the A.M. is always packed with retirees picking up medical supplies and making random left turns in front of you). Then home. The drive to our hospital is at best 40 minutes; today because of some odd traffic issue right at the gate, it took an hour. So almost four hours gone, and I got home, and needed, desperately, a nap. From which I just woke up and feel like the entire day is already gone. And now I have to start this fetal heart monitoring twice a week. So there goes any remote bit of productivity on any of those days.

I've been trying to get my current dissertation chapter-in-progress done and to my committee before the babies come, and then I figure any other work before then is gravy.... I don't think anything else will happen on the dissertation till the babies are settled and sleeping regularly-- later in the fall. Summer is a wash, on writing, I am sure. But these tests have made me worry that now my summer-no-work period is beginning sooner than I anticipated. Augh!

Anyway. Now I'm being poked and kicked by both babies, one of whom has the hiccups, and one who just likes to make my stomach look like the scene in Alien where the first alien pops out of the guy's chest.

So that's my big news of the day; a bit blah and mundane, but alls I gots. Fun with hospitals!! Be grateful if you don't have to play this game yourself.