Don't tell anyone (23 weeks, 2 days)

Hello, all! Aaron and I have had a busy day. I'm actually writing from my dad's house in Charlotte. We drove up here from Atlanta today. While it is not that long of a drive, I am increasingly aware that I don't like long cartrips, pregnancy or no. A four hour trip to Charlotte is about my max. It's nice to have a brief respite from the rest of the trip out to Aaron's family (as well as nice to see my dad, stepmom and stepsister).

But, the day started off on an interesting and strange note. We were driving to the midwife appointment today and right around the corner from the office, I saw a car pulled off funny to the side of the road. I asked Aaron to turn around because I thought someone across the wheel. Yes, in fact, a young man was passed out unconscious across the steering wheel of his car and his car had apparently rolled off the road. Well, fortunately this wasn't a David Lynch scene a la Wild at Heart, but it did get the adrenaline pumping. Lucky for Aaron and I someone else had stopped, my hero, Bobby the ER Director for Piedmont Hospital. Unlike us, he at least is not totally unfamiliar with situations like this and with Aaron's help was able to pull the young man out of the car and get him on the ground where he starting seizing. Jesus. I called 911 and sounded like a total idiot for at least 5 minutes trying to describe what was happening. The guy had marks on him, his clothes were falling off, he was breathing but not waking. Within a short time, the seizing driver came to, totally disoriented and having a hard time putting it together. Then he turned to Aaron and me and begged us not to call anyone: he didn't want to be in trouble, he was fine, don't call anyone, don't tell anyone, please don't tell anyone.

He hardly seemed to understand our point, however, that he had been out for a couple of minutes, had a seizure and needed to be checked out by someone other than Bobby. He did thank us and tried to regain composure. He still said not to call anyone, but I had already been off the phone with 911 and you could hear the sirens coming up the road. I don't think that he managed to escape his troubles as the police showed up shortly after the firetruck and paramedics. Bobby (this story's hero) said that he thought that it was likely drugs that had done this to the young man. I hope that tomorrow will be the start of something new for the driver.

Random notes about the experience:
1. This man rolled off the road in the middle of morning traffic and had been there for a few minutes before we saw him. Nobody could stop? If I roll off the road, please somebody stop.
2. That Blind Melon song that was so popular a few years ago -- you know the one where in the video the little girl is dressed up as bee -- was blasting from the guy's car.
3. The bumper sticker on the man's car read "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part".

So, we were late to the appointment, but the midwife was understanding. Not unlike all the other appointments, things were normal normal normal. My uterus measured where it should (23 cm), Sprout's heart was going strong, and we are fine. The midwife said that she approves of the childbirth class that we are taking and said that patients who take that class always know the right time to come to the hospital and make informed choices. She said that I don't have to worry about going to the class that the practice recommends if I am a Bradley mom. Good news, that. Also, good to meet the 3rd midwife in the practice. I have now seen all of them and feel comfortable and trust them. I might start trusting again after the first practice I went to during this pregnancy had me so frustrated and angry.

I did have my own moment of not wanting to tell, though. I apparently have had a growth spurt since my check-up last month. A BIG GROWTH SPURT. Don't tell anyone, but I gained a lot of weight. It could be my loading up on dairy (ie milkshakes) recently, it could be not walking and working out like I was in the spring, or it could just be that I am 23 weeks pregnant and had a growth spurt. The nurse gave me the raised eyebrow, but the midwife said it's fine so long as I don't come in next month having gained the same amount of weight. I will not share what I weighed in the beginning or what I weigh now, but I definitely had one of those moments where I thought, "Oh, so this is why pregnancy drives women crazy." The midwife asked me to consider before I freaked out that 2 people are on the scale when I weigh in. Nice rationalization. I might use that, if need.

More dispatches from the road later!