A trip to the hospital... but no baby (yet)!

Here's Emma, making a fashion statement...

We've been living in Colfax over a month now, and the kids are finishing up their second week of school here. They both seem to be adjusting remarkably well. Both kids have exchanged letters back and forth with their old classmates, so they haven't lost their old ties entirely.

We're still working to get our Eau Claire house ready for renters. We hope we can get some decent people in there by April, but that seems doubtful now. There's still so much to do. Jon's going to make one more big push this weekend to finish painting, and I will do what I can to clean. But after this weekend Jon's going to Minnesota for two weeks, to do training for a new job. He's still working for that electrical union, but was tired of living so far away from the family and took his first opportunity to work in Eau Claire. So after the two weeks of training he'll be working nearby and home every night, but... of course the baby is supposed to come in the next couple of weeks, so the timing is rather unfortunate. We're both a little anxious about that, especially after Tuesday night's excitement (or should I say, trial run)...

After being flu-free during Jon, Michael, and Emma's recent illnesses, I thought I'd managed to evade the trouble. But Tuesday after work I started feeling SO sick, and before long realized that it was now my turn to have the flu. That evening, while my nausea and vomiting were at their worst, I started having painful contractions that wouldn't go away. Things accelerated enough where we decided to make a trip to the hospital in Eau Claire, just in case.

By the time we got there, I was pretty certain I was having the baby. But I felt terrible, like I might throw up at any minute, and I felt panicky and un-ready. I mean, we still don't have a car seat-! And I haven't finished reading my childbirth books (we had to miss that childbirth refresher course last weekend because Michael was sick). So I was all tense and sick and unprepared and it looked like childbirth was going to descend on me like a nightmare (how's that for drama?).

But even though I was having contractions two minutes apart, I wasn't dilating that much, and they decided it was a false alarm brought on by my illness. I was given something to control my nausea and sent home to rest. Sure enough, after a good night's sleep and no more throwing up, the contractions went away and I was back to normal (though still a little sick). So I guess I have more time to get prepare, afterall (whew!).

One other unexpected development of this past week is that I am now officially done with work. I had planned on working maybe another two weeks, but next week is spring break in Eau Claire, so everyone has off and they don't need me, and the week after that is my due date, and my boss didn't think I should try to come in. So part of me is relieved to be done, but the other part of me is freaking out because I no longer have a job.

Well, on the positive side, the past couple of days here have been warm and pleasant. Coco is finally enjoying the outdoors here a little, chasing squirrels and exploring the woods around our house. She stays pretty nearby the house, so we've been just letting her run outside for half an hour or so at a time. When it was colder you could hardly get her out the door.

A friend of mine once told me about a dog she used to have. In the winter she'd open the porch door and the dog would stick its backside out the door just far enough to poop, the front half of his body remaining inside the warm house. True story! I can't imagine not giving the dog a nudge all the way outside and shutting the door quick, but that's me.