Thursday, August 13, 2015

LA Was Great, But Riley Prefers Vegas

After sleeping rotisserie chicken style-constantly turning in place-we woke up ready for what the day held. We pounded out the details of what I would be doing while Chris went to SIGGRAPH, since I could only stay at the hotel until check-out at 11am. And we weren't sure what to do with our car. Any day parking would get expensive really quick. Thankfully our awesome staff man allowed me to stay until noon, and he said we could leave our car in the hotel parking lot until we left after the convention. He saved us! We are so thankful to him and his kind generosity.


After fixing himself up and looking quite handsome, Chris braved the LA streets to get to the LA Convention Center about .75 miles away, and I got to work relaxing in the hotel room all morning.

Pixar at SIGGRAPH

Then I hit the streets to meet up with Chris for company. It ended up being a good deal-I didn't feel completely scared for my life as I walked the streets, the weather was beautiful, and everything was so close! Once I got to the convention center, I easily met up with Chris & co.-he had found 2 BYU alumni who he knew who came with us to eat.



The nearby restaurants were saturated with SIGGRAPH groupies, so we ended up going a little further for food. Honestly, it wasn't that much farther, but let me tell you, by the time we found a restaurant and sat down with some water, I was SO happy!! After eating and cooling down, the boys headed back while I loitered around the restaurant and a nearby shopping center to wait for them to finish their escapades. There was this neat circular pit that served as a strip mall. It looked really small, and so when I started exploring the Target, I was awestruck at how expansive the inside was-It was bigger than any other Target I have ever been in! It had everything you could ever want in that store. As much as being in downtown LA isn't my favorite, I had to hand it to city people-they know how to do this shopping thing properly!

A bit later Chris was finished and met me up by the shopping center. We were headed out of LA! ...in the traffic, in all its glory. Chris did a great job navigating our way out, and before we knew it, we were out on the clearer freeways burning rubber. We enjoyed discussing feedback Chris had gotten for his demo reel and goals we would like to have this semester. It was fun to see Chris pumped up for his career.


The rest of the journey passed fairly uneventfully until about 8pm that night. We were about an hour and a half outside Vegas, and I think our talk about seeing the city lights made Riley want to share in the experience.

That was when she tried to make her escape.

I was driving at this point, and started to feel uncomfortable. I felt like my pants and underwear were too tight under my belly. Over time the discomfort turned into feeling like Baby Waz's head was pressing more prominently in my lower abdomen, and then it felt like her head was bearing down really hard against all my muscles and ligaments down low. I felt like I needed to get up and walk around, so we pulled into the next rest station and I got out of the car. More like I fell-gracefully!-from the car.
Getting up and moving around felt right, but it also felt like my pelvic bone was going to split apart, and I couldn't walk properly because I felt like her head was in the way. I had my arm around Chris' shoulders as we walked at about .005 miles an hour, and every once in awhile I felt like I needed to bend over and grab a bench or a garbage can to support myself. After awhile of this (I'm really not sure how long we were there-keeping track of time didn't seem like my brain's first priority) as much as I didn't want to sit down again, I also was ready to get to our destination so our car ride would be over. So we got back in the car and I worked on relaxing and talking to Chris to make sure we were both awake.
We thankfully got to the A.'s after grabbing a quick smoothie from Mickey Ds for dinner. They are the nicest people! I actually half enjoyed talking with them, even with everything going on. I just hope I was able to come off as congenial as I concentrated on keeping my face from contorting into a grimace.


They showed us to a cute little room and I immediately got onto all fours for relief, leaning over a little footstool for the bed. It felt SO much better! I wanted to stay there the rest of my life! ...but then my knees got tired and I gave in to lying down in the bed. When I couldn't take lying down anymore (about 1:45am) I got up and got on the bed footstool again. I alternated between this position and stumbling into the bathroom to pace for about an hour. I knew I couldn't be in that position forever, and not knowing what to do, I decided to text my mom for advice. I figured she wouldn't get it until the morning, but at least later that morning she would be able to help me figure out what was going on before we drove the rest of the way home. But I was in for a fortunate surprise-my mom texted me back!! I was SO happy to have someone there that I could consult with! I gave her the details of what was going on, and she had some suggestions that I was more than willing to try. Very true to my mom's character, one of the adamant suggestions was to drink water. That sounded like an awesome idea, and since my mom suggested it, I felt more comfortable with Quasimodo-slouching downstairs, rummaging through their kitchen for a glass and getting some water. Not sure why I didn't do it earlier... it just seemed like it would be more credible if I was caught by our kind hosts if my mom had insisted that I do it (My mom told me to do it! Promise!).

I think I drank the equivalent of a small kiddie pool in the next hour, and the pressure began to subside by degrees. It eventually got to the point that the pressure wasn't all consuming on my  mind-I began to feel tired. That was an awesome feeling!! I would pick tired over distress any day! I let my mom know I was going to try lying down, and she made sure I was alright before letting me go. I am so grateful for my mom-she had been eating cereal so she could stay awake, and she was ready to hop in the car at my word to be here to help out. Love my Mom!!  I carefully went to lie down. If I held really still the discomfort was minor, and I was able to fall asleep by 4am. I woke up at 8am the next day feeling so much better! I still felt sore, and due to twinges of stretched muscle I moved slowly, but really nothing that would give a hint of how last night had went. And we didn't have a Vegas baby! Hallelujah!

So I guess that is why people suggest not travelling when you are very pregnant.

Noted.

But really, let Chris come out to California and miss out on all the fun?! Not a chance!


Despite being a bit on the tired side, we were able to make the last leg of our journey without much hullabaloo.

We finished this book on the road, and it was good! I love its tone and humor

My mom had said I should let my doctor know what happened, and I was curious as to what his diagnosis would be. Unfortunately, my doctor wasn't in the office, but after some phone tag we were able to relay our events from the previous night to the nurse. She said she would talk to one of the doctors in the office and get back to me. Chris and I had minimal conversation at the end of our journey; mostly bedraggled speech about how we were really looking forward to rest after the trip. We had just decided that we would definitely be taking a nap when the nurse called back. She said we should go straight to the hospital just to make sure everything was alright.

But! ...fine.

At the hospital they set up the fetal monitors, checked my vitals and checked to see if I was dilated or effaced. Turns out I was 1 cm dilated, but no effacement yet. The nurse was surprised I was dilated at a one, since this is my first baby and we are still 4 weeks out. After about half an hour of monitoring we were allowed to go. It was good to make sure that the baby was OK. But is was sure nice to pull up to our blessed house. and our blessed bed. And to blessed sleep.

4 comments:

  1. What a crazy story! I am glad that everything worked out! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey! I've been wanting to read Terry Pratchett. Rachel recommended her and describes her books as,"....interesting."
    So of COURSE i'm gonna read it!

    Btw i love being able to stalk you and know how you are. I'm excited to-maybe-see you this Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey! I've been wanting to read Terry Pratchett. Rachel recommended her and describes her books as,"....interesting."
    So of COURSE i'm gonna read it!

    Btw i love being able to stalk you and know how you are. I'm excited to-maybe-see you this Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete