We're finally back from the hospital. Holy crap, a week is a long time to stay at a hospital, and I don't think anyone should have to do that unless they're going to die there...in which case, they probably won't care about having to stay at a hospital, they're probably focused on dying.

Here's a brief (and by "brief," I mean "ridiculously detailed") recap of our stay at the hospital.

Thursday, August 10: Tina went to her weekly pre-natal appointment with her OB/GYN. She fully expected to be back home in a couple of hours. However, routine tests performed at the doctor's office revealed that she had high blood pressure and "proteinuria," which means protein in the urine. They could have just called it "protein-in-urine," and it really wouldn't have saved much space, and then people wouldn't have to ask what it means. The high blood pressure and the "proteinuria" are signs of "preeclampsia," a condition which means that you have high blood pressure and "proteinuria," I guess. Anyway, Tina's OB/GYN, Dr. Gebert (pronounced "GAY-bert," by the way), said that she needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately to be monitored for at least 24 hours. Once she got admitted, Tina called me and told me what had happened. See my post of August 10, 2006. I left work a bit early that day (go ahead, call me a jerk for not dropping everything and leaving the office immediately) and visited Tina at the hospital. Dr. Gebert came in at one point (7:30 p.m.-ish) and said that Tina's gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, coupled with the fact that she was apparently in her 37th week of pregnancy, meant that the baby needed to come out very soon, like the next day. Dr. Gebert went to check Tina's chart and soon came back, having realized that Tina wasn't quite in her 37th week. She was at 36 weeks and 5 days. He was uncomfortable with the idea of delivering the baby before the 37th week. So, he pushed back the c-section until Monday, August 14th. I ended up spending the night with Tina at the hospital. Tina's bed: generic hospital bed. My bed: this chair-type object that kind of folded out into a "bed" that was a fraction the width of a twin bed.

Friday, August 11: I went home that morning and then drove to the office and worked from maybe 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. or so (insert "jerk" comment referenced above). I got all sorts of grief from a couple of the women at the office for being at work instead of at the hospital. Anyway, Tina was just hanging out at the hospital, getting her blood pressure and urine tested. The urine tests came back with only traces of protein, but the blood pressure was kind of all over the place. A few people visited her at the hospital while I was at work. I hadn't planned on staying at the hospital that night (insert "jerk" comment again), partially because I knew that I would be spending many many nights at the hospital in the very near future. I visited Tina Friday night and went home around 10 or so. (Note the lack of details because I wasn't around much that day...if you so desire, I'd be happy to fill the empty space with details about what I did at work that day. That would be exciting.)

Saturday, August 12: I had a lot to do around the house and even more errands to run and stuff to get done. I helped clean the church building at 8 a.m., then I took a load of books to "Half Price Books" and a load of other stuff to Goodwill. I came back home and worked on stuff around the house, i.e. yard work, vacuuming, dishes, laundry, etc. After it was all said and done, I didn't get back to the hospital until around 7 or so that night. Tina had just been undergoing the same monitoring and testing that she'd been enjoying since mid-day Thursday. Being the GREAT husband that I am (right?), I had packed my bags for at least a couple nights at the hospital. We just kicked it in the hospital room that night, thinking that we had at least another day until the baby was going to be born. Boy were we wrong. (stay tuned for more)