where to start.... the bad and the good

I will start with the bad so I end on a happy note.

Today I got into a pretty bad car accident. I suppose 'bad' is an exaggeration- but for me it was terrifying and my car is really fucked up and it was the scariest day of my life. I was driving along on a road going southbound. There was a small sidestreet (no traffic light) on the northbound side of the road. The woman I guess was trying to turn left of that sidestreet (so she needed to cross northbound traffic to turn left and join the southbound traffic- which is where I was).
I guess she looked left and northbound was clear, so she shot out and slammed right into my car. The speed limit on this road was 55mph so I was not going slow. My car spun and swerved, thank God noone was to my right, and went up onto a hill. Luckily I landed in the shoulder. I slammed my head pretty hard on the part of the car that is up and to the side (kind of between the windshield and the driver's side window). From my door to the front left corner of the car, the exterior is gone- there is no shell, you can see the insides just like the terminator,

I took this picture of my car with my phone- it obviously could have been a lot worse, but in my opinion it was still pretty terrible.

The ambulance came, checked me out- asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I elected to make it through the police report and go to the hospital with my husband, who was driving to me at this point. This all happened about 40 miles away from the house- I was just about at work.
The other driver was a woman visiting from Mexico with an international driver's license, she didn't speak English so we had to wait for a translator. I was scared to death of insurance issues just because how do you track someone down for this stuff if they are out of the country. Fortunately she was driving a relative who lives in PA's car, and the insurance was all in order so that is lucky for us. She got charged with some traffic citations, I didn't - so I hope that is good enough for the 'fault' issues with insurance.
I felt like such an idiot- I was unloading what I needed from my car- which was 4 rolls of xmas wrapping paper, some wrapped gifts, and about 4 bags of other gifts. The police officer was looking at me like i was nuts- but Christmas is 13 days away and who knows when and where I will get my car back.

Eric showed up with perfect timing as we were wrapping things up. We stopped for water and to freshen up then headed to the hospital. We elected to go to a hospital closer to home, yet not in the city- and this was the right choice. I walked in to register thinking it would be a long wait, and they took me back immediately. (that could have been because of my head injury though). I was checked out, and declared I had a concussion. They didn't scan my head or anything

Of course- during all of this- my number 1 concern was the baby. I was internally freaking out and it just got worse. The nurse came in with a doppler and could hear nothing. She stood there looking and just shaking her head back and forth at the physician's assistant. The physician's assistant tried to find the heartbeat as well- and again nothing. By this time tears were running down my cheeks. I know DH was super scared too, but he was trying to comfort me. They went to get a dr, which took about 10 minutes- then he came in and tried with the doppler for a long time. Again- nothing. I was silently sobbing by this point. I was scared to death.
They left us to call labor and delivery and see what they thought- I guess they sent down one of those portable ultrasound machines. We waited about a half hour for the machine to come- the doctor and PA came in again to work it- and if i wasn't in such a state, it would have been comical. They both said they have newfound respect for ultrasound technicians because it is much harder then it looks. We were all staring at the screen like- is that baby, is that not baby, what is that? and then what happens

a little arm sticks up and waves at us and Lester does a summersault.

Of course I cried all over again with relief. I still wanted to make sure the heartrate was fine and s/he wasn't in distress, but the little bugger was flipping around. Eric started giggling and got so excited saying 'what's he doing, look at that', I could tell by his giggle that he was just purely and truely relieved- it was one of those thank God laughs of relief. The weirdest thing was- I think this was our coolest u/s to date. Our 6 week one was awesome because we saw the heart flicker, our 10 week one was so quick, and she didn't let us look at the screen while she did the measurements- so it was cool, but not so cool. Our NT one was great because it was long and the baby really grew and was moving- but this u/s was purely about looking at the baby. There were no measurements to take, we were just making sure it was doing ok. And the dr. and PA doing it never get to do these things since they are ER trauma doctors, that I think they were in awe of the baby moving around in there just like Eric and I. Not that I am knocking u/s techs- not at all, but they have measurements and angles to get and are amazingly competent at finding these things. But a silver lining of the day was just being able to stare at the baby and watch what it was doing for a little while. I would have taken no accident and no u/s over what happened in an instant- but since you can't go backwards and the accident did happen- there is no shame in admitting it was a fun u/s to just watch the little one (plus the feeling of relief probably amplified our feelings during it)

We then got discharged- I came home and had time to nap for an hour before my ob.gyn appt- which fortunately was already scheduled for today. The dr. was a little upset they didn't scan my head- saying if they would do it if I wasn't pg they should give me the same care even though I am- and that 1 scan isn't risky. So I aam to watch how I feel and act over the next few days and see how I feel.

Then he used to doppler and he found the heartbeat in less than 15 seconds- nice and fast and beating strong (i didn't get a rate though). My blood pressure, while still a bit elevated, was lower and closer to normal, and my weight was up 0.5 lb from 5.5 weeks ago, but I am still down 2.5 lb overall.

So the good is- my appointment went great, and I am just so thankful that I and the baby are both in good health. I was so scared and am just so relieved and keep saying prayers of thanks. I am also thankful for the prayers i received from my trusty support system today- they rock.