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| Taken 4 days before the start of our story |
It was November 30. I was scheduled for a weekly check-up that day at 2:00. I hung out with the girls in the morning (I was on bedrest. That's all I did. Hang out with my girls.) It was rainy out, which meant that we had our normal mud pit out back. I ate lunch around 12 while the girls ran around outside. Right before I was supposed to leave Angie gave me a big hug and I had to change.
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| Muddy paw print of love |
When we got to the doctor, the nurse took my blood pressure. It was, of course, kind of high, but not scary. I gave her my list of readings from the morning, and as she scanned them she raised her eyebrows, like "oohhh, those are not good." We carried on and I sat waiting for the doctor to come see me. She proceeded like a normal checkup and told me I was 1 cm dialated. I started to gather my things and she said, "So, do you have your packed bags in the car?" Schwhatt? (We lied and said yes.) She told us that she was sending me down to labor and delivery (one floor below my doctor's office) and she was going to have tests run to check my liver levels, etc because she was concerned from the high BP readings I had that morning. She also said that depending on how the tests came out, we could be having a baby that day. As we stood in line at check-out, we had this conversation:
Me: (giddy with the excitement of getting the dude out and having him in my arms) We could have a baby today!
John: We are NOT going to have a baby today.
Me: Can't you even consider the possibility that he could come today? Or that they at least induce me?
John: No. He's not coming yet.
He really didn't think so. As we checked out and the girl gave us the papers to take down to the hospital, she said "oohh, you could have a baby today!" I turned to John and smiled my "I win" smile.
We got to labor and delivery and I had to get the hospital gown on and get the contraction and fetal heartbeat monitors strapped on. We settled in for what we thought would be an hour or so. John called his work cause he originally thought he would be out for no more than 2 hours. (Little did he know, he wouldn't be back at work for 6 days). The nurse came in and took all my blood work. She came back about 30 minutes later and said that she had to get clearance with the doctor, but all the levels came back normal and I would probably be going home. We discussed getting McDonalds on the way home for dinner (by this time it was around 5 and I was oh so hungry). My mouth was already watering at the thought of the quarter pounder I was going to get. We were still waiting, and I heard horror movie screams. Not painful grunts. Screaming at the top of your lungs, Michael Myers is chasing me with a butcher knife, screams. After waiting for an hour, the nurse popped back in. We asked her about the screams and she goes "oh yeah. Natural birth. Not by choice. She was allergic to the meds." Then she delivered the knockout.
My test levels were fine. She was still waiting to get clearance from the doctor (there were virtually no births the week before (Thanksgiving week) but the barometric pressure dropped and my doctor had THIRTEEN patients in labor that day) but instead of sending me home, she said it was about 100 percent certain that I was going to be induced. Turns out, I was handling everything okay, but Jude's heart rate was dropping every time I contracted. Another hour went by, John went home to check on the dogs and get my bags. While he was gone, the doctor finally made her way into my little room. She confirmed that I was getting induced. She checked everything, guesstimated Jude to be 7 pounds and got a nurse to get me admitted.
I was moved to the big labor and delivery room. It was around 7 pm. John's mom came in first. My parents and stepmom were soon to follow. By the way, this whole time, I was only worried about finding Fox on the TV. Glee was on that night (Sectionals!) and I didn't want to miss it. I was left with nothing to do. At 8 pm, right as Glee was coming on, a nurse entered the room. She was going to put the IV in so we could start the pitocin and get labor going. Sounds easy, right? Yeah, by 8:50, after FOUR nurses and EIGHT different points of entry, and getting fired by the IV team, I finally had an IV. And Glee was almost done. By that point, I didn't even want to watch the end. I was so bummed. By this point, everybody was there. I could only have 3 visitors at a time, so the parental units were being very courteous in taking turns going in and out.
I have never seen my dad so nervous. The man was pacing, asking 100 questions. My mom was confident that I would have Jude by 5am. She was induced with my sister around the same time at night, and delivered mere hours later. She was fully confident I would do the same. Around 1 am my dad asked me if I thought he would miss anything if he went home to sleep. I told him no. I hadn't dilated any further past 1 cm and they told me inductions could last anywhere from 12-24 hours. By all means, he had plenty of time to go sleep comfortably for awhile (especially since his wife was on crutches.) He reluctantly went home. My mom and John passed out in the chairs of the room, and we had a relatively quiet night. (Although I was hungry as hell and had never wanted a diet coke so bad in my life.)
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| 10 1/2 hours into labor- no oxygen mask yet, feeling good but bored |
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| My guests keeping me great company (seriously, how can you sleep? Baby is on the way!) |
**Post edit: When we were sitting in the testing room, waiting to hear from the doctor, John still did not believe that I would be delivering any time soon. When the nurse initially told us that I was probably going home, he got this shit-eaten grin on his face. When the nurse came back and said we were probably inducing that night, I think I had the biggest shit-eaten grin on my face. I win.
