It is still so unbelievable to me that our little one is here and his arrival was so bizarre that I almost cannot find the words to explain what happened.
As some of you know, I have been having braxton hicks contractions for several weeks. While my doctor was not too concerned, she wanted to monitor them if they went for longer than three hours. On Sunday morning, I woke up with bh contractions and was able to help them go away by drinking some water. That afternoon, they came back, so I called the on-call physician and was told to drink more water, rest, and come to the hospital for monitoring if they continued for longer than the three hour limit. When they stopped, I went on with our day.
When Monday rolled around, things were fine until dinner time. The bh contractions returned again and didn't seem to stop when I drank water. We called the doctor and she told me to come in for monitoring. Despite being on the monitor for about 30 minutes and feeling the contractions the whole time, nothing was showing up! The nurse examined me and told me that nothing was going on and that we should go home, keep our 32 week appointment scheduled for Tuesday morning, and spent the rest of Tuesday on bed rest. Feeling like an hypochondriac, I went home and went to sleep.
The next day, we went to our appointment and everything looked great! My belly was measuring perfectly, my blood pressure was great, there was no protein in my urine (a sign of preeclampsia returning), and although my weight had gone up a bit, there was nothing to be concerned about. I asked the doctor if we could go to Target and do a little shopping and she said "sure!"
Tuesday progressed normally for us with the exception of a tiny bit of bleeding (which I chalked up to the exam I had been given the previous night) until dinner time when my cramping returned. Since I had been told that there was nothing wrong, I began to think that maybe I was eating something that didn't agree with me or that maybe I was getting a tummy bug. I spent the rest of the evening on the couch drinking water watching tv with our little girl and feeling increasingly miserable. My husband repeatedly asked me if I wanted to call the doctor but I felt like it would be silly to do so when nothing was really wrong. At about 11pm I went to the bathroom and then lay down on the bed feeling worse and worse. Fortunately, my husband called our doctor for me and we were told to return to the hospital of more monitoring.
While my husband got my hospital bag and diaper bag to the car, I quickly got our little one into her pajamas and we headed for the car. Normally, it would take me about 5 seconds to get myself downstairs and into the garage, but I couldn't take more than a few steps at a time without stopping because of the pain. As we were pulling out of the garage, I began to really feel that something was not right and had to lean on my left leg and side and into my husband.
Though the hospital is about 45 minutes away (30ish if your husband is speeding!), the drive seemed interminable. About 15 minutes into the ride, my husband called 911 and asked them to please have someone waiting for us. We were first told to go to the emergency room, but then they called us back and said that there would be someone waiting at the labor and delivery entrance. We pulled up to the entrance of the hospital and THERE WAS NO ONE THERE!!! No security, no nurse, no wheelchair, NOTHING! I somehow got out of the car, took two steps, and my water broke! A few steps later, I was inside the hospital (where there were still no signs of anyone coming and had to crouch down because of the pain. At this point my husband was yelling for help, and began to try to get a hold of someone via the phone on the wall. A few minutes later, it was clear that no one was going to come so he left me to get help. During the two minutes he was away, I pushed our little one's head out and was holding it when help finally arrived. The L&D nurses helped me finish delivering him on the floor of the lobby (there goes all my modesty!) and wrapped him in the in my shirt (I was wearing a tank top underneath) and a scrub top.
Our little one was delivered with nice pink skin and was given an 8 for his Apgar score (which increased to a 9 a few minutes later). He has been breathing on his own since his birth and all of the doctors and nurses are astounded at how well he is doing! He is even nursing once per day (the rest of the time they feed him breastmilk through a tube that goes from his nose down to his belly), something we were told he would be unable to do until he was 33 or 34 weeks gestation.
Though it is obviously very difficult to leave him, we are very happy with the NICU nurses and doctors that are caring for him. They are very sweet and extremely gentle! I am feeling great after his delivery and have to keep reminding myself that I actually did give birth:)
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! We really appreciate them!
