Monday, October 8th.
This particular day it was hot and somewhat humid. We had been having this horribly uncharacteristic humidity off and on, and this week was worse than most. In addition, my wonderful husband had ripped the roof off our house and decided to replace it. As if the roof weren't "project" enough, we were also having our HVAC unit, the ducting and insulation ALL replaced. Eek.
The baby was still three plus weeks away so I wasn't too worried about the construction zone that was our house, but my husband saw the writing on the wall. He knew that baby was not staying put for long. I was in denial or something because I genuinely believed I would not be early...until this particular Monday rolled around. I went to my appointment and when they took my blood pressure, I was 168/110 or something ridiculously high (for me anyway). My doctor did another urine test. My protein had gone from "trace" amounts the week before to +2/3 (I think the scale is 0-4). The way my OB explained it is that once the protein is there, it increases exponentially. My wonderful OB decided he would put me on bed rest. However, since he knew I would never actually stay in bed at home, he decided to confine me to the hospital until he was ready to deliver the baby (he did not indicate when this would actually be).
At this point, I knew I would probably be having the baby early but the question was HOW early. Would it be tonight? Next week? Two weeks? etc. I didn't tell anyone (except my husband and sister) that I was in the hospital because I didn't want people worrying and I really didn't have any useful information to share at the time. According to my doctor, I was a "time bomb" (his words) and this has sort of an ominous, dismal connotation that I didn't think my family & friends would appreciate or understand. So Erik and I kept the information to ourselves and I spent the next two-ish days watching Law & Order SVU marathons and waiting for the time to tick by. Erik went to work as usual and I tried to run the world from a hospital bed...
My doctor continued to test my urine and blood pressure and it kept creeping in a dangerous direction. He decided he would induce me on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Until then, I would sit and enjoy the remaining hours of "free time" I would have for the next many decades :)
Wednesday night rolled around and I was told by my OB that he was going to get the ball rolling that evening around 7pm. I was going to take a pill that would soften my cervix over the course of about 8 hours and then I would be formally induced the next morning (Pitocin, etc.). I took the pill and snuggled in for 8 hours sleep about 10:30pm after watching the first half of the season premiere of "Nashville". Around 11pm...I heard a loud pop and felt a gush of fluid (TMI, sorry!). My husband looked and confirmed that I hadn't just peed myself (as I thought I had). We informed the nurses and they informed my OB and their words to me were "Don't worry, induction takes forever and first babies take forever. You won't have her until 24 hours from now at a minimum." I'm thinking, okay-that's what I figured, I will go back to sleep. They gave me a small dose of Pitocin and sent me to dreamland. Sleep I did for about 15 minutes. It was not long before I began noticing some aggravating pain. That aggravation became total and complete agony within an hour. I labored pretty "hard" for lack of a more awkward term until about 4am. Finally, at four in the morning, after suffering contractions every 3-4 minutes and Camelback contractions at that, I begged for mercy. The gave me a smidge of morphine-which is like throwing a pebble at a freight train and expecting it to stop. It did nothing. So then they checked me around 5:30 and I was about 4cm. They told me I could have my epidural if I was ready. Erik and I had decided beforehand that I was going to attempt to get to 5cm before having an epidural and I really wanted to stick to that goal...but. I. Just. Could. Not. Take. It. Anymore. So I agreed to the epidural. The Anesthesiologist came in and gave me the juice before his shift change about 6am. by 6:15 I felt no pain. I was happy, elated even. I never felt more comfortable and relaxed. I just wanted to settle in for my nap since my delivery was still 18hrs away (per the nurses). I just dozed off and my OB came in to see me about 7:15am. He checked me...7cm! Yay. He told me he would go perform some surgeries and come back to deliver me around lunchtime. He was gone maybe 15 minutes when I had just dozed off again. Suddenly the nurse came and checked me in this frantic state. She said the baby's heart rate dropped and that indicated she had descended into the birth canal. She said I was 10cm. Just like that! Holy moly. I couldn't believe it. She told me to just sit and wait because they had no doctor to deliver me-so she would have to call in the on-call doctor! About 8:20 or so, a doctor finally arrived and I began to push. After some pushing and a bit of suction, Elin was delivered by the on-call physician at 9am. She was 6lb15oz. Not bad for being three weeks early! All in all, it was an easy and smooth experience. I couldn't believe I had done it, and it wasn't bad at all.
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