Thursday, September 22 : 31 weeks 4 days
4:30am - (this is a guess based on how fast everything else went as I didn't actually look at the clock) Some sort of twinge woke me up, I thought to myself that that was a weird sort of feeling and went right back to sleep.
4:45am - I woke up again to another strange feeling in my belly. This one was strong enough to really wake me up and so I looked at the clock. I say strange because it did not really hurt and was unlike anything I'd felt before. I was somewhat familiar with Braxton hick contractions because I got them if I didn't drink enough water in the day and it didn't feel like them.
5:15 - I had about 3 more contractions about 10 min apart since 4:45. I woke Brian up to tell him something was going on and I was having some strange feelings that I've never felt before. They still didn't hurt too badly, more like a mild period cramp.
5:30 - We talked about it for a little bit and I finally decided to call the OB office. Since it was after hours I got the answering service and then one of the midwives called me back. She asked how long they are lasting but I had not timed any so I guess 15 seconds. She said that wasn't really long enough to be a contraction so drink some water and take a shower and hopefully things settle down but I should stay home today. When I hung up with her I timed how long a contraction actually lasted and it was like 60 seconds long, I probably should have called back but I didn't. I drank a big 28 oz cup of water and I went up to take a shower after we decided that I actually would go in to work for 2 reasons. 1) Brian was going to go to work so if something happened he would be 1/2 hr away and 2) I work in the same town as the hospital that we wanted to deliver at so either I would be 5 minutes away from the hospital if I went into work instead of 30 if things didn't settle down or I would be at work if things did settle down and not waste a sick day.
6:00 - I got out of the shower still planning on going to work even though the contractions were still coming. In the time of getting out of the shower and starting to dress, I decided something is not right and we need to go to the hospital because the contractions suddenly started getting a lot stronger. I told Brian this and I continue to get dressed in between contractions. I am guessing they were around 5 minutes apart. I didn't pack any sort of bag because I was hoping they were going to be able to stop whatever was happening.
6:20 - We left for the hospital. With stopwatch on my phone, I started timing the contractions and they are approx 2 minutes apart and 1 minute long. One thing Brian says on the trip over is "what we don't want to hear is 'you're going to have a baby today'" About half way, the contractions started getting super intense and I was bracing myself for each one by lifting my butt off the seat. I was also becoming vocal during the contractions.
6:50 - We arrived at the hospital. I had called the OB office to tell them I was coming and they called the hospital so the nurses were waiting on me. They had me go into my room and want me to give a urine sample to test for UTI (possible cause for contractions) but I couldn't go during the contractions so I went to the bed and the nurse came to check dilation. Her exact words were "Oh crud, you're going to have a baby today". Those are words neither one of us will ever forget. I was fully dilated and my waters were bulging, which explains why I was more comfortable not sitting during the contractions in the car on the ride over.
At that, the room became a whirlwind. They put a call in for the the actual OB to come in for my delivery and hooked me up to prenatal monitor and insert an IV. They brought in the warmer for the baby and a bunch of others stuff. A pediatrician came in and introduced herself. She said she would be taking care of the baby when he was born and that the hospital is a Level II NICU so it can keep babies born 32 weeks or later. I was just under that but she said there is a possibility that he could stay there depending on his condition rather than sending him to the Level III NICU 1.5 hrs away.
7:15 - The OB arrives and suits up. She broke my water. Brian said there was a big splash and it was just like a water balloon breaking. There was a great relief of pressure for me. It was amazing. After that the Dr. tells me that at my next contraction I would start pushing, doing 3 pushes 10 seconds each for each contraction. The next contraction came and it took a little bit till I started doing them right and making them productive. Up until this time, Will had been doing fine during the contractions. During the first contraction after my water was broke, his heart beat dropped during each push, it rebounded when I quit pushing but dropped for each push. Will’s head appeared in the second contraction. Again his heartbeat dropped during the pushes. Between the 2nd & 3rd contraction the OB said that because his heartbeat keeps dropping, she's going to use the vac to keep him from slipping back in between pushes so he comes out faster, she said he needed to come out soon.
7:33 - At the end of the 3rd push of the 3rd contraction, the OB said his head was half out. When she said this I decided that he was going to have to come out now, so I pushed him the rest of the way out without a contraction. The nurses and pedi wisked him right away to the warmer in the room to check him out. I orginally wanted the baby to be brought to my chest immediately after birth but special circumstances call for special measures. He was crying, it was faint over all the other noise in the room but he was crying!!! The OB asked if we knew what it was and since we didn't she said, "What was it Dad?". Brian said in a sort of question tone 'boy?' Yep we had a little boy, William Joseph. They took him out of the room before we could see him. We were told someone would come back in and update us soon on his condition.
I should have said earlier that we both felt it was going to be a boy. I had feelings it was going to be a boy in the 1st trimester and then didn't have any other feelings for the rest of the pregnancy. We had a boy & girl names picked out since before we were married. We are very traditional when it comes to names, Brian's middle name was William and my dad's name is Joe. I can't imagine any future children not having either first or middle name not coming from one of ourselves or parents or grandparents.
I delivered the placenta right away. When that was done, most everyone left the room execpt my delivery nurse who was cleaning things up a little. During the whole labor & delivery, Brian was right beside me doing what good husbands do; helping me focus and breath during contractions, holding a leg up during delivery while encouraging me and telling what I good job I was doing and watching our son come into this world. While I was still pregnant, we often talked about how he'd be during labor & delivery and we always joked that he'd be on the floor, passed out but adreline is powerful thing and he stayed up right the whole time. After Will had been taken from the room he said he needed to sit down, so he did and kind of put his head between his legs and took some deep breaths.
After the nurse left, it was time to let our family know what had happened. We called my mom first and then his mom and then our siblings and they all had pretty much the same reaction: WHAT!?!?!? My mom was especially freaked out because my dad was having some out patient procedure done later that morning and my sister was getting married on Saturday, as in 2 days later. My sister's wedding was already nerve racking for her and I guess I just thought I'd put the icing on the cake. My mom and Brian's mom and sister came to the hospital within the hour.
It was about 9:30 before they brought Will back in to our room. He was all wrapped up ready to go to the Level III NICU. It was so hard to just see his face and hands and only be able to touch his hand.
When we arrived at the hospital before, the OB nurses were also waiting on another pregnant woman who was having contractions. This mama was 31weeks 2 days and was pregnant with twins. She had to deliver via C-section because one of the twins was presenting breech. All 3 babies were taken to the same NICU at the same time so there was a caravan of ambulances leaving the hospital.
After that our visitors soon left and it was just the two of us. It was so strange to be in the hospital after delivery without a baby.
I knew through my whole pregnancy that I wanted to breastfeed, so without a baby to nurse I had asked several times when the lacation consultant was going to come in and talk to me. Finally about 1:00 the LC finally came in with a pump. She had me do a series of breast massage, hand expression and using the pump. The first time I think I only got a couple drops, but she was thrilled with what I got out. Massage, hand expression and pumping became my routine every 3 hours around the clock and my supply the first day was measured in drops but I was told every little bit helps.
That afternoon my OB gave me the option of going home. Brian and I talked about it and decided that I would stay the night since this was my first time giving birth and not totally sure what to expect. However we did decided that we wanted to leave first thing in the morning so we could go and see Will in NICU for a couple hours before coming back home for my sister's dress rehearsal. We decided that Will would be receiving all the care he needed and wanted to still be at my sister's wedding. So Brian went home to do chores and get us a change of clothes since we didn't bring anything with us. The night went uneventful except for me getting up to pump every 3 hours. We kept telling the nurses we wanted to leave as early as possible in the morning and we ended up leaving the hospital around 8:15am to go to see Will in NICU.
Will's NICU story....To be continued.
