So finally, I am getting to post the first part of the story of the birth of my beautiful baby girls. In our last episode, I was just over 30weeks pregnant and feeling surreal about it. On Oct. 20th (and 32 weeks pregnant) some wonderful people gathered for my baby shower. I will admit to feeling apprehensive about that day. But it was really good, just a normal, regular baby shower with cute baby things and laughter. We talked about both girls, Aislynn and Norah, but then there was no awkwardness or sadness at opening baby gifts for just Norah. Aislynn was definitely present and celebrated and Norah was just as celebrated, just in a different way. So thank you to those of you who were able to make it and thank you to those of you who were thinking of us. It was so good to just feel like a normal, expectant mommy for that day.
Okay, now on to Monday morning. (Grossness disclaimer: I can't find a way to tell this story without the gory details so I'm going to tell them all. I think I need to tell the whole thing just for my own sake. So if you are squeamish you may want to find someone to read the post and then tell it to you while leaving out the bits that make you barf. Thank you.) 4am saw me in the bathroom trying to decide if there was a problem or if I had just peed a little. I woke Jay and we decided I would just call the doctor when their office opened. At 5am I woke up to feeling some kind of strange pressure-ish sensation and feeling a small puddle where I was laying. I got up slowly and went to the bathroom. It is kind of embarrassing but I kind of thought maybe I just had to poop. That was probably a bit of denial. After a few minutes of trying to sit on the toilet without feeling like my innards were going to fall out, I panicked a bit and called for Jay. And my voice had enough terror in it to wake him instantly. After some discussion, I reached down to feel what that strange sensation was and I felt something there. Like something that shouldn't have been there for at least 6 more weeks. We decided that we just had to get to the hospital. I dressed, even brushed my teeth, and off we went. Just a bit into the drive my lower back started to hurt in pulsing waves of agony. Even then I couldn't call them contractions without feeling a little silly or like I was just overreacting. I couldn't sit still and they were happening one after the other. There was never a longer ride to Carbondale in the history of the universe.
We pull up to the ER and Jay got a nurse to get me inside. (At this point I must tell you that while my conscious brain was fully focused on the terror of having all this happen at only 32weeks and on how much this all hurt, I had this kind of running sub-conscious internal monologue that I will express here in italics.) We stopped at the registration desk with me in a wheelchair and the lovely white-haired nurse trying to keep me calm. Seriously, I have to check in? I am obviously in some distress people! They finally get that done and the nurse was happy that it was some man named Michael who would be coming from OB to get me because he would hurry. Why do you employ people to transport in labor pregnant women to OB who would not hurry? I do not remember the ride to OB. I have no idea how we got there, we could have apparated like in Harry Potter and I would not know. I do remember getting to the room and the wonderfully nice nurses having me stand up and put a gown on. I actually asked if I needed to take my bra off, I guess I was still hoping this would stop and I could go home. I do remember just dropping my pants and my slippers and kind of scooting them under the bed a bit. This was a thought later that I just stripped naked in front of the pretty and skinny nurse like it was no big deal. I guess this tells me how scared I really was. There was a flurry of activity and Jay asked if I wanted him to call my mom, I did and I even told him to call his mom, too. Nurses were everywhere. I heard someone ask if Dr. Meyer (my wonderful doc) was still here of if he went home. Someone may have taken my blood pressure and drawn some blood and I distinctly remember a nurse (the same one I stripped for, actually) apologizing for blowing the IV she was trying to start. I may have remarked that the IV sticks were distracting me from the fast coming and super painful back contractions I was having. There was another pair of nurses wrapping me in elastic bands to attach monitors to my belly, three of them. Then there was a grey haired man with a grey beard in green scrubs and a mask hanging from his neck standing beside me asking me if I was allergic to anything and asking me to open my mouth and lift my head. The nice nurse trying to start my IV was still blowing veins so he kind of volunteered to start one. I use "volunteered" loosely; he was kind of gruff and kind of started ordering them to get him the stuff he needed to start the IV in my left forearm. Sometime around this point I may have realized that he was from anesthesia and this was getting very real. I did look around for Jay periodically and could usually see him standing somewhere near the back of the room with his arms crossed or sometimes one hand over him mouth looking very serious and a bit freaked out. Suddenly Dr. Meyer was standing at the foot of my bed also looking serious and talking to nurses about dilation and contractions and monitors. A nurse spoke with him and he checked to see if I was dilated. He said four, maybe. The maybe bit threw me but I was mostly focused on how bad being checked hurt! That hurt almost as bad as the contractions! He moved away at one point to speak to another man in scrubs with very long grey hair in a ponytail and then I needed to throw up. I had been a little nauseous from the terror and pain but this was beyond the point of no return and I was going to throw up. The nurses didn't seem as worried about it as I was at I kept trying to tell them I didn't want to throw up. They told me if I had to just do it and handed me one of those nifty round throw up bags. At the first gag, I felt this strange sensation "down there" and some pressure and then a huge rush of warm fluid. With each consecutive gag, I flooded the bed; hearing it splattering on the floor and seeing the nurses jump back was pretty embarrassing, I must say. It occurred to me at that point that my water had broke. A nurse yelled that they had meconium and thus started the frantic scramble to mop up so that no one fell and try to let me sit on some dry sheets and bed pads.
Then the pains stopped. No more contractions. Things seemed to slow down. Ultrasound got there and started to try to check to see which baby's bag had broken or both. Both was the answer. The tech took a picture of each baby for me. Some time around there I realized that my clothes were still under the bed and now soaked with amniotic fluid. Dr. Meyer came back in and remarked on how different the scene was now. 20 minutes ago I looked ready to deliver and now not so much. He decided to pump me full of antibiotics because of my water breaking, he reassured us that the girls would be fine with just what little fluid was left, and gave me a shot of steroids to boost their lung development. He also started me on magnesium sulfate to stop my contractions or at least slow them down. Dr. Meyer said best case scenario I would make it till Wednesday because the steroids work do their best work in the first 48 hours. But he was very honest with us and said he doubted very much I would still be pregnant on Wednesday. He went ahead and booked an OR for a Wednesday c-section (c-section because Aislynn was still baby A and head down and it was best for both girls to be born that way). He told me to rest as best I could and that the nurses would call him the moment he was needed. He said he had talked to both Dr. Bishop, another OB-Gyn in his practice (and the grey long-haired ponytail man) and the doctors at Barnes and everyone agreed that what he was planning was best for all of us.
And so the waiting started on what was both a very long Monday and the shortest day of my life. I would like to say that the nurses at Carbondale Memorial in the Labor and Delivery side of OB did a wonderful job taking care of us. They were efficient and moved extremely fast to get things done to make sure we were safe while not making us panic and keeping me calm. They helped me deal with the pain of each contraction when they were bad. They kept me smiling between them to make me relax. They were kind and wonderful and the best examples of L&D nurses in the whole world. Part 2 with the rest of that wild day to follow. :)
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