Week 35 of pregnancy started off a little on the rough side. I was at work on Monday morning like always, doing my job when I started to notice that I was getting pretty consistent contractions. Consistent and painful enough for me to take notice and start timing. By lunch time I was having more than 5 in an hour and called my doc, who of course always just says, come in and lets check it out.
I went in and was monitored on the NST for a while and they could watch the contractions. I was 70% effaced and getting soft and ready for labor. Doctor told me I could go back to work and just take it easy. Probably just Braxton Hicks contractions and I would be fine. Monday night at home was terrible. Awful painful contractions every 15 minutes or so. No appetite, nausea and I couldn't sleep to save my life. Tuesday at work, I left an hour into my day to go home and attempt to sleep. Trying to not go into "real Labor" as I was only 35 weeks along which is not full term and baby just isn't ready yet. By wednesday I was feeling much better and worked the rest of my work week.. Thursday night when Ryan got home from work we had a good dinner and went to bed later than usually after staying up to watch a movie.
I woke up at 2:20am needing to potty, as many pregnant women who can't sleep through the night do, and my water broke. I stood next to the bed totally soaking the floor and having no real idea what I was supposed to do next. I woke Ryan up and told him what had happened. He was so good. Calm and ready to take action. We called the hospital to tell them we were on our way in, then called my mom, (at home in Utah 800 miles away) and told her to get in the car and start driving. I wasn't currently contracting and thought as this is my first child it could be a long day of labor.
We got to the hospital about 3:30am and were put in a Triage room where the nurses have to verify that Im really in labor and my water really was broken. Bad idea. The nurse who did the exam told me that there was no evidence of water breaking and I had probably just not made it to the bathroom in time. Looks like they were sending me home. By this time i was contracting again and i was in a lot of pain. The nurse said i was to early for them to induce labor, but they would watch me for an hour or so and see if i made progress on my own. If i did, they could admit me and we could have the baby today, if not, i was being sent home to wait for real labor.
The only problem was, the nurse didn't believe i was in labor yet and wanted me to hydrate myself so she kept pushing me to drink more water, drink more water, take a sip of water between contractions. Well, any women in labor, or who has been through labor before knows that drinking or eating can make you nauseous and want to puke, which is exactly what happened to me. I got so sick i was crying from the contractions and vomiting between them. The nurse returned to check me at 5:30a and said i had dialted and they could admit me. So off to a real labor room we went.
Just before 7 am my doctor came to round and said I could finally have the epidural, just wanted to check me first and see where I was. In less then an hour I had gone from 2cm to 9 1/2 and ready to push. The epidural lady came in and started her thing, which took way longer than I ever thought possible. Im sure it wasn't really that long, but it felt like it to me. In the middle of what she was doing I felt the urge to start pushing which scared me pretty bad. Knowing you can't move while they place the epi, and feeling like your baby is going to drop right out is not comforting at all.
Sadly after 2 &1/2 hours of pushing baby girl got stuck. She was sunny-side up, which is upside down for a proper delivery, and her head was tilted just a little bit to the right so she was not gonna make it through. After trying and trying to rotate her and make it work we opted to stop trying and save her from any more swelling on her little head and me from un-needed stress of doing the impossible.
My mom made it to Oregon just as we were moved from recovery to the post partum floor. We were in the hospital until Monday afternoon. My mom was able to be here with us for 9 days. I can never say thank you enough for all the help she and my little brother and sister gave us. Perfect little baby, perfect little family!
