Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I thought I was going to have a baby last night!

or

How to go to the hospital and find out you really just peed in your pants.


Yesterday, as one can imagine from a first time mom being told that she's just almost half way through the first part of labor, I was a little jumpy all day. When I got home from work at 5:30, I went to the bathroom and noticed my undies were wet. TC said, "What kinda wet?" I told him that if I weren't pregnant and it was the middle of summer, I'd be embarrassed at how much I had sweat. Ugh. He suggested I call the Birth Place at the hospital and ask the nurses there what we should do.

I call the hospital and talked to a nurse, told her how far along the baby was and all the stats from my appointment on Friday, and that my undies were wet. I told her I wasn't having any kind of strong pain either. She said I needed to go ahead and come in just to get it checked out. I hit panic mode.

And TC reminded me later that I never said, "Be Crazy!" Musta slipped my mind. I had to go get a shirt to put in the hospital bag (because I had everything except a shirt for me to wear home) and we got my glasses, insurance card and drivers license and cell phone charger. The hospital bag, the toiletry bag, the camcorder and the car seat all went in the car. Off we went...I was a ball of nerves. I called my parents, my sister and TC's mom. They were on standby...

At the hospital we just parked at the front door and took ourselves up to the 6th floor. Once up there, the nurse got all the paperwork (because my pre-admit form I mailed in on Monday of last week had not been input into the system) and took us to a very nice end-of-the-hall room. I was almost hoping that this was really "it" because we'd have that nice big room for the whole time. We coulda had a party in there!

I disrobed and then donned the obligatory hospital gown. She took my blood pressure and it was a little high. We found out later it was partly due to her having me lie on my back. She got me all hooked up to two monitors on my belly...one to monitor the baby's heartbeat and one to monitor my contractions. Alot of good I figured that contraction one was going to do. I wasn't having any...or so I thought. She said that another nurse would be in to do the exam shortly.

TC and I just kinda looked at each other and chit-chatted. Then Kim came in. She was a hoot! She looked at my blood pressure and said, "That just will not do. Were you lying just like that when she took it? Had you just gotten in the bed?"

Yes and yes.

She had TC help roll me to my left side and they shoved a pillow behind my back. She took it again and it was still a little high for where I normally am, but she was much happier with the reading. She wanted to get 30 minutes of monitoring before she did the internal, so we talked about the baby and what's happening. She told me when I was having a contraction. And I was having them...8 minutes apart. Some were stronger than others and I could feel the strong ones. But they didn't hurt...more annoying than anything.

She showed TC how to read the monitor print out...top line was baby's heartbeat. It would go up slightly right before each contraction and then go back down. The second line were the contractions. TC can now look at the reading and tell me when I'm having a contraction, how long it lasts and how far apart they are. He loved that!

Finally, it was time for the nurse to do the internal. She told me that it was possible that she would get all my measurements different from my OB simply because it's two different people checking. However, she imagined they'd be pretty close. She used a strip of reacting paper to check if I had amniotic fluid present. Nope. None. Nada. I either wet my pants or had some really watery CM which was also a possibility. She told me that lots of first time moms had the very same experience and it was all a part of being pregnant.

When she did the internal, she determined that I was dilated a good 3.5 cm (instead of 4). She put effacement at 80% (instead of 90%) and that was probably due to the different ways to check that. She didn't tell me about the station, but said that she could feel the baby's head and my bag of water. She also said that the baby had the appropriate heartrate response when she gently rubbed the top of the baby's head. And this internal didn't hurt at all compared to the OB's on Friday. When she did talk to my OB, she told him that nothing had changed from his exam. She said it was just easier that way.

She touched my baby!!!! Holy cow!!!

She was quite impressed that my cervix was rolling around into position. It's not quite fully forward, but it had moved from pointed backward to pointing downward. Now, I don't ever remember reading anything about that!

The "legal guys" require monitor readings for one hour in order to see a good pattern. We visited a bit more to wait out the remaining 15 minutes.

She said I'm right on the fence of being in active labor. My contractions were regular, but just weren't strong enough to push me over the edge. And while she wouldn't give too much information in how long she thought it might be before I did go into labor, she indicated that 37 weeks would probably be it and that I'd probably be back in by the end of this week.

About 5 minutes before the hour was up, baby went to sleep again. It had been taking really short cat naps throughout the whole thing. The nurse likes to have an active baby on the reading before pulling of the monitors. This baby was taking more than a cat nap. She decided to go get the paperwork hoping that the baby would wake up while I was gone. TC came over to the monitor and I'd ask him if I was having a contraction. Yep. Not a very big one, though. Then I'd say, "This one is kinda painful." Yep. It went up higher than the last one. Every eight minutes. And the baby stayed asleep.

The nurse finally came back in and the baby had awoken from its 20 minute nap and was appropriately active. She indicated on the printout how the baby slept through the contractions during its nap. Often, babies will be startled awake by the contractions. Not this one.

She figured that this one was a boy...lazy, napping and putting its mamma through more than a girl would. Ha! We laughed at that!

We filled out the admit and discharge paperwork and she sent us home. I only had one painful contraction last night but that was it.

Oh, and TC installed the car seat base in his car yesterday. I also realized that I hadn't put the baby scrapbook in the bag with the paper to get the footprint on. It's ready to go now.

So, here we are on Baby Watch 2006. I'm shooting for Friday...

8 comments:

Carissa said...

From what the nurse said, it sounds like *maybe* you could have a *bulging* bag of water. If that's true, then you'll definately know when it breaks as you'll feel a sudden gush of fluid.

I bet your BP was probably just high to start out with because of going to the hospital. Some people get "white coat hypertension" just from being in a hospital or doctor's office. Resting on your left side and taking some deep breaths for 15 mins or so can help sometimes.

I'd suggest not calling anyone until you know if they're gonna admit you. That way you don't have others getting anxious before they really need to get excited. I think my mom drove the nurses a little crazy when I was in labor with my first because she called to check on me a lot. (Almost 3 hours away.)

When you're really feeling like you're ready for this little one to arrive, start having sex! (I know...sounds like weird advice!) Orgasm can bring on contractions and semen can ripen the cervix. (Sometimes women who are being induced have prostaglandin gel inserted - it's basically pig semen! DH's will do just as well!) So having lots of sex can help get you out of the situation it got you into! ;-)

JOYOUS BIRTHING VIBES!
It sounds like you may end up with a really easy labor since your body has done so much "prep work" already!

^starshine said...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

SarahB said...

Just look at last night a good practice run! Now you know just how to get to the hospital, and they already have all you info!

Can't wait to hear! It's going to be soon!

Tonia said...

How EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah I went to the hospital for an amniotic leak which turned out to be pee. Nice. Sad thing is now I still pee myself. Kegals baby!

Any day now, this is so exciting!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I never had that with mine, knowing it would be so soon, thats awesome. I hope it is speedy (but not too speedy), pain less, and that all the nurses are nice to you! Good luck, and ssee you on the "flip side!"

Heidi said...

Thursday the 26 is a good day for the baby to come he he, it's my birthday and it would be cool to share it with someone!!!

Anonymous said...

So exciting! You're almost there!