A Beautiful Day to Be Born part 1

It was about 3:20 am, early Monday morning, I got up to use the restroom as was pretty common in my very pregnant state. After using the facilities I went to lay back in bed. I checked the time on my iPhone and thought, “Well, I guess it’s not happening tonight.” Just as I was about to lay my head on my pillow, I felt a gush. I thought about it for a minute, debating whether I had peed myself or if it was my water breaking. I reasoned that I had just gone to the bathroom, and while it wasn’t uncommon for me to feel the urge to go to the bathroom again shortly after going, I figured I couldn’t have had THAT much urine left in my bladder. So, I headed back to the restroom to investigate. Once in there, there was another gush and I knew it couldn’t be pee. I got out a pad and decided to go do a Google search, of course, “My water broke, now what?” I debated whether to tell Eric just yet, as I wasn’t having contractions and I knew that he’d be anxious and possibly unable to sleep. I know how much my husband values his sleep, but in the end decided I better tell him. I also called my mom as she had explicitly said she wanted “warning.” Whatever that meant? I called her, told her my water broke, but no contractions yet. Eric and I, then unable to immediately go back to sleep, laid in bed on our respective Apple products. Talking, but mostly waiting. Eventually, around 5am, we both succombed to drowsiness and both fell back asleep.

A couple hours later we were up and going about our routine. Eric and my brother did some yard work, mowing the lawn and weed eating. I wanted to go to Wal-Mart. Eric demanded that I take a babysitter, so I rang my mom. Off we went to the store. I was really hoping contractions would soon start. I didn’t want to be put on pitocin. At Wal-Mart I started feeling a little desperate. Desperate enough to buy some castor oil, hoping that it might start my contractions. But, once I got home I just couldn’t convince myself to do it. At 11:30, I started feeling more light contractions, but nothing I would consider active labor. Around noon I finally rang the Family Birthing Center at the hospital. I knew they would want me in asap, and of course, they did.

We got Ella lunch and down for a nap. My mom came over and we headed up to the hospital, checking in to admitting just before 1:30pm. All this time I was leaking water, going through several heavy flow pads. I wanted to be believed this time that it was, in fact, amniotic fluid. You might recall, with Ella, they sent me home from the hospital, only to have me return about 10 hours later in very active labor. So, in an effort to be believed, I kept one of the pads….gross, right? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

We got there and I got hooked up to the monitor and they did a swab test for amniotic fluid. After having it done at this hospital, I am convinced that the folks in Hermiston did a poor swab test. Unlike in Hermiston, they had to send the sample down to the lab and we had to wait for confirmation that it was indeed amniotic fluid. Well, this took like an hour and a half at least. Finally, we got the confirmation and I was officially admitted, which meant I had an IV put in my arm. With Ella, there was never time for that. The nurse was trying to put it in while I was pushing and eventually she just gave up. So, I’d never had an IV before and it turns out I hate it. They are awful! I was checked and was dilated between a 4 and 5. After this, we waited. And waited. And waited. I started getting super annoyed. Ask Eric.

Excitement at being at the hospital. 

Irritation after waiting forever. 

Apparently, after my arrival a bunch of “sicker” women checked in. Sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, the on-call doctor, Dr. Robinson came and introduced himself and said he was headed into a C-section and after that he’d come evaluate me. I had never seen Dr. Robinson before, and so our nurse, Angela had given us some info on him. One tidbit was that he was a bit like the guy on Princess Bride who says “Inconceivable!” This meant little to me as the one time I watched some of that movie, I was actually asleep. She also said there was a video of him tap dancing. All interesting things to learn about the doctor who might soon deliver your baby. During this infinite waste of time called “waiting” Eric and I went on a walk out to the third floor terrace. June 30th was a beautiful day. Blue skies, no clouds, mid-80s, the valley was still green and glorious. I said to Eric, “It’s a beautiful day to be born.”