off i went to the doctor's office to have my protein tested. (i remember thinking, 'wouldn't it be crazy if i came into the hospital today without and baby and left with a baby in my arms)
my regular doctor was out of the country at the time so i visited his replacement. after having my protein tested in the doctor's officethey discovered that my protein levels were fairly high. it is, however hard to tell just exactly what the levels are with just an office test.so, i was sent to the hospital to be admitted. the doc wanted me to stay in the hospital for at least 24 hours to have a 24 hour protein test.
so the test began. monday, the 18th at 12:30PM.
tuesday, 12:30PM came around and we were waiting for the results from the protein test...
my doc came in and tols us the results. he was expecting it to be about 300, but after the 24 hour test the results came back at 3000. obviously, WAY to high. he told eric and i that with results like that it meant i would be having a baby within the next 12 hours...
needless to say we were absolutely SPEECHLESS. we were expecting her in another month, not 5 1/2 weeks early.
the hospital i was in did not have an NICU so doc Z. (my replacement doctor) was considering having me moved to springfield. this wasn't great news to us... we would rather me be able to stay in town, so doc Z said that he would give the specialist in springfield a call and see what she thought about me staying in town.
(just a side note: a week before i had gone to springfield to have an ultrasound...the same specialist had looked at the results of the ultrasound, so she had a really good idea of the maturity of the baby: what a blessing from the Lord)
after doc Z got off the phone with the specialist he came back in and told us that she said it should be fine for me to deliver right there! we were thrilled that we didn't have to go to springfield.
by this time, we had called all the fam and told them that our little girl was going to be born that very next day.
to get the delivery process started they put a tablet on my cervix to soften it. if that didn't make me go into labor i was going to be given pitocin the next morning (wednesday the 20th).
everyone was still hanging out in my room talking...my lovely sister came in and gave me a pedicure.
i remember that while everyone was in the room i was having what felt like cramps...
i thought... 'hmmm... is this labor?' so everyone left around 9PM.
eric and i went to bed about 11. he fell right to sleep (i know only because he snores =) i just laid in bed and continued to have moderate cramps, but they kept getting a little worse.
12:43AM- all the sudden, it felt like the baby kicked SUPER hard and i felt a POP! and my bed was soaking wet. i then rang for the nurses and told them that i thought my water might have broken.
the nurse came in and told me that my water had broken, she checked me then and i was dilated to a 1. i was thinking, of course i have a long way to go...at least 12 hours.
eric sat right next to me. i asked him if he thought that we should call mom and jenni. he said sure... so he called them around 1:30AM... they, in turn called adrian, these were going to be my fans, and cheer me on, when i had her!
the pains kept getting worse when one of the nurses came in and told me that she had just talked to doc Z. he had told her to go ahead and give me pain meds if i wanted some. i thought that i definitely would need some if i had only really been in labor for an hour. i didn't think i could take it for 11 more hours.
eric told me that he thought i was in the serious stage of labor (we had read a book together that talked about the different stages of labor...the serious stage was the final stage right before pushing)
after eric told me that i was thinking, 'i can't be in the serious stage already, i have to much labot left ahead of me!'
mom and jenni made it to the hospital shortly after. when they came into the room mom noticed that on the monitor it looked as though the baby's heartrate had dropped so she went to get the nurses. when the nurses came in they tried to hook up a monitor to the babies head to keep track of her heartrate.
2:35AM- at that point, things get a little fuzzy (they happened SO fast). i told the nurses...
me- 'ummm, i think i need to push?!'
nurse- 'well, let me check you.'
me- 'okay, but i really need to push, i think.!'
nurse- checked me... 'you are CROWNING! don't push'
me- 'are you KIDDING me!?' (okay so i didn't really say that, but i sure thought it =)
doc Z. hadn't obviously made it to the hospital yet, i wasn't dilated very far the last time they had called him, so he hadn't even left for the hospital yet. they had to rush and call him and tell him to get there very quickly because i was having the baby right then.
after not being able to push for about 3-4 contractions (which i must say felt like forever) the nurse finally said that i could push, even though doc Z wasn't quite there yet. he did finally get there before i had the baby.
she came out crying.
since i had her so fast, however, her face was all bruised (poor thing).
so she was born 10-20-2010! what a great birthday!
the recovery was a little stressful for me...but the labor and delivery was great!!
she weighed a whopping 4lbs 12oz when she was born...
she did lose some weight, and eventually was down to 4 lbs 4 oz when we brought her home!
she is now thriving and growing and is a happy, chubby little girl. she has stolen our hearts completely and we have to keep ourselves from spoiling her!
