Monday the 14th, I woke up and said to Tyson, "I'm just not feeling awesome." I was feeling nauseas, but I was used to that. I had been feeling that way in the mornings for a week or so, and it usually went away by about 9 in the morning. So I got up, showered, decided nope, not doing my hair today, threw it in a ponytail, and finished getting ready for work. As Tyson and I headed out to the car, I said to him "You know, I wouldn't mind if my hair was in a ponytail when we have this baby. That way my hair won't look craysie in our pictures."
I dropped Tyson off at work and headed to my office. The whole way there, I kept just feeling weird, and had a harder time than usual keeping my eyes open as I drove. I was exhausted, and couldn't figure out why. I got to work, put my lunch in the fridge, and started my day at 8:00. At this point, I noticed I was having what I thought were cramps about every 3-5 minutes. I figured this is why I was exhausted, and brushed it off as having Braxton Hicks contractions. I kept working, while talking to the girls I work with who were saying that I wasn't looking so good. Still, I just brushed it off as normal pregnancy stuff.
On my lunch break, I talked to Tyson and told him I was cramping a lot, and still not feeling very good, so I told him I'd call the doctor. I called and the way their office works is you have to leave a message with your "medical question" on the medical assistant's voice mail. Well, I left a message saying I was 37 weeks pregnant and cramping every 3-5 minutes and just wondering if everything was okay. I waited for a call back. I went back to work. And waited. And waited. Still just feeling icky. Finally at 3:30, I called back and talked to the receptionist. She transferred me to the medical assistant who asked me to repeat my question. So I told the jist of things, to which she said, "You're having period-type cramps every 3-5 minutes? Those aren't Braxton Hicks, those are contractions. You should probably head to the hospital to be checked." Um.
So, I went back into work, let my manager know that I was heading home for the day, but no worries, I'm sure its nothing and I'll be back tomorrow. As I left, I called out to everyone upstairs to not judge me if I was back the next day.
I started home and called Tyson. "Hi honey, do you want to get the hospital bag ready? I'm coming to get you and we're headed over." Tyson's response: "Oh. Okay. Uh. What do we need?" I walked him through what we should take, and I came and picked him up. The whole time I'm thinking that they're just going to send me home, this is silly!
It was 4:30 once we got to the hospital and into a Labor and Delivery room, the nurse, Brooke, checked me out. I was 80% effaced and dilated to a 3. Not too shabby for a first-timer! She called the doctor who said to check on me in an hour. An hour sloooowly ticked by. She checked, and I hadn't really progressed. She called the doctor again who said to wait another hour. At this point, I was starting to feel serious pain. She checked again and I had barely barely progressed. Nurse Brooke could see that I was hurting pretty bad, so she said "I'm not going to send you home to have you come back in an hour in tears!" So she had Tyson and I walk the 4th floor of the hospital. She told us to do the old lady mall walk, you know, hard walk. She wanted us to walk for an hour. I only lasted 40 minutes before I couldn't breathe and the pain was making me see black.
We went back to our room and she checked me again. I had progressed to a 4! They were keeping me! I'm having a baby! What??
I was really really hurting, and trying really hard to not cry when they asked if I wanted my epidural. "Yes! Yes please! Does that make me a baby? I'm only at a 4." No, they said, that does not make you a baby. I got the epidural, which basically felt like I was being electrocuted, but then I experienced the sweet bliss of zero feeling from my waist down. At this point, I was shaking uncontrollably, which the nurse, now Heidi, said was from adrenaline. She laid warm blankets on me, and I was out like a light. It was now 10:00. I was checked again and was at a 5. I asked Heidi when she thought this baby was coming, to which she replied, "Probably between 1 and 2." Dang. I was in for a long night.
Then they checked me again less than an hour later. I was at a 10. That's right folks, I had progressed from a 5 to a 10 in less than an hour! They called the doctor who arrived about 15 minutes later and they started the preparations for a baby. At 11:10 they had me start pushing because baby was crowning. I did the 3 sets of pushes twice. Then I got really gaggy and almost puked. All of the sudden I'm saying "sorry! sorry!" and nearly hurling into those lovely blue bags and then out of nowhere, a baby is placed on my chest! What?? I'm done? Really? It was 11:20.
Baby Ruth was born at 11:20 pm on March 14, 2011. She weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. Born with 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes, and perfect head shape! Nice and round! She was surprisingly healthy for a baby born 3 weeks early, and passed all of the tests in the hospital. Tyson and I are loving having this little sweet thing in our lives, and are feeling incredibly blessed to have her here already!
