birth story (part one)

Here we go! I'm finally attempting the birth story, 3 weeks after the fact. I hope I remember enough, because honestly while parts of the day are clear as crystal; other parts are just sort of a blur. Luckily, my husband tweeted the whole thing (no really; he did) so that will help me fill in the gaps. I apologize in advance; it's going to be a long story, because I want to make sure I document it all for posterity. So, it will most definitely be in a few parts.

Tuesday, June 14th- 6:15 am: I slowly wake up, and realize I have to pee. Again. Nothing new. I'm working from home this week which is good because my legs are so swollen with fluid they're hard to lift. Getting in and out of bed is a major effort. As I attempt to roll my gargantuan stomach over to get out of bed, I feel a small rush of fluid between my legs. "Oh great," I think. "I've finally reached that point in my pregnancy that they talk about where I'm incontinent. Guess I should have done my kegels like they said to, because I totally just peed the bed." I finally am able to stand up and the fluid just doesn't stop. "Whoa, that's weird. I'm REALLY incontinent." (Laugh all you want; it really did feel like I was peeing!) I get to the bathroom and go pee, and realize I can't stop peeing no matter how hard I try. Hmm. Maybe I'm NOT peeing. (Betcha didn't know that so much of my birth story was going to be about pee, didja?) Maybe my water is breaking? But how could that be?

Walk back in to the bedroom, still leaking fluid everywhere. Decide that this is definitely SOMETHING, so I tap Ian on the leg. He wakes up startled, because I've turned the lights on, and am standing up by the bed; not a normal occurrence for 6:15 in the morning. "I think my water broke." Instantly he is WAY more awake.

I was pretty darn excited, because honestly; I never thought we'd get to have the "honey; it's time!" moment. My doctor seemed pretty much certain that I'd have to be induced to deliver. But here we were; at 35 weeks, 5 days and it seemed as though it most definitely was "time". I still had my doubts though, because hey; I'd never had a baby before- what did I know? I called my doctor and spoke to her answering service. She called me right back, and once I explained what was going on, she said "Yes, it sounds like your water broke. Head to the hospital, and I'll meet you there later this afternoon." Holy crap! This IS it! I mean, probably!

Next up to call was my mom. She was flying in for the birth, so I needed to give her the head's up. I called her and I think she knew what was up, as it was 3:30 am her time. I told her that I was PRETTY sure my water had broken, but that she should wait to buy her ticket until it was confirmed. She said she'd start looking for flights and stand by.

So, had I packed my hospital bag? Nope. It was on my "to do" list for that week. I figured I had time; plenty of time. I had a whole list of things I was going to get done that week that obviously weren't going to happen now! Whoops!

I kind of was just standing in my room, (over a towel- as I was still just making a mess everywhere I walked) in a daze, not really knowing where to start. Luckily, Ian pulled up our "hospital bag" list and just started packing. I decided a shower was probably in order, so I went to do that. As I stood under the hot water I started crying a little. Not out of sadness, but excitement and a little bit of overwhelmedness. "I'm going to have babies soon! Holy crap! This is actually happening! I'm going to be a mother!" To me, honestly, that was the very first moment it all felt very REAL. Yes, I realize that sounds silly, since for almost 9 months I'd felt babies kicking, seen them on ultrasounds, heard their heartbeats, etc.; but this was the first moment I really, really realized that I was going to give BIRTH, and it was going to be soon. I was going to finally meet my girls.

Once my shower was over I came back into the bedroom and Ian was making great progress on the hospital bag. I all of the sudden felt very anxious that we had to get to the hospital SOON. I wanted to make sure the babies were ok. Ian headed off to shower and we decided that the bag was packed enough; it was time to head out. We called the car service around 7:45am and were off to the hospital!

It only took about 15 minutes to get to the hospital; very little traffic which was good. Our driver was nice and didn't chat with us at all, which was good. We asked him his name when we got out of the car, so we could have it for posterity. I think he thought we were going to report him for something, because he seemed worried after we asked him. I kept a list in my iPhone of names of people we encountered; but unfortunately, I've since ruined my iPhone by dropping it into the toilet on one of the sleep deprived nights in the hospital- so that list is gone. :(

Once we arrived and checked in, it was about another 45 minutes to an hour before I was in a room and getting checked. They had a resident come in to do a check to see if my water had officially broken- and lo and behold it had! Officially in labor. :) Wahoo! No contractions at this point, but it was good to know that I was officially on my way!

First point of business was to set me up with an IV to get some fluids going. I had read that you could refuse fluids so that you didn't have to be hooked up to an IV right away, but in our childbirth class we learned that if you were going to have an epidural (which my doctor said was pretty necessary for me since we'd probably have to manually turn baby B or I may need an emergency csection) that you should get fluids because you needed to have a certain amount of fluids before you did the epidural. Anyway, the nurse tried once to find a vein and couldn't (this is always an issue for me; I have really hard to find veins) and decided to call the anesthesiologist on call to find one. He arrived a few minutes later and was really funny and kind; which made things less stressful. It took 4 tries in total; lots of poking, bleeding and bruising, but he finally got one on the back of my left hand. Which by the way, is a very uncomfortable place to have an IV.

Once the fluids were in, we just kind of hung out until my doctor arrived around 1pm to check me. I was 1 cm dialated and still not having contractions, so she administered a pill called Misoprostol to start contractions. It kicked in about 30 minutes later at 1:45pm when I had my first contraction. About 30 minutes after that, they were about one minute long and 10 minutes apart. So, a ways to go, but progress nonetheless.

Ok- stay tuned for part two! (And possibly 3 and 4.... depends on how long winded I end up being.) :)

~M

my unexpected trip

As I mentioned yesterday, I am staying home from work the rest of this week due to the swelling in my legs and feet. It has worked out fine so far; I'm actually able to do a decent amount of work from home, so that's helpful.

On Tuesday when I went to the doctor, they drew some blood to do some tests for other symptoms that may point to preeclampsia. I wasn't too worried, since my blood pressure has been normal, and no protein has shown up in my urine. I DO have Shrek-like feet; but other than that, I feel ok. However, this morning I got a call from my doctor, who said that my blood results were back and that my blood platelet count was low, and that I should go to the hospital right now to get checked out. This can apparently be another indicator of preeclampsia.

I was sort of half listening to her and half panicking in my head. She said the phrase, "I'm hoping we won't have to deliver you today"; something I hadn't really considered until she mentioned it. So, I listened to her tell me that I shouldn't worry too much, that she was just trying to be cautious since my pregnancy was high risk, and something like preeclampsia could progress quickly; so we don't want to miss anything. Still though, she said I should pack a bag in case, because I might need to spend the night.

Once I was off the phone I felt a tad overwhelmed, trying to think of everything I needed to put in my bag; all the while NOT trying to think about my 33 week old babies that would most likely be fine if we had to deliver them, but I'd much rather they stay inside and cook a little longer.

A shower, a change of clothes and a 20 minute car ride later; I was at the hospital. My wonderful husband met me there. It didn't really become very real feeling until I was all checked in, and told to change into my gown and then hooked up to 3 monitors; one for Baby A, one for Baby B, and one to measure contractions. I also had a blood pressure cuff put on. Then it started to feel very real.

Here was the monitor by my bedside:

The heart rates of the babies were awesome, which was good. I had a tiny bit of protein in my urine- but not enough to really indicate preeclampsia. The bed was REALLY uncomfortable. I was so uncomfortable for hours. You're not allowed to lay flat on your back in your 3rd trimester, so I was on my back with a couple of rolled up bedsheets underneath my right hip. After about 20 minutes of laying that way, my left hip and lower back started hurting so badly. But, not much to be done. I tried to shift a couple of times, but that just shifted the babies' heart rate monitors; so I mostly had to stay still.

After a couple of hours, I got some blood drawn, so that they could check my platelet levels again. I had 3 blood pressure readings done; all normal. My feet and legs were still gigantic however.

After more hours of waiting, the high risk OB, Dr. Wong, came in and talked to me about the results. My platelets were now normal. My blood pressure was normal, and so was my urine. So, they were letting me go. All the doctors I spoke to that day, however, made it very clear that I could just be on my WAY to getting preeclampsia, and that I'd have to be monitored closely.

But for today, I got to go home. Home with my babies still safe inside me where they belong. A huge relief.

The doctors both apologized that I had to come in, which I just completely dismissed. I would go to the hospital every day if I had to, to make sure my girls were going to be safe!
All in all, a slightly stressful day; but I feel happy now, knowing that for now they're just fine, and so am I. I don't know yet if I'll have to continue on bed rest; my doctor will probably tell me tomorrow. I'd be ok with it, but it's not my favorite option. Of course I won't fight it; it's just that even these last 2 days of semi-bed rest have been hard and a little boring. So... a possible 4-5 more weeks does NOT sound appealing. We'll see though.

One day at a time.

~M

P.S. If you are having an alcoholic beverage of any type right now, you could go back and re-read this entry and play a drinking game I like to call "take a drink every time Mariah says 'preeclampsia'". Fun for everyone!