On Monday, December 29, my mom and sister had come over my house in the morning to help me clean and organize. At this point in pregnancy, I was done with any physical labor. Since this was the hardest I had worked in awhile, I wondered if the cramping I felt was a result of overdoing it.
We worked for about two hours up until lunch and I kept telling my mom I just didn't feel right. We planned to go out, but instead I wanted to pick up food and bring it back to the house in case I took a turn for the worse. We got Panera and I couldn't eat any of it. My back hurt, I had cramps, and even though I was starving, I couldn't even take a bite. That should have been a tip off that something wasn't right :)
After a little bit more working, I was really tired and really wasn't feeling good. I had wondered if this was early labor. My mom asked if I wanted her to stay just in case, but I wanted to nap and didn't really think anything would happen. They left, I laid on the couch and drank some water.
Then things got interesting. I started having painless contractions 2.5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for an hour. My OB's rule was 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for an hour ssssssoooo I figured I should call. I talked to the nurse and she says, "Um, you aren't pushing are you?" I definitely was not, but she had wondered if maybe I was farther along in labor and had a high pain tolerance. I was flattered, but later I learned I have very little pain tolerance. She suggested I come into the office.
I called David and told him to come home from work. Next, I called my poor mom who just drove 30 minutes home, walked in the door, and I told her she needed to turn around to watch Gwen while I went to the hospital. Everyone arrived and we left for the appointment.
We got to the doctor around 3:00 and waited for a long, long, long time. I still was having regular, painless contractions and severe back pain. It was a constant aching that didn't go away no matter what.
We finally saw the doctor and she looks at me and says, "You just don't look like you are in labor." She was right. I didn't. I was only 2 cm. so she sent me home and said to come back when I can't walk or talk. This was frustrating. I was told the rule was the whole 5 minutes apart thing, but now it seemed a lot more vague trying to figure out when my pain level was sufficient enough.
After driving back home, I really wasn't feeling well. I never throw up. Ever. As soon as we got home though, I got sick. I think the back pain I was feeling was so severe I couldn't take it any longer (remember that "high pain tolerance" thing?). If this was going to be the rest of the evening and night, Gwen needed to go somewhere else. I didn't want to call someone to come watch her at 3 in the morning if needed. My mom took her and we were left to figure this out.
By this point, maybe around 7:00 p.m., my contractions had stopped. Now, I just had this awful back pain. I laid on the couch moaning in pain. By 8:00 p.m. the contractions were back at their 2.5 minute apart intervals. I could always feel them coming on, but it was difficult for me to tell when they were actually ending. It felt more like they were just right on top of the next one. Again, I was not in much pain from the contractions. In fact, I felt better with the contractions because it took my mind off of how much my back still hurt.
I called the doctor on call and asked her what to do. She reassured me that I didn't have to be right. I didn't have to have it all figured out and I was more than welcome to come in to triage. That is when my contractions completely stopped. I was so mad. Was I really going to go through 12 hours of this just to have it come to a halt? I didn't want to have to go through this again in a couple weeks if it really wan't labor!
I tried to sleep, but the back pain was awful. I would eat tortilla chips in between the waves of nausea from not eating all day. David kept asking if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I didn't want to. I still felt the pressure to know whether or not I was for sure in labor. I had decided I would wait and see if the contractions started again. If they did, we would go on in.
Around 10 p.m. they were back. Still 2.5 minutes apart and painless. We packed up all our things and walked out the door. Unfortunately my throwing up fun was not over (I will save the gory details) . After getting sick once more, we finally left.
I arrived up in triage at midnight. Since I was not having painful contractions, I kind of felt like I should be faking a little. I didn't want them to send me home! Luckily, they hooked me up to all the monitors so I could at least feel validated that was I was having contractions.
After 30 minutes of this, the nurse comes in and says that I definitely was having contractions. They were consistent, but not strong and were not doing anything. My doctor then comes in and says, "Since you are 37 weeks, I am not going to send you home. No matter what you will have this baby today. Unfortunately, you are going to need a c-section."
I freaked out. Not the news I was expecting! All along I thought we would go to the hospital just to be sent home.
She explained that a baby's heart rate should spike with each contraction. Instead, my baby's heart rate was dropping. When I was first hooked up to the monitors, Bennett had such a bad heart rate drop my doctor considered putting me under general anesthesia (knocking me unconscious) and getting the baby out as soon as possible. Not good.
Turns out I was not in labor. The baby was in distress.
His heart rate leveled out so she let me be taken to a labor and delivery room. There, she would break my water and see what happened. If he did well, I could be started on pitocin and go from there. If he had any more severe heart rate drops, it was off to get a c-section we go.
My water was broken and things didn't go well. His heart rate dropped and lots of nurses ran in. They began flipping me side to side and giving me oxygen trying to get his heart rate to recover. It did, but this showed us the urgency. I immediately asked for the epidural so I would be ready for a c-section rather than waiting any longer and risking general anesthesia.
This is when the real fun began! With Gwen, I had no issues getting the epidural. This time, it took 45 minutes to an hour. I was having serious pain down my right side and the anesthesiologist could not figure out why. Each time the pain would shoot down my side, I would yell. It was awful. With Gwen, I didn't feel anything! Eventually it stopped and I could finally relax knowing I was ready for a c-section.
I was wheeled down to the OR and the doctor performed my c-section. By this point I was drained. It was the middle of the night and I was traumatized by how fast everything moved. Two and half hours ago I thought I was getting sent home for false labor, but instead I was having a baby via c-section. I was barely conscious during the surgery because I was so tired I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer.
Even though it was not what I wanted, I was happy to have our baby boy in the world safe and alive.
He was having some minor respiratory issues from not getting all the amniotic fluid squeezed out of him so he was admitted into the NICU. We were told he may spend 12 hours down there and then rejoin us.
We are blessed to have another child join our family. We love this little guy!
