Happy New Year - 2009

Family picture before driving off to the hospital.

Scott and I met with my OBGYN on Dec. 31. She let us know that I had not dilated any more since my last appointment and she was willing to induce me on New Years Day. Ideally, I would just have the baby on my own, but with Scott driving away on Sunday we needed to speed things up.

She told us to have a great New Years Eve, sleep in, eat a big breakfast and then call the hospital around noon. It sounded like we would be lucky to get in before the evening and we'd have a late night. So Scott and I stayed up later than usual (at least for me) with plans to sleep in, knowing we'd be up late that night.

Well, my cell phone woke me up at 9 a.m. The hospital was already for me! We dragged ourselves out of bed and got ready to go. In monumental situations like this (where something life changing is happening and you know it) I tend to just focus on the ordinary aspects of the day and not think about what is happening. Otherwise, I get too nervous. So it felt like a very normal morning.
Except Scott got the big breakfast, not me. And I drove us to the hospital, instead of the other way around.
Here is Leo watching us go, with no clue how his life will change.

When we arrived at the hospital, the security guard who checked us in happened to be my cousin's husband, Tim. It was so nice and welcoming to see a familiar face right away.

The nurse explained that I would be given cervadil to ripen my cervix for 12 hours. So I would be sitting in the bed, hooked up to monitors, until midnight. THEN I would be given Pitocin. Sounds like fun, huh? Luckily, Scott and I were very prepared with entertainment - movies on our computer, wireless internet, books, games, tetris on the nintendo ds, etc...

It was a long day and discouraging to have the nurse come in every hour or so and ask if I had any pain with my contractions. I could see on the chart I was having some, but I didn't feel a things. As it got dark, I began to realize we were in for a long night.

However, to my surprise - my water broke at 9:30 p.m. Scott was asleep when it happened. It was just a slow trickle and when I announced it "Uh... I think my water broke," he didn't even respond. The nurse came in and confirmed it (like you need a confirmation?) and then Scott woke up and I filled him in.

After that, my contractions started feeling crampy and became regular. They unhooked me from the monitors so I could have a little freedom before midnight. I took a bath and noticed the contractions were a little more uncomfortable. At 11:30, the nurse started preparing my iv stand.

I was having more discomfort, but I'm such a wimp about pain that I figured things would get a lot worse before we made any progress. So everyone was pretty surprised when she checked me and I was already dilated to 8 cm.

My first thought was shock and "Whoa - where is my epidural??" I was really concerned about not being able to get it in time. Then I thought "Well, I've made it this far, maybe I don't need one," but I changed my mind as soon as my next contraction hit. They really picked up from there.

It took FOREVER for them to run the fluids through my IV that I need before you can get the epidural. Everything became so rushed that I had to remind my nurse to give me my Group B Strep antibiotics. (NOTE: This turned out to be a big deal later on.)

To be continued...