On Superbowl Sunday, February 1st I was 37 weeks 3 days pregnant. Chris, my mom, and I had planned on going to Sam's Club to stock up on some things before the baby arrived. Earlier that day I had some nesting going on and had cleaned the master bathroom and on my hands and knees scrubbed most of the floor (Chris finished the last part.) Sometime after that it was mid afternoon I noticed I had an increased discharge that was clear but it wasn't enough that I thought my water had broken so we proceeded to Sam's club. While we were there I kept going to the bathroom to change my pantyliner but I never started feeling contractions or anything. We made it home and I debated whether to call the doctor or not but the drainage had mostly let up and I decided to wait until the morning. I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, February 3rd with a growth ultrasounds that showed the baby was around 7lbs and the fluid level was normal. I also asked the doctor if an increased in discharge was normal and she said that it was.
The next Sunday, February 8th, I was at work during the night shift and I had some more increased discharge were I was soaking through thicker pads and having to change them every couple of hours. I felt the increase mostly when I was up moving around doing things in patients' rooms and I also felt like I was peeing my pants but the liquid wasn't yellow and didn't smell like urine. My coworkers were convinced that my water had broken but I still didn't feel any different so I was in denial if it had. I still didn't call the doctor's office because I was afraid of going in and them just telling me it was urine or discharge and not my water.
Tuesday was my next doctor's appointment and my doctor was concerned when I had mentioned soaking pads every couple of hours at work. She checked the fluid on a certain paper and under a microscope but said that it wasn't showing up as amniotic fluid. She then sent me for another ultrasound to compare the fluid level with last weeks u/s. But it hadn't changed. She also mentioned that if my water had broke over a week ago I would surely have gone into labor or have a raging infection by this time.
Wednesday night Chris and I went to my parents house to get the oil changed in my car and start on our taxes. I was really uncomfortable there with a back ache sitting in the recliner and we didn't end up get the taxes done and just went home.
I was originally scheduled to work Thursday night but someone had wanted me to trade shifts with them for Friday.
Thursday I slept in until about 0100 in the afternoon and then I think I did some cleaning and laundry. That night Chris and I met everyone up at Gringos for the usual Thursday night dinner. Afterward we stopped by Walmart and I picked up some things I wanted for if I went into labor like extra pillows. I read a breastfeeding book until about midnight and then I tried to fall asleep but I was having trouble. I thought I couldn't fall asleep because I had slept in that day. Around 0100 I started having menstrual like cramping and a lower backache but it didn't hurt horribly bad. I tried to time the pains and I guessed they were about 10-15 minutes apart. I got out of bed to see if they got worse or stopped and I also had a snack. While I was up I picked up some things around the house.
By about 3 am the pains were still just in my lower back but I was having trouble telling when they were starting and stopping. Around this time Chris woke up and figured out what was going on. I was in so much pain I couldn't get comfortable and I think I was scaring Chris and probably the dogs too. I ended up taking a hot shower which helped a little bit but I was still in a lot of pain. Not surprisingly, I was still in denial whether I was really in labor or not, especially since I didn't think my water had broken and I couldn't time the contractions to tell anyone that they were lasting 1 minute for 1 hour at 5 minutes apart (that's when you are supposed to call the doctor.)
Around 0430 I did finally call the doctor who basically said "do you feel like you should go in to the hospital?" which really didn't help my self doubt. But I said "yes," and I had Chris take the bag I had packed for the hospital and the carseat, extra pillows, and diaper bag to the car. Just as we were getting ready to leave I puked in the kitchen sink. I had a towel and a trash bag ready in the car also.
The ride to the hospital was about 15 minutes and it didn't feel like too long but I was squirming in my seat from the pain of the contractions. Chris started to call his mom, who lives 4 hours away but I made him hang up and told him to wait until we knew we were staying at the hospital.
I wasn't sure what to expect when we got to the hospital. They took us to a regular room and had me change into just a hospital gown and checked me. At my previous two doctors appointments I was 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. Now at the hospital I was 3cm and 80% effaced. The nurse noticed some fluids and did another check to see if it was amniotic fluid but this time it was also negative. I looked at the nurse and told her I was afraid of being sent home and she assured me that we were being admitted. I was hooked up to the monitor and it showed I was having contractions 2 minutes apart. I was able to tolerate the contractions a little bit better by having Chris look at the monitor and tell me when the contraction was going away. In between contractions Chris called our moms and I called work to let them know I wouldn't be in that night. Because of my Gestational Diabetes they checked my blood sugar every hour for 4 hours and then every 4 hours after that.
My mom showed up and then around 8 am I decided I couldn't take the pain from the contractions any longer. Not knowing how long it would take for the anesthesiologist to come do the epidural I went ahead and asked for it when the nurse came in. They came pretty quickly and were able to put it in without any trouble. I threw up some more from the pain right before they put it in.
At 830 the nurse checked me again and I was dilated to 5 cm. My dad showed up shortly after that and I tried to rest while he visited with my mom and Chris.
The Epidural worked so well I couldn't feel the contractions at all. The nurse checked me again at 930 and I had progressed to 7cm and 100% effaced. This is when she put in the catheter since I couldn't get up to use the restroom with the Epidural.
At 1015 I was 9cm dilated and at 0 station. My doctor of course was out of town so the on call doctor had to deliver me, which didn't bother me. She came around 1040 to examine me and I was 9cm with a lip, 1+ station. She couldn't feel the bag of waters so she ordered some IV antibiotics in case it had broken awhile ago and had been leaking all this time.
The nurse kept asking me to tell her when I started feeling pressure. But I never really did.
at 1240 I was 10cm and 1+ station. Sometime my dad and Chris went down to the cafeteria to get some food.
Around 130 pm I started pushing, towards the end of pushing I could feel the contractions just enough to know that one was starting.
Charles Lawrence was born at 253 pm he was 20 in long and weighed 8lbs 12 oz. (I was 39 weeks 1 day.) His Apgar scores were 8 and 9. They checked his blood sugar and it was 74. They had to check his blood sugar every time before he ate and they were all within normal limits.
The nurses weighed him again the morning of 2/14 and he was down to 8lbs 8oz. Later on in the morning he got circumsized and passed his hearing screen. We saw the lactation consultant that day but Charlie was drowsy from being circumsized so we had a hard time waking him up. Shortly after she left though, he woke up and seemed to be latching on and eating well. I had the nurses help me that night.
Sunday morning I got up and took a shower and Chris and I were ready to leave. We went through the discharge instructions and took our baby home.
