The Birth Story Begins...Her Side & His Side

Her Side:

I started having practice contractions regularly at the start of week 38 - by regularly I mean every day and throughout the day but not necessarily every hour or patterned.  By Thursday they started to get stronger and more frequent, my lower back was achy and my knees ached.  Friday morning around 5am when woken by another contraction I texted Dan to keep his bag handy to bolt to the airport (clearly he didn't believe me as he went out in the city that night).   I was at work until 7pm trying to work on transitioning, crossing things off my list, and getting things ready for working from home as I had a huge to do list for the next week.  Friday and Saturday I was as grumpy and short fused as can be.  Sunday I decided to try to have a better attitude as I couldn't continue being this grumpy if I had till the 18th.  A long afternoon coffee break visiting with Colleen helped me get into a much better mood.  I packed my hospital bag and finished a few odds and ends off my before-baby to do list.  My contractions started to be about 10-15 minutes apart and I fretted about knowing for sure that the practice contractions were real contractions with enough lead time for Dan to fly back. 

Sunday night I was not hungry at all but decided a donut and cereal were not enough for the baby so ate a small salad and a root beer float.  I planned on an early bedtime since I had been staying up way to late recently but before I knew it it was nearly 11pm so I headed out for the doggie bedtime walk, going to the bathroom beforehand as always with my recently tiny bladder.  About a block and a half from home I freaked out as I thought I was peeing my pants... seriously how humiliating.  Now the dogs turned unbelievably pathetic and wouldn't go potty, I was trying to hold my legs together as tight as can be and keeping watch for anyone that might be walking down the sidewalk... luckily the sidewalks were uncharacteristically quiet and I didn't run into anyone.  Finally we got back to the house (Shelby still hadn't gone potty).  I ran to the bathroom... yeah, that wasn't pee.

At this point I was trying to decide if maybe it was really just pee and I was trying to make it more than it was.  But as more fluid continued to leak and there was blood mixed in it was clear that my water broke.  I did not want to have to go to the hospital before being very far along in labor so that I could do the early labor part in the comfort of my home.  So I thought about not calling the doctor's office and just going in to my appointment on Monday morning... probably not a great idea.  And so I took a deep breathe and called the Dr.  The Dr that answered was one of the doctors that I hadn't met at the practice because her appointments were so far off schedule that I saw a NP instead so I could make it back to work for my performance review... so I was a little bummed it was her.  She said that is quite the candidate for a story of water breaking so wanted me to come in right away even though I was GBS negative so no antibiotics needed... but the risk of infection was the reasoning.  She thought I was ridiculous when I asked if they did the test at triage if I could go home (meaning until labor progressed)... "no, you will beI going home with a baby" - okay thanks.  I negotiated four hours at home, she later apologized thinking that I wanted to stay home until Dan got in from NYC as it must have ended up on the chart that he was flying in from NYC (everyone had a comment when coming in to check on us).  I should have napped.  But I didn't.

After getting off the phone with the doctor I called Dan and said it was time to book a flight.  He paused... "what do you mean... really?"  And he then proceeded to completely freak out.  It was pretty cute.  He couldn't remember a single password and was cursing the need for passwords as he was trying to log on to Southwest... the flight somehow got booked.  He was freaking out about everything from getting his work VPN started up for the first time to "but I have packages being delivered this week!" to the train schedule.  It was entertaining but after a while I needed to leave him to his freaking out and get busy with getting myself ready to go to the hospital.

After a shower, another walk with the dogs to make sure they were good to go till morning, bowl of oatmeal and a banana it was time to head out.  I grabbed my bags and pulled out of the garage with a chorus of the loudest, most pathetic dog whines and howls you have ever heard.  Drove myself the 10 minute drive to the hospital as calm and cool as a cucumber and headed into to triage. 

I speed walked laps in the walking hall as I really wanted to get this labor progressing so I wouldn't have to have pitocin. 

Once a room opened up they admitted me and got me hooked up to an IV.  I pushed to delay the start of pitocin and after receiving the text that Dan had landed at 7:45am took about a 45 minute nap until he came in all smiles at about 8:30am. 

His Side:

After a pretty good weekend, went out friday night in Manhattan, did some exploring on Saturday and relaxed in the apartment on Sunday I was ready to begin the week.  I knew I had a lot to do this week, as we have a deadline to get the budgets in the new system and finish my beginning of the month tasks.  As I began to get ready for bed, a little later than I should have, I got a call from Tara.  She immediately told me to get a plane ticket booked and get back home. 

It took a few min to sink in as I wanted to be sure she wasn't just being needy and wanted me to come home cause she missed me.  I then started to get all worked up in a hyper/frantic mode.  Luckily, Southwest Airline had an available seat on the 6.15am flight for a massive $109.  With the ticket purchased, I had to cancel my Peapod order since I wouldn't be needing any groceries to be delivered.  My work VPN was being slightly difficult, which proceeded to add a fair amount of stress since I needed to send coworkers an email saying I'm headed home.  Once I freaked out a suffient amount the VPN then worked and all was right in my world.  Scurring around the apartment at 2am, I had to get my laundry done, the dishes cleaned and my bags packed. 

I made the first train to the airport at 4.34am and was at the gate at 5.30am.  After a short flight I arrived in Chicago and had a friend pick me up, passed him my house keys so he could watch the dogs and then dropped me off at the hospital.  Zipping to the 8th floor I found where Tara was staying and we began the journey.