October 14th was a Sunday last year. It also happened to be drill weekend for the hubs. He was off doing his thing as he does so well and I was just filling my time around the house. I remember even going to the grocery store and for the first time during my pregnancy I was offered help getting everything to my car. I refused but thanked him. I was actually really proud of myself for going to the grocery store because I hadn't done the best at cooking throughout my pregnancy. I was sick the entire pregnancy with morning sickness so I had trouble finding anything that I could eat and not see again, so I definitely didn't want to go through all the effort of cooking just to throw it right back up. Plus, I just had no energy for that. But by this time I was starting to feel better - no seriously, it took this long - plus I was struggling finding things to eat within my gestational diabetes diet. But I had figured out meals that I could have for the week and by golly I was going to cook this week.
After the grocery store I went back home and did things around the house. I put the food away, putting chicken in the refrigerator to thaw for the next night's meal. I cleaned up a little. I got things done around the house so I was all ready for the next week of work, which was also going to be my last week of work. Since I was going to become a stay-at-home mom, I wasn't just going on maternity leave. I had my inducement date scheduled [because of the gestational diabetes], so I was going to work one more week then have a week off to relax, get some sleep, get things all ready around the house before Addison was born.
But halfway through my day, I noticed that I had started leaking. Sounds gross, well it was a little. But it wasn't much and sometimes being pregnant you just leak a little. I know, too much information but it's kind of important to the story. I wasn't overly worried because I wasn't bleeding, and Addison was still kicking and moving around. Still something seemed off about it, but it was really more annoying than anything else. However, as the day went on the leaking got worse. I was starting to get more worried about what was happening. I started searching through my pregnancy books and online sources for information to see if anything could shed some light on what was happening. I started to question if maybe my water had broke, but I would have expected an all at once thing instead of just slowly leaking through the day. I tried to remember what we learned in our childbirth class about water breaking - odor, color, amount, and time. But suddenly I couldn't remember what I was supposed to be watching for. What color was it supposed to be? Was it supposed to have an odor or not? Amount - what - was I supposed to measure it? I had no idea what I was even supposed to do with that. And honestly, I didn't pay that much attention to when the leaking started other than about midday, maybe a little earlier. Not only was I now worried, but I was starting to feel pretty dumb for not even knowing the basics.
Finally, I decided that I need to talk to Rob. At least see what he thought - which may have seemed a little odd since he had never done this before either - but he was the only one I could think of at that moment. I just wanted to talk to my husband. But he was at drill, remember? He was outside communication - okay, so that wasn't completely true but I only call him if the house is on fire, if I cut my leg off, or had a head wound. Which has never happened so I don't interrupt his day - not even with texts. But I figured this was the day to interrupt, plus it was at the end of the day. At 5:37 pm exactly I sent Rob a text: "Something's wrong."
Turns out that that was probably not the best choice of words. But they did prompt immediate action - he called me. We discussed what was happening and what we should do, finally deciding that he would head home and I would call the on-call doctor. So I did and as I waited for the call back, I decided that I needed to start gathering things for a bag for the hospital - just in case we actually ended up going. But I was so unsure of what I needed that I just started grabbing things. It was definitely the most pathetically packed bag there has ever been, but I didn't care. I was nervous and a little scared. I definitely wasn't ready for this. It was too early.
After talking to the doctor, he said he would let the hospital know we were on our way in. It was better to get checked out, just in case. Rob rushed home, changed out of his uniform and we jumped into the car and headed to the hospital. My mind was racing a million miles an hour. We chatted a bit on our way to the hospital, even joking that we wished we had taken that hospital tour after all.
They got us all checked in and started monitoring both me and Addison. We went over my medical history and checked to see if what was going on was the amniotic fluid after all. Unfortunately the test wasn't clearly showing it one way or another. But they were going to have us wait there for a bit and see if there was any progress or if the test would be clearer in about thirty minutes. So we waited. Rob and I talked a bit about how this was not what we were expecting. It was sooner than we expected. But I was starting to doubt that this was it. I wasn't certain that I was really in labor.
Finally, they came back in and checked again. The nurse asked if I had felt the two contractions I had. I sure didn't. They checked again and the test was still not clearly showing it was amniotic fluid. Finally after the nurses talked to the on-call doctor again, they decided to send me home and just get it checked out at my next prenatal appointment, which was Wednesday. Disappointed and a little annoyed, we headed home. I wasn't ready for Addison to be here yet, but I didn't want to deal with all the leaking for the next three weeks. It was gross and unpleasant. But it was what it was. We joked about how poorly the bag was packed and that I would pack an actual bag after work on Monday, so we would be ready for the next time.
After getting home, we finally ate (it was after 8:00 pm at this point) because we were starving. We ate then headed upstairs to go to bed. It had been a long day. As we crawled into bed, I got my foot caught in the sheet. Confused, I pulled the comforter back to find a giant hole in the sheet on Rob's side. After giving him a hard time about not cutting his toenails enough, I made him remake the bed while I laid on the floor. Then we curled up in bed for the night.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I was awakened due to contractions but always quickly fell back to sleep. It wasn't until the next morning that I couldn't sleep through the contractions. But we all know what happened that day. That day was the October 15, 2012. That day was a big day. That was the day that Rob and I became parents. That was day the day that our whole world changed. That was an amazing day because that day meant this little girl came into our lives at exactly 5:37 pm:
No comments:
Post a Comment