Hi, how are you? I had a baby this morning.
WEIRD!
So to pick up the story where I left it on Wednesday, I had an ultrasound on Thursday and at this point in a pregnancy the ultrasound techs are looking specifically at four things 1) heart rate 2) amniotic fluid levels 3) practicing breathing and 4) movement. The first three are the tricky ones, usually, and Eva did all of those but she would not move whilst being monitored this time. She actually started to move the minute the ultrasound tech gave up!
That isn't a huge deal, but I'd also been feeling uncomfortable and so my doctor decided to call the hospital and get me in the same evening to start things off. This was at about 5 in the evening, and I was told to check into the hospital at 8 that evening. It was just a little overwhelming and I did get a bit weepy on the way home to pick up my hospital bags, just from the sheer enormity of the thing quite apart from anything else.
Once at the hospital I was set up in a birthing suite, (I'm pretty sure it's the one we saw whilst on the tour, and it had magnificent mountain views! Lovely!) and my doctor started a procedure to soften my cervix, I know, I know, TMI - but that's a pertinent plot point! I was given a dose of ambien but, at about 1, I started getting what I thougth were cramps, because they were so very similar to severe period pains. Those of you who have had a baby may be one strep ahead of me here, having realised that actually these were contractions. I was also bleeding a fair amount, but everything seemed to be on track so I didn't worry too much.
I was given a bunch of pain medication and I tried to get as much rest as I could but I found the contractions increasingly painful so at 5 I had the IV for an epidural fitted and then went for a walk around the ward with Doc C but it was really tiring and the contractions made walking tricky at times. The sunrise was in about half an hour, so I decided that I wanted to go back to bed for 20 minutes and then walk over to the windows and watch the sunrise over the mountains, doesn't that sound like a lovely thing to do whilst awaiting the birth of your child?
When we got back to the birthing suite the battery powered mobile monitors I had strapped to the bump stopped working, when our lovely nurse, Jennifer, came to check on that, she hooked me back up to the wired monitors instead. And she wasn't happy with what she saw, because Eva's heart rate was very low. She got on the intercom, said "This is real!" and suddenly the room became very busy.
Eva's heartrate did go back to normal, but that worrying blip in addition to my bleeding getting heavier made my doctor decide that a caesarean would be a really good idea. She talked to Doc and I about it, and gave us the choice - Whilst that wasn't what I'd expected to happen (and finished off any lingering possinility of my September baby plans), it seemed best to listen to the doctor and just get Evalyn out of there.
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