Ramblings . . .

It all started on Wednesday. . . .

Wednesday: September 16

I was having a pretty "normal" day at work until the end of my morning when I began feeling a little light-headed. I was also feeling about as swollen as ever so I called the hubs to see what he thought I should do. He thought I should go to my Ob's office incase I was light-headed because of elevated blood pressure. So, I called my Ob's office, got down there and they sent me to Triage because my OB doesn't work in his office on Wednesdays because that is when he has his surgeries...soooo, long story short-- I went to triage where we found out I was severely swollen, had low potassium in my blood, was 1 cm dilated, and was 80% effaced. My Ob decided to keep me over night for a 24 hour urinalysis and to watch my swelling. While in the hospital I was steadily having contractions about 5-7 minutes apart. I needed to have an ultrasound to see how big the baby was measuring and to see what my amniotic fluid was measuring. At about 35 1/2 weeks the baby was about 7lbs 11oz and my amniotic fluid was borderline too high. My Ob told me that we would not stop my labor if it happened naturally. Knowing that I had an appointment the following Tuesday he said to me that "I could have the baby on Tuesday if I wanted to..." but I knew this wasn't up to me!! After spending the night in the hospital, I was released to go home on bed rest.

Friday-Saturday: September 18-19

I still felt pretty miserable, having contractions all day and all night. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't enjoy eating, I was miserable. My sister kept assuring me that "I would *KNOW* when I was in true labor" and I kept thinking, this haaaaaaas to be some sort of labor! On Saturday night we went over to my sister's house to watch a football game and I continued to complain about my pain...we went home and went to bed.

Sunday: September 20

I woke up in the morning on Sunday in extreme pain, contracting about every 3 minutes. I went back to triage to be checked again and I was still only 1 cm dilated but now 100% effaced. The nurse was a total butthole and tried to give me medicine to stop my labor-- the exact medicine that my Ob said he didn't want me to have because he didn't want to stop my labor-- however, he wasn't the Ob on call so she said she had to take orders from the on call Dr. I refused the meds and continued to contract. Luckily for me (NOT my Ob!!!) my mom tracked down my Dr. @ church and asked him about the meds. He said I did the right thing refusing the drugs and to just try to wait it out. The nurse turned out to be nice in the long run and even told me to take a hot bath when I got home because it was probably the only way to ease my painful contractions. I was given the option to stay for the day in the hospital or go home and wait it out-- I chose going home and waiting it out. I think I ended up taking about three baths that day. Around 8:00pm I realized I couldn't pee-- I felt like I needed to pee, but I couldn't get anything to come out...soooo frustrating.

Monday: September 21

Around midnight I got out of bed to walk out some of my contractions. I had taken one tylenol pm to try to get some rest and I decided that I needed to take another one. I tried to pee again, to no avail, took another tylenol, and then tried to lay down in bed and get comfortable. I tossed and turned for about 5 minutes and then I felt something like gas bubbles in my belly...I thought I was going to have to pass gas until I felt the warm gush of water that now filled my bed-- my water had just broken.