Friday we were originally supposed to go back to the hospital to another non-stress test. I’m not really sure why the doctor wanted to do that if everything was “fine” and with all the confusion I decided to canceled that appointment and made an appointment for my weekly checkup for Monday.
Since the non-stress test was canceled at the last minute Devin decided to go golfing with some classmates for his golfing class. When he got home we rushed off to a Divine Comedy show that we had tickets for and since we probably won’t be going to another one for a long time we thought it’d be a good date night activity. After the show we decided to try out the new Italian restaurant (Little Italy something) in downtown Provo. To be honest, not impressed. We sat for 10 minutes looking over the menu trying to decide if we even wanted to eat there. Shortly after that we left because we weren’t impress with the loud music, higher than expected prices, and the fact that we still hadn’t been greeted by a server or even offered drinks after 10 minutes. We might go back on a discount day but we’ll see.
Anyway, so we went to Joe Vera’s instead and left 100% satisfied. After that we went home and did some catching up on our TV watching. We watched The Office, Survivor, and Community.
At some point during our TV watching I realized that I was having a lot of contractions. Like usual, they were not at all painful but I could tell I was having a lot. Over a 20 minutes period I counted them and I had 5. So Devin pulled up our handy dandy contraction tracker, http://contractionmaster.com. (Love that site, BTW).
After about an hour of keeping track we realized that they were coming every 2-7 minutes lasting for 45 seconds to almost a minute and half. I wasn’t really sure what to do because the doctors said to come to the hospital when they were 3-5 minutes apart, a minute or longer, lasting for more than an hour. The kicker was that they were not intense which was another criteria. If she was in the correct position I would have just waited it out until things were obvious but I didn’t want to get too far along in labor that it made this planned c-section an emergency. So I called the hospital. They told me to wait to see if they got intense and to go to bed and sleep if I could.
Around 12:30 we headed for bed. As soon as I laid down the contractions started to hurt. Devin fell asleep right away while I laid awake and counted how many contractions I was having. By 2am I decided I was in labor and we’d better head to the hospital. Luckily we had packed our bag for our hospital visit earlier that week because they recommended doing that in the event that an emergency c-section had to be done as a result of the version. So we gathered a few more essential things and headed out the door.
In the 15 minutes it took us to get to the hospital I had 5 more contractions. We walked in and immediately they got me set up in a room. I got changed into a gown and they started prepping me for surgery. Just incase she had done a miraculous flip, they did a quick ultra sound and she was still head up. They checked my cervix and I was 4cm dilated. I was surprised I was that far along especially without her head in the right position to help things along. Right before they started doing the epidural they checked me again and I was at a 5. By this time I was in pain but still breathing. I totally could have gone longer if I was able to do something beside lay in bed but since an epidural was inevitable, they started getting the drugs flowing.
A lot of people wonder if getting the epdural is painful. Let me tell you–it was nothing compared to the IV. I know…weird. I swear they aren’t how they used to be. Now it’s like this plastic tube which I’m sure is thicker than the old needles used to be. The nurse didn’t warn me about putting in the IV and since I was surprised at how much it hurt, I flinched and tensed up my arm which of course made my vein roll so she couldn’t get it in right. So she had to poke another hole. But she gave me a warning so I knew it was coming and was able to relax my hand while she was doing it. So epidural = not bad. IV = definitly didn’t tickle.
Shortly after they had the epidural working and I started to feel the effects, Devin’s dad Dave arrived to assist Devin in giving me a blessing. I am so grateful that he was willing to come at such the inopportune time of 3AM. I had planned to get a blessing the following Sunday when we were planning to go to his parent’s house for dinner but that obviously didn’t work out. Not long after that, they instructed Devin to start getting dressed in his HAZMAT-like suit and they took me away to the OR.
And that’s when all the fun started. . .
Sorry that you didn’t like Gloria’s Little Italy, it is actually our favorite place to eat.
And wow, what a story so far!
I think that getting the IV with Isaac was one of the worst parts. It wasn’t fun. Good to know about the epidural though since I could end up in the same boat as you and end up going the c-section route.