Greetings from NMC

Well, our plans for baby Amelia's arrival have changed significantly. She was scheduled to arrive on Nov. 1, 2011, but she has decided that she wants to greet the world a little bit earlier. Here's the scoop:

I warn you now this post is graphic. Proceed with caution.

I was getting ready to leave work around 5pm on Wednesday, Sept. 7 (two days after my 27th birthday if you're keeping track). I remembered that I needed to start a new file for a project and didn't want to forget to do it, so I sat down at my computer to open one up. I wasn't going to finish it, as it had been a long day already. As I started to create the template, I felt a little trickle. I wasn't sure what it was, so I stood up and noticed some wetness on my leather chair. After cleaning it up, I assumed that my kegels were letting me down and I had wet my pants, which is common during pregnancy. I got my stuff together to go home, and headed downstairs to use the restroom before I left.

Because I didn't think anything of what had happened, I stopped at Fantasy Comics on the way home and got Tim the latest issues he is reading. When I got home, I put my feet up and laid on the couch until Tim got home, but when i got up I had the trickle feeling again. Ladies, you've had this feeling during a heavy period when you just can't stop a leak. Gentlemen, just assume you've never felt this. Anyway, I went to the bathroom again, and noticed some mucous when I wiped. No one said pregnancy was pretty, people. I called Tim in to see my discovery, and he immediately googled what a mucous plug looks like. After viewing several images of what appeared to be bloody boogers, we determined it might have been e mucous plug that was coming out, but we were not sure. If you're not eating while reading this, go ahead and google for yourself. The pictures are pretty interesting...

We decided that we needed to eat dinner, as it was getting late and neither of us is very pleasant when we are hungry (picture grumbling, growling bears). I had to pee again before we left, and this time there was a pinkish tinge on the toilet paper. I made Tim look at that, too, because I thought I was being paranoid. He agreed that it was pinkish, and we should probably go to triage. After a quick bite to eat, we headed over to Northwest's Women's Center and got checked in.

As we got registered, I told Tim to stop making me laugh, as I felt like I was continuing to pee my pants (which is what I still assumed was happening, as I'm only 32 weeks along). It didn't work very well, though, because frankly, peeing yourself as an adult is a humorous thing. Luckily hospital chairs are plastic-lined. :)

After we got checked in, I was given a sexy hospital gown and told to strip down. The nurse on duty hooked me up to a fetal heart rate monitor, and a contraction monitor while she prepared to give me an exam. After two speculum exams, she was able to confirm that the fluid I was leaking was not, in fact, urine. As much as it made me happy that I hadn't lost control of my bladder, it was really freaky to realize that meant my water had broken.

Tim was pretty shaken up, and his tapping foot and clammy hands gave him away when he said he was fine. A lot of things were rushing through my head: fear, anxiety, worry, excitement, etc. I didn't know what would happen, but it didn't occur to me that I might not be leaving the hospital for a while. When the nurse confirmed with the second slide that the swab was "ferning," I asked if I should call into work for Thursday. She just nodded her head. A few minutes later, she told me I was being admitted and would be in the hospital until Amelia was born. I told my Mom I needed her to come down (mostly because I thought I was going to have to deliver within 24 hours because my water had broken) and she was already on her way.

We had a sonogram while we waited to be moved upstairs and I had an IV put in. My wimpy veins were not cooperative and I ended up getting the IV on my left wrist (ouch). The tech who came in to do the sonogram was straight out of a Kill Bill movie. She had a short, tight mini skirt and hooker heels on, and she didn't mess around. She was nice enough to give us a little print out of a picture of Amelia's foot though. When she left, Tim and I just laughed at her outfit.

I'm getting fuzzy on the details of the rest of the night. The past few days have been a whirlwind of confusion, fear, anxiety, frustration, etc. A NICU nurse came in to see us the first night to tell us all of the things that will probably happen to Amelia when she is born. They estimate she weighs about 4 pounds 8 ounces right now, and her amniotic fluid levels were on the low end of normal. She's going to most likely be in the NICU for 4 weeks or more, but the longer she stays inside the better her chances are. I've had two shots of steroids in my butt to help her lungs develop, and we've made it past the 48 hour mark. 50% of women whose waters break go into labor within 48 hours, and 90% within the first week. If I don't go into labor on my own by the 21st of September (when Amelia will be 34 weeks and 1 day old), they will induce me then. The contractions I had when I was in triage that first night stopped after they had the IV connected for a while, and haven't picked up again. I'm still leaking plenty of fluid, and I'm sure Amelia is working hard to create more and keep a nice cushion inside for herself. I've resorted to bribing her with everything I can think of to stay inside a while longer, although my boredom level has increased significantly and the lack of sleep from the first two nights caught up with me tonight.

I threw myself a little pity party this evening when I was trying to get to sleep, and had a "woe is me" moment. I am terrified of giving birth right now, and I was really hoping I would have more time to get ready for her arrival, but it is out of my control at this point. Luckily my amazing team at work (Megan and Vanessa) were able to get my classroom ready for a sub and I know my other 16 kids will be taken care of. I've had some visitors already, and many more on alert to help out with whatever we need. Tim's parents came down on Friday afternoon and took Tonks home with them after their visit so we don't have to worry about her being home alone and freaked out. My dad was here Thursday afternoon until Friday morning, as my grandparents were able to come down from their fishing trip to watch Paul.

I'm realizing more and more how incredibly blessed Tim and I are to have such amazing family and friends surrounding us. I'm thinking Amelia just couldn't wait to meet all of the wonderful people in our lives and that's why she wanted to make her grand entrance a little ahead of schedule.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, or how long I'll be laid up waiting on our daughter, but I am trying to stay positive and remember that my discomfort and boredom are not too much if it keeps my little girl safely inside a little bit longer.

I'll keep updating on here as the days go, and hopefully there will be 12 more days of blog posts before they induce me and she gets to greet the world. If she doesn't make it that far, I know the medical team here will do everything in their power to make sure she is healthy and we can take her home as soon as possible.

I've been up long enough trying to coherently piece this together, please forgive the randomness, typos and grammatical errors that I'm sure are present throughout.

If you're the praying type, give Amelia a mention for me please, and pray for the other 4 women who came in with early ruptured membranes on Wednesday as well. Apparently it was the trendy thing to do that night. :)