Wednesday, January 23, 2013

January 23rd 2012... The Day Before the Big Day


I realized there are some things I didn't document back in my pregnancy that I think I’d like to remember one day down the road.

For example, how Neal and I spent our last day together before Austin joined our family… so here is our tale..

I left work on Friday, January 21st with two possible scenarios before me. We were going in the next day for a final non-stress test to check Austin’s heartbeat, and to check my blood for any signs of my liver or kidneys shutting down because of my insane high blood pressure. Remember? At this point I was 140/104… dangerously high!

If the test came back as no good, they were going to admit me and induce me right then and there. If the tests were ok, we were going to stick with my already scheduled induction of Tuesday, January 24th.

The test came back fine, and the rest of the weekend we spent running errands, cleaning the house, and we went out to dinner by ourselves one last time on Sunday.

So then Monday January 23rd rolls around. The day before the big day. It was ‘go’ time at 10pm that night. How do you spend the day knowing you were going to the hospital that night to get induced? I am not usually a calm person when it comes to nervous situations like this, but oddly enough.. I remember being fairly calm that day.

I told Neal to force me to sleep as long as possible Monday morning so I’d rest up. No popping up at 6am to “get shit done” like I usually do.

He did a good job and I think I lasted in bed until about 8am. I can't help it. I'm not big on sleeping in.

To occupy ourselves we kept busy around the house and rented a movie on On Demand to pass a few hours. We watched The Help and I tried to eat a little lunch. My stomach was nervous, even if I didn't really feel it elsewhere, and I managed some rice and that’s about it.

After the movie we headed out to NW 23rd area to walk around and waste more time. Seriously… why did they schedule me to be admitted at 10pm???? Couldn't we just get the show on the road already??? Trust me, wasting time until 10pm before a huge life event makes for the longest day EVER.

After wandering NW 23rd for a bit, we decided on dessert at Papa Hyden’s to celebrate the day. I had coffee too. Which looking back, that was really odd. Really? I needed to add to the fact that I felt a bit jittery? Coffee at 5pm? When I was supposed to check into the hospital and get a decent night’s sleep?

Good decision, Jess. Sheesh.

Anyway… we had several more hours to kill. We went home, packed up our hospital bags and headed back into Tualatin.  Somehow Neal convinced me to stop at Sports Authority so he could wander around and look at sports stuff to his heart’s content. I agreed for some reason, and mostly sat on a bench in the shoe department because my elephant ankles were killing me.

Doo dee doo... don't mind me, just going to have a baby in a few hours.. oh, are those the new Nikes??

Finally we made it to 10pm and we walked into the Family Birth Center at the hospital.

One of my best memories was a sweet nurse at the desk who said “you must be Jessica!” I was the only preggo being admitted that night, so they were expecting me. It was really nice to be welcomed like that. I think I said something really clever like “yep! here to have a baby! Har har.” I mean OBVIOUSLY

So Austin, if you are reading this (one day) that’s how your folks spent the day before your arrival. Aren’t you so glad you came into such an exciting family???

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