Owen's Birth Story- Part 1

Our little peanut has arrived!

I am officially a mother of 2 children... the immensity of that responsibility and thought haven't even sunk in yet, but I do know that I feel happy and complete.... and oh so very, very blessed.

The first part of Owen's birth story starts on Monday morning at 8:30 am...

My 38 week doctor appointment.

The end of the road... right before my 38 week appointment

Neal went with me, and we dropped Austin off at daycare and went and got a coffee before my appointment. I told Neal I was feeling a bit off and nauseous that morning, but didn't think too much of it.

We met with the doctor and all was good... no protein in the urine, good blood pressure, good weight gain... but then he measured me.

I measured 36"... and at 38 weeks pregnant, I shouldn't have been that small. Unless Owen had dropped. My Dr. checked me and said that Owen was low, but not that low. I wasn't dilated at all, and my cervix was still at 0%... it hadn't thinned at all. So him dropping was probably not the cause of my small belly.

So the other cause of measuring small would be low amniotic fluid. My Dr. was getting me scheduled to have an ultrasound at my following week appointment to check my fluid level and mentioned I should call if I noticed Owen's movements declining.

Just as he was about to leave, I piped up "well, he already has stopped moving a lot. Yesterday he didn't move at all."

So that alarmed Dr. B a bit and he decided to give me an ultrasound right then. He wheeled in the machine, took a look around and declared (in his matter of fact way)- "yep- you have no fluid in there. You're done... we'll need to induce."

I started laugh-crying and going "you've got to be kidding me. You've GOT to be kidding me????"

How is pregnancy #2 ending the same way??

Both pregnancies ended at exactly 38 weeks to the day, both ended abruptly, both ended with inductions, both ended with complications.

So.... apparently my body doesn't like to be more than 38 weeks EXACTLY pregnant.

I started panicking a bit.. this can't happen yet!!! What about work? I have so much to wrap up... Neal was supposed to help a friend run a football training camp... my maternity leave paperwork wasn't quite settled at work....so much still needed to happen before baby.

Dr. B wanted to hook me up to a NST (non-stress test.. it monitors baby's heart to make sure they aren't in distress in there) for 30 mins.

As he was hooking me up I asked... "So... when are we going to need to induce then?" thinking it would be in a few days or a week or so, like we when we made that decision with Austin.

Dr. B looked at me and smiled and said "today."

WHAT THE HELL??????????????????????????

The NST would determine the course of A) we go over to the hospital that minute and get going (if Owen was in distress) or B) we'd have the day to get ready and we'd go in to induce that night.

The NST came back that Owen was fine, so Dr. B called the hospital and got us scheduled to go in that night.

Ok.

Panic time.

We called our parents and my mom was like "WHAT????"

Um, yeah, my thoughts exactly.

She and my Dad going to be up that night to get Austin to take home with them, so we could not worry about him while we were in the hospital and then have some time to settle at home after, too.

I rushed to work and told my boss what was going on, set up a "do not disturb" message on my email and frantically tried to wrap up 2 weeks of projects in about 5 hours.

I was frantically sweating the whole time.

Neal went home and cleaned, did dishes, changed our sheets (bless him... seriously) and got our house ready.

I felt so bad leaving my job so suddenly... I know things will be fine, but still... to all my co-workers reading this, I'm sorry!!!

I headed home around 2:30pm.. meaning to stay longer but I was starting to not feel well, and was having some pretty good cramping... the thought of "what if my body knows this is the end and I'm actually going into labor??" definitely entered my mind.

I woke Austin up at the tail end of his nap over at daycare and headed home. My parents arrived around 4:30 and we got my hospital bag packed, Austin packed up for Camp Grandma.... and the hospital called and told me they wanted me to check in at 9pm that night, not 8pm like Dr. B stated earlier.

Dang... more time to just try and waste and be anxious.

After Austin and my parents left, I tried to relax... I took a shower, ate some food... Kenzie came over for some moral support and delivered magazines and candy.

Finally it was time to leave. Neal and I headed off and went to his parents' house to drop off the dog and we just hung out there for a bit since they live 5 mins from the hospital.

Beautiful sunset as we headed to the hospital

Since I'm vain, I did my hair over at my in-law's while we waited. The last thing I wanted was my frizzy skanky air-dried hair in all our birth pictures.

Ok...finally time to go to the hospital. We got checked in and settled into our room... and the doctor on duty that night came in to tell us the somewhat bad news...

We would not be getting induced that night.

The hospital was at capacity and they had me check in basically just to secure my spot and room. They were under-staffed and had 4 women that night in active labor. Understandably, their attention and staff needed to focus on the women who were in the middle of giving birth. They didn't want to start my induction and risk a complication arising that they didn't have the staff to help with.

We understood, but were a bit disappointed. That just meant we wouldn't start the induction until the morning, and that would extend labor quite a bit.

But, what could we do..

So they gave me a sleeping pill, said good night and we got to just sleep....

Tuesday was going to be a busy, life-changing day.