Grammy and Aunt Sarah had come into town Father’s Day weekend, just in time to help with the kids since I was feeling pretty heavy and uncomfortable by the end of my pregnancy. Complete strangers would come up to me at the store and inform me that I couldn’t possibly go one more day of pregnancy because of how low and huge I was carrying…. so that was getting OLD.
It was a gamble for Grammy and Aunt Sarah to come right before my due date since Meredith had surprised us at 37 weeks (the twins were 36 week-ers, but theirs was scheduled); however, it ended up being perfect timing. Since I was grumpy, huge, and basically useless, they took over and entertained the kids all weekend, going on walks, to the park, and swimming in our pool. I was feeling some contractions on and off that week, but nothing seemed to be happening imminently. I had so many false alarms over the past few weeks where I felt that THIS WAS IT, that I was pretty dismissive to any contractions at that point. At my weekly appointment, I was still 3 cm dilated and almost 100% effaced, as I had been the past two weeks. Dr. Price set an induction date for the following week if nothing was progressing so that I at least could have an end date in mind!
June 17, 2018– Father’s Day and my due date! After a big breakfast of stuffed overnight french toast (and regular french toast for Jake since he doesn’t like the casserole kind) the girls had Jake open their cards and gifts. We had a big candy bar poster for him and with help from Aunt Sarah and Grammy, the girls created a treasure hunt for Jake with the candy at the very end. They kept giving away all the answers, but thought they were being pretty sneaky.
I went to three different stores looking for certain types of candy bars– and no one had 100 Grand! I ended up printing out a picture instead. Sarah let me know she found some a month later at some ethnic store in SLC… guess I know where to go now!
Amelia’s preschool gift.
Samantha’s preschool gift.
Well said, Samantha.
We think Meredith may be color blind…
So far, a common thread is that Daddy is playful, good at working, and not so good at cleaning, ha!
Later, we went to the Exploration Playground and let the girls run around. By the time we got home, I was not feeling great, and after lunch I decided to take a nap while Jake and the twins were at church. Sleep eluded me as I started feeling contractions and they started coming pretty regularly. I figured I had better start timing them since they didn’t feel like they were going away, so I opened my phone app and recorded away. They started off about 8 minutes, apart, then 7, then 6 consistently for a few hours. I tried drinking water, walking around, changing positions, but they were still consistent. Since I was already 3 cm dilated earlier that week, I decided I better start getting everything ready in case this was it. I packed all our last minute toiletries in the hospital bag and texted Jake that he better start heading home. He was in Elder’s Quorum at the time and as he was leaving, announced that I was going to have the baby… a fun thing to say on Father’s Day!
Back at home, Grammy, Aunt Sarah and I were trying to get dinner ready so that we could eat a little bit of it before leaving for the hospital. My contractions got down to 5 minutes apart and were getting to the point where I would have to bend over and breathe through them, so it was definitely the craziest dinner preparation ever! Jake packed the car and was literally scarfing down food, with me telling him to hurry up because we really needed to get going! “JUST EAT THE STEAK! I AM NOT MISSING MY EPIDURAL FOR THIS!!!” I was shouting like a crazy person. I’m sure the whole scene was traumatizing for Aunt Sarah, who may never have kids now! The last thing we were waiting on was the steak to finish cooking, and I gave Jake about 5 seconds to wolf a little bit down, along with the carrot cake from Susie Cakes before kissing everyone goodbye and sprinting out the door.
By the time we sped away in the car toward the hospital, contractions had been 4-5 minutes apart for the past few hours and I was having to concentrate on breathing through them. In between contractions, I called the hospital on our way to let them know we were coming in hot! As soon as we arrived, I was put in a room to get vitals taken and contractions monitored. The nurse informed me I was 4 centimeters dilated, but as soon as I sat down to have my contractions monitored, they slowed down and started coming erratically. I was so frustrated and showed the nurse my the contractions timer and graph on my phone. She told me I definitely wouldn’t be leaving since I was already at a 4, but that I should go walk around a bit to get the contractions going again. Jake took the opportunity to re-park the car in the longer-term parking and grab our bags while I walked in my hospital gown, in a loop around the maternity ward. Contractions started coming again and after a little while, I needed to sit and breathe through them in the rocking chairs strategically placed around the maternity ward.
I was not in a good mood being forced to walk around the hospital and after a little less than an hour grumpily went to the nurse’s station to ask to be checked again. Just as before, contractions started coming less consistently and in longer intervals, but I had dilated to a 5, which meant I was progressing! Finally, I could officially be admitted into my room and get my much anticipated and beloved epidural! I breathed a sigh of relief that at least the walking stage was over.
My nurse for the delivery was Angie, who was absolutely awesome and fun to talk to. My OB was not on call that night, but Dr. Lo, who was on call, was amazing as well and had a very calming presence about her. After what seemed like an endless stream of nurses coming in to take vitals, confirm paperwork, and poke me a million times to get the IV in, the anesthesiologist arrived.
I immediately recognized him from Meredith’s birth and I started having a minor mental breakdown… last time with Meredith, the epidural wore off after a few hours, and even after he tried to increase the dosage of pain meds, I could feel everything and it was not pleasant! Meredith also came out with her elbow up by her face, which didn’t help. The doctor last time said the tearing was the worst she had ever seen since working at that hospital! My current next-door-neighbor is an anesthesiologist, so during this pregnancy, I drilled him with hundreds of questions about epidurals and all the possibilities of why mine could possibly not work (I’m sure he was sick of me and my questions by the end!) According to him, some people’s nerves just don’t respond the same way to an epidural and that some anesthesiologists are better than others about troubleshooting and moving the epi to a different spot if something goes wrong. Needless to say, I was not happy to have the same anesthesiologist.
After he administered the pain meds, the pain from contractions began to recede and I could relax a little bit. It was now 9:30 p.m. and we had arrived around 6. Jake fell asleep almost right away on the couch in the room and I was told to get some rest before it was time to do the hard work, but even though I felt numb from the epidural, I was so uncomfortable in the hospital bed, that I didn’t get any sleep at all and mostly turned from side to side all night, crunching on ice chips. To make matters worse, I had woken up early that morning, around 3:30 a.m. due to the pregnancy insomnia I had experienced for the past nine months, and was not able to fall back asleep, so at this point, I was beyond delirious. In between monitors constantly going off and nurses coming in and out to check me, I managed to doze off for a few minutes here and there, but overall felt pretty out of it!
A common side effect of epidurals is that contractions start to slow down and since I wasn’t all the way dilated, we knew Baby Girl wouldn’t be making her entrance on her due date of Father’s Day, but she hit it pretty close!
Baby’s birth day to be continued…
