Birth Story Part 2

With only four weeks to go, I began to get really excited about this whole baby-having thing.  But I became a little nervous too.  Each visit I held my breath while on the scale to see how much I had gained, and I am sure my blood pressure was a little higher because of my anxiety concerning what my blood pressure would be.  Although I kept checking out OK - steady weight gain, blood pressure normal - because I had started doing labs before, I was not allowed to stop.  Each week I was required to complete blood work and a 24 hour urine catch.  Each week the result came back in normal range.  They began conducting non-stress tests at each visit.  Koribella did NOT like the monitors they placed on my belly to detect the heartbeat!  She would move away from them each time the nurse got it in position.  They would not let me leave until they had 15 minutes worth of good readings from her, so one time Terry literally held her in place by pressing on my belly so she couldn't run from the monitors. 

The doctor ordered modified bed rest for the last four weeks.  I continued to work from home - in my recliner with my laptop on my lap and my cell phone in hand to call Terry (who was in the baby's room texturing, painting, decorating, etc.) whenever I needed ANYthing.  In the evenings he would take me to Target or somewhere else and I would walk around for a few minutes.  I kept thinking, "How is this baby ever going to move down if I can't walk around?"  I had two doctor's appointments each week and each time they talked about inducing.  I wasn't ready to induce and they weren't to the point where they wanted to force the issue.  I had a project to finish up with work and desperately didn't want to leave any loose ends.  The Friday before my due date, I got everything wrapped up.  I told everyone at work - I will not be coming back (virtually of course because I was working from home) because no matter what I am having this baby this weekend.  They believed me.  That day I also turned in my last 24 hour urine catch.

The weekend was not memorable aside from it being my last weekend without my new baby.  On Sunday afternoon we went to our last pre-baby movie; a matinee at The Warren in Moore, X-Men Wolverine.  The movie was great and I felt great all was well.  I was having a few contractions, but nothing big.  When we walked in the door, the answering machine was beeping.  It was a message from the midwife on call, they got the bloodwork back, I was to call immediately.  They had never called before about bloodwork and on a Sunday!  Something was up.  So I called her back and left a message for her to call me - fun!  Lana was on her way over to visit for a little while and we were so nervous and tidying things up not knowing what the midwife would say.  Finally the phone rang and she told me the results.  I crossed the threshold for acceptable amounts of protein in my urine and they wanted to induce - today.  Wow!  Like Now??  Well, not exactly.  I would either need to show up within the hour or in three hours she would call me back and let me know.

Lana was there by this time and she crochetted as Terry and I scurried around getting everything together for the hospital.  We knew we would be spending the night.  I called my parents to let them know and they of course wanted to come to the hospital.  I would call them back when we knew for sure what time we were going to be admitted.  The midwife, Leanna, called back to confirm we would need to be there in 3 hours to get checked in.  Whew!  We had some time.  We had Lana take some last minute pictures of us in the baby's room.  There was no more time to prepare.  We let everyone know, got our stuff together, and waited anxiously for the clock to change.