I started feeling a lot of cramping in my stomach and back at around 1 pm. After an hour I realized that they could be timed to about 5 minutes apart. I just thought maybe I hadn't been drinking enough water or I over did it the day before at the Zoo, so I asked Chris to watch Diara for a little while so I could lay down and drink a big cup of water. 45 minutes passed and I still wasn't feeling any better so we decided to go up the Labor and Delivery triage just to make sure everything is okay. I figured they'd just give me some IV fluids and send me on my way. When we got to the hospital they hooked me up to the moniters and they showed that I was contracting every 3-5 minutes, so the nurse brought me a HUGE cup of water and left me on the moniters for an hour so see if that slowed anything. Then the doctor came in and they went ahead and did my GBS test and took some other stuff to send to the lab. Since the doctor was using the speculum, she said it LOOKED like my cervix was closed, but when she checked she was really surprised to find out I was already 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. That's when they told me I was being admitted. They placed an IV and walked me over to my room in Labor and Delivery. The nurses wasted no time getting me started on Magnesium, IV fluids, and antibiotics since my GBS test wouldn't be back for a couple days. I also recieved my first steroid shot at 6 pm. Chris took Diara home and we decided to see how things went before we sent her to stay with someone so Chris could be with me during the birth.
July 6th
By 2 am, the contractions still hadn't slowed down. A doctor came in and checked me and I was dilated to 6 cm and 80% effaced. The nurse said they were expecting for me to delivery that night so I called Chris and he dropped Diara off at his co-worker's house and headed over. Before he arrived, I received my Epidural. By the time Chris arrived my contractions had started to slow down. We both tried to get a little sleep. I guess the Epidural helped slow down the contractions for awhile so when Chris woke up we decided he would go get Diara, bring her to visit me, and then head home. It was really frustrating for me because I wasn't allowed to eat and I could only have 85 cc of fluids an hour due to the magnesium they had me on. The whole day was spent waiting around. Since my contractions had slowed down we decided to cap off my Epidural. Again my contractions picked back up to 3-5 minutes apart and the nurses all thought I would deliver soon. Chris dropped Diara off at our neighbors and headed back up to the hospital. They hooked my Epidural back up and I received my second steroid shot. the Epidural slowed my contractions down again and we spent all night waiting and wondering if he would be born that night. When things became obvious that nothing was going to happen that night Chris went home to get some sleep because the cot he had was really uncomfortable.
July 7th
The doctor came in and checked me in the morning and I was 8 cm. They allowed me to eat breakfast and the decision was made to go ahead and take me off the Magnesium and if I went into labor again they weren't going to stop it. We also turned off my epidural again and went ahead and took my catheter out because it was irritating my bladder and I had blood in my urine. Once again the contractions picked back up and we thought for SURE he'd come now. They hooked my Epidural up once again and then tried to fix it because it was only working on one side of my body. They pulled the catheter out of my back just a little bit and that seemed to fix the problem. That night my contractions slowed down to one an hour and we again had a night of waiting.
July 8th
This morning was especially hard for me. I was really missing Diara and was getting frustrated about being stuck in bed. Again, they allowed me to eat breakfast. Chris went home for a little while and came back with Diara that afternoon. My Epidurals was completely taken out and replaced because it went back to only working on my right side. I was still only numb on one side after that. The Dr. came in and said that they decided that it's not healthy for me to just sit around at 8 cm any longer and they were going to break my water and start some pitocin to help my contractions be a little more effective. They broke my water at 2:43 pm and things started getting REALLY painful. Luckily, I didn't have very much longer to labor before I could start pushing. He was born at 3:49 pm after only 10 minutes of pushing (and feeling EVERYTHING on one side). Chris was very set in NOT wanting to cut the cord, but he changed his mind at the last minute. Demari's APGARS were 9 and 9. He weighed 5 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 1/8 in. He was doing so well that before they took him to the NICU due to his gestational age they let me hold him.
The NICU staff was very impressed by him and joked about him being able to beat up all of the other babies in the NICU. He spent the night in the NICU to be observed, but was allowed to room in with me the night of the 9th. He was discharged on the 10th and we were finally allowed to home with a list of things to moniter until his followup appointment. He was so small that we couldn't use the same car seat we used with Diara and had to go buy a new one that was made to accommodate smaller babies.
He has been doing really well since we've been home. His discharge weight was 5 lbs. 4 oz. and he was up to 5 lbs. 14 oz. at his 2 week appt. Diara took some time to warm up to him, but now she loves to give him kisses and help me change his diaper. I can't believe he's already almost 1 month!
