The Week Before

I want to record the events of the week before Luke’s arrival and the progress (or lack thereof) that we made towards getting him here. Jeff and I wanted our little boy here so badly. We couldn’t wait to meet him. Not to mention the fact that I was looking forward to not being pregnant anymore. Jeff spent time every night talking to my belly and trying to be as persuasive as possible to convince Luke to come out. He offered him bribes of animal crackers and candy, described all of the nice things we had ready for him, played the music on his swing and mobile, shook his football rattles, and frequently begged, “Pleeease baby, come out!” As much as I was dying to meet our baby boy, sometimes I thought Jeff might be even more desperate to meet him than I was! We tried everything we could think of to induce labor.

On Monday morning (June 21^st), I speed-walked around our neighborhood for an hour and a half. I had done the same thing the Friday before and Jeff and I had gone for walks every night all of the previous week. I was supposed to walk with my cousin, Brooke that Monday morning, but she rescheduled for that night so I walked alone in the morning and then walked another hour and a half with her that night. At 10:40 that morning, I had what I thought was my 38 week appointment, but apparently the doctor had moved my due date up a week without telling me (from July 5^th to June 29^th) so it was my 39 week appointment. I was dilated 3 centimeters and 80% effaced (I had been at 1 or 2 cm. and 70% effaced for the previous two weeks) and the doctor told us that there was a 70% chance I would deliver that week. We were so excited that all of the walking seemed to be working. Little did we know a crazy amount of walking and everything else we could think of over the next week would have seemingly no effect.

At around 8:30 Tuesday morning, I lost the fabled mucus plug. It was pretty gross, but I was so excited. My mom had told me that she always had her babies within a few days of that happening. I was pretty determined that it should happen that day. I had already gotten ready for my morning walk so I set off at a pretty vigorous pace. However, that day I only walked for 40 minutes instead of the usual 90 and the reasons were two-fold: 1) I was especially crampy/contract-y 2) I hadn’t taken a shower since Sunday and I was worried my water would break and I wouldn’t have time to shower before going to the hospital so I would look nasty in all of the pictures I knew we would take. That night, I had taken a shower and I was so ready to go. Tricia and her dog, Bow came with Brooke and I on our walk that night. By the time we were done, we had walked for 2 ½ hours! Still nothing. But it was so fun spending all that time visiting with Brooke and Tricia. They are two of my favorite people.

On Wednesday morning, only a few hours after we got back from our walk the night before, I was determined to keep the momentum going so I went on my usual morning walk. I had plans to walk with Brooke and Tricia again that night at 8:00, but around 7:00, I felt my first distinguishable contractions. Up until this point, I had just felt some cramping and tightening, but nothing that fit the description of a contraction or that I could time from beginning to end. But that night, as Jeff and I were watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we both felt my first real contraction (he had been talking to Luke and still had his head on my belly) and then they continued to come very regularly. We timed them for about 30 minutes, during which time, they consistently came every five minutes and each one lasted 1-2 minutes. This was so different from anything I had ever felt before, so even though the contractions were not very strong, we were convinced I must be in labor. We called the hospital. The nurse told me I could come in and they would check me, but I might want to wait until I could not easily talk or walk through the contractions. We waited a little longer. The contractions didn’t get stronger, but they remained very consistent. The doctor had told me at my appointment the day before that since I had already dilated to 3 centimeters and I hadn’t been feeling contractions, I should have a low tolerance for pain and head to the hospital before I felt too much of it. We were convinced. I called my parents and told them we were headed to the hospital. They were so excited and told me they would pack up and start driving (I had told my mom the day before about losing my mucus plug and she had done all of the laundry and gone grocery shopping in preparation for my call).

Jeff and I arrived at the hospital around 8pm. They got me into a room in Labor and Delivery and my nurse, Tina got me hooked up to the monitors. They watched my contractions and the baby’s heart rate for an hour. My contractions were still consistently five minutes apart, but they remained mild. That didn’t keep me from being quite uncomfortable in the hard hospital bed, however. Tina had checked my cervix at the beginning of the hour and she checked it again at the end. Guess what, I was 3 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced both times. No change from Monday and the contractions made no progress. We were disappointed. Tina told me that she had noticed a couple of drops in Luke’s heart rate that were a little worrisome so they kept us an extra hour to watch him. At the end of the hour, I was still only 3 centimeters dilated and they sent us home with instructions to have a follow-up no-stress test the next day to make sure Luke was doing okay. After going from not knowing what a contraction feels like to having them every five minutes, Jeff and I were sure the time had come to finally meet our son so we were disappointed to be sent home. I called my parents in the parking lot to give them the news. They decided that since they were already on their way, they would just keep driving and come spend some time with Jeff and I, hoping that Luke would make his appearance in the next day or two.

That night, I woke up at about 2am with painful contractions. They continued to come every 5 minutes, but now I had to concentrate to breathe through them and I was letting out some pitiful little whimpers from the pain. I didn’t want to be turned away from the hospital again so I decided to wait until they were consistently three minutes apart before we headed back there. Jeff was very sweet and tried to comfort me, but I told him he could go back to sleep and I would wake him up if we needed to go. These contractions lasted for about two hours and I was so tired that I started dosing off between contractions, only to be woken up by the next one a couple of minutes later. Eventually, I dosed off and didn’t wake up. The contractions had gotten to be four minutes apart, but then they just faded out.

I woke up the next morning and my contractions had gone back to being very mild and around 5 minutes apart, but more irregular. Within a few hours, they were very irregular. Jeff and I went for a forty-five minute walk around the Provo mall that morning. Mom and Dad arrived around 1:30. I was so happy to see them. I love my parents and it felt great to have them there for support. Jeff and I headed to the hospital at 2:30 for our no-stress test. The nurse checked the amniotic fluid level, which was good, and then monitored the baby and I for 20-30 minutes. The doctor who reviewed the strip cleared us to go home, but just as the nurse was telling us this, she got a phone call. It was the doctor. He had changed his mind. We were sent over to Labor and Delivery for prolonged monitoring. We were only supposed to be there for an hour, but ended up staying for two, only for them to tell us that we had nothing to worry about and send us home. I asked the nurse to check my cervix, sure that the hard contractions the night before had done something. Nope. Still a 3 and 80%. Every time anyone checked my cervix, they told me it was very “favorable.” It was soft and any contractions should cause dilation. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t happening. I was so bummed that I had been in discomfort and even pain over the past 24 hours and it had gotten me nowhere! It was 6:00 when we finally left the hospital and we were starving so my parents took us to Red Robin in the Provo Mall for a delicious dinner. And afterward, I told my mom I had been craving a chocolate chip cookie. When we couldn’t find one in that mall, we drove all the way to the University mall to get me a cookie at Subway. I guess that’s one major plus of still being pregnant: the pregnant lady gets what she wants! Then, Jeff and I were spoiled further when Mom and Dad took us grocery shopping. We are always spoiled to death when my wonderful parents are in town.

On Friday morning, Jeff and I walked for over an hour, enjoying the last few days alone. At that point, we were only thinking about getting our little boy here asap, but it was nice to spend so much time together before he arrived and seriously decreased the amount of Jeff & Kira time. A little while later, we decided it would be a good idea to go jump down some stairs near our house. There are about 100 stairs leading down to a park by our apartment and my giant 9 months pregnant self jumped down every single one of them … 3 times (not to mention the fact that I had to walk back up them each time). Afterward, we replenished our energy at lunch at Iggy’s with Mom and Dad. Then, Mom, Jeff, and I saw the movie, A-Team.

The next morning, Jeff decided he needed to get some work done on campus since all of this false labor business had been keeping him from getting anything done. While he was gone, Mom, Dad and I walked along the Provo River for over an hour. It was a great walk, but my contractions had all but disappeared by then and I was starting to think no effort on my part was going to get this baby here any faster. That day, we saw the movie Prince of Persia, which was awesome! And afterward, Mom made us tacos for dinner over at Aunt Brenda’s house. Later that night, Jeff and I set out on another hopeful walk, but didn’t get very far. We stopped by Aunt Brenda’s to say hi to my parents and ended up chatting for an hour and then going straight home instead. Oh well, walking didn’t seem to be having much of an effect anyway.

In the middle of the night, I woke up to pee around 2 or 3am and after I had done my business, I was standing in the bathroom at the mirror and I felt a tiny leak. For a moment I was hopeful that my water had broken. My mom had told me that she had a “slow leak” that she was unsure about when she had me and I wondered if this could be the same thing. But eventually, I decided it was just wishful thinking. The word I had heard a million times to describe it was “gush” and this was certainly no gush so I went back to bed.

The next day was Sunday and Jeff and I went to church from 9am-12pm. My parents joined us for sacrament meeting.

WARNING: I am about to describe how I came to the conclusion that my water had probably broken and it may be TMI so proceed with caution.

Throughout church, I felt extra leaky/moist, but with all of the crazy changes my body had gone through during pregnancy, I didn’t think it was enough to raise concern.

After church, Jeff and I went over to Aunt Brenda’s and hung out with my parents. Jeff and I had been invited to dinner with Doug and Tricia and the Barnetts (the young couple Jeff home teaches) that night and we were assigned dessert. Mom helped me make the most delicious dessert: strawberries and cream dessert squares from Betty Crocker. Look them up. SO good. Jeff and Dad watched football and Jeff went home teaching.

Eventually, it was time to head over to Doug and Tricia’s (they live right upstairs from us in the duplex). We had a great time talking with them, although the Barnetts didn’t make it. We ended up sitting at their kitchen table talking for over an hour, probably close to two. I loved it, but it was a little long for Jeff, who isn’t exactly a social guy. The leaking, although still slight, had seemed to increase as the day had gone on and as we were sitting there, I started to wonder again.

Jeff and I watched an episode of a show called Top Shot before bed and during the 45 minutes that we were watching it, my panties acquired a significant wet spot. Had my water broken?? After being admitted to Labor and Delivery twice in the past few days only to be sent home again a couple of hours later, Jeff and I were reluctant to get our hopes up, but I decided I should go talk to our resident nurse, Tricia, about it. I showed her the panties in question and described everything that had been going on. After I answered all of her questions, she thought it sounded like my water had indeed broken and I should go in, but she couldn’t be sure and felt bad recommending that if it ended up being another false alarm. I decided to try a couple of tests she mentioned, including sitting up straight on the edge of the bed for five minutes and then suddenly falling back. Strangely, after I had become pretty convinced that my water had probably broken (we had gotten to the point that there was semi-frequent dripping going on while I was talking to Tricia), these tests didn’t give results that confirmed that. We decided to pray about it. After praying, we both felt comfortable staying home for the night and did not feel that either the baby or I would be in any kind of danger if we did so. I had a doctor’s appointment the next morning and we thought we would probably find out what was going on then. Check out the next post for a continuation of the story.