Josh and I arrived at the hospital at 5:40am and I was immediatly hooked up to monitors for fetal heart rate and contractions. The heart rate sounded good and the contractions were starting to get more consistent and I was 4cm dialated. At this point my OB wasn't at the hospital and we were dealing with the on call doctor who wanted to give me one of two different meds to try and stop the contractions (and labor). I was VERY reluctant to do anything without talking to my doctor first and even then I was reluctant to try any meds to stop labor. After talking to my doctor we decided that it would be best to take the meds and also take steroids for lung development (my due date wasn't for another 5 weeks, January 21st). After a little bit the contractions started to slow and eventually stopped...for about an hour!!  

 

I think at this point it's something like 9am and my doctor comes to see me after monitoring what is going on. We talk about the "game plan" and decide that if the medication only stopped my contractions for an hour it was not worth taking it over and over and over just to put off the inevitable The risks outweighed the benifits for waiting to have the baby, stalling labor with the medication ment that there was a greater risk for infection. We mutually agreed that having a baby born early but healthy was better than being born closer to term but sick. We were going to have a baby!!

 

Around noon my contractions S T O P P E D!! 

 

Crazy, huh? They stopped for something like an hour and a half. Funny thing is as soon as I told the nurses that they had stopped they started again (every six minutes or so, and stayed that way). My doctor came back to talk to us shortly after they started again and decided to give it some more time before deciding what to do (as far as sending me home or not). She checked me and I was still only dialated 4cm! She said that she'd give it a lil more time and then if things didn't get going she'd send us home (she said that if she thinks that it'll be at least 8 hours that the couple could be at home before NEEDING to be at the hospital in active labor then they should go home and be more comfortable). At about 4pm it was decided that we should go home (about a 40minute drive w/no traffic).

 

By the time we were released it was around 5 and the start of rush hour trafic...on a Friday. So, we did what any NORMAL human being would do in this position. We went to eat dinner at IHOP!! I thought it was a figment of my imagination but when we left the hospital the contractions started getting more frequent and more intense. Josh handed me his cell phone so I could time them (he's got a really cool stopwatch deal on his phone) and they were getting closer together. By the time we actually got home they were every 5-6 minutes and a few irregular ones that were only 3-4 minutes apart. Josh and I put a movie on to watch while I relaxed but soon I just got too uncomfortable and decided to go to bed. Josh finished watching the movie and did some other things around the house and came to bed sometime around midnight. Half an hour later I was up because I was so uncomfortable laying there w/contractions, I couldn't sleep anymore. I got up to go to the bathroom and suddenly realised that the contractions were REALLY close together! I think I timed 3 of them before making that ever popular call to the hospital. After I called the hospital I went in and woke Josh up (he had JUST dozed off) and we again got ready to drive to the hospital.  Nora came back over to sleep on the couch (and watch Zander) and Josh and I made our way back to the hospital. It's the middle of the night and the highways are all clear...til we stumble upon an accident that has the whole thing shut down to one lane, luckily we were at the front of the line and it took just a few minutes to get through. But man, I had some interesting things flying around in my head...stuck on a highway and I'm in labor!!! Ack!!

 

Saturday, December 17 at 1:35am we are back at the hospital. I'll also take this opportunity to point out that we were away from the hospital for just a little bit over 8 hours!   When we get inside I'm taken to a room and hooked up to the monitors again and everything is looking good. This time when I'm checked I'm 8.5cm dialated!! I was completely SHOCKED!! I'm given another round of the steroids for lung development but I just get one round of those in before MiKael is born, arriving at 3:44am!

 

This birth experience was so DIFFERENT from when we had Zander. We got everything we wanted...a private birth (the only people there were Josh, Susie (our doula), my doctor, my nurse and a NICU nurse for MiKael. when Zander was born it felt like the whole hospital and then some showed up!), no medication, I got to hold MiKael as soon as he was born, Josh cut the cord (he did with Z too), we were able to have some time as a family before they took MiKael away. Since MiKael was a premie he had to be taken to the NICU for a few hours of observation (which is routine for premies I guess). He was quickly moved over to the normal nursery when it was determined that his oxygen levels were stable and he didn't need any supplimenting (for those of you who don't know Zander was born at 32wks and was in the Special Care nursery for 3 weeks and on oxygen for 2 months). The best part? He got to go home with us like a normal little baby!

 

Ok, so now I feel as if I'm beginning to ramble just a tad bit too much! So, I'll stop for now. Hope you all are doing great!!

 

Gail and Josh

Zander and MiKael