Birth Story Part 1

So I want to document as much as I can, and I know i can't do it all in one sitting, so here we go.  My due date was Thursday, March 21, and even though I had been having lots of contractions over the past several weeks, nothing permanent was happening. They were much more real contractions than I've ever had before, I could tell because I would feel them in my back, and any time I've been in real labor that's where my contractions go.  Last Monday I almost thought I was in labor for real but then they stopped. Thursday we had nothing going on, so I took the kids and went to spin class at the gym, just to get us out of the house and give me something to do! And it felt really good to have a good workout. I figured it wouldn't get the baby out, the day before I'd jogged for 1/2 hour and it just made me hurt. Spinning never made me hurt afterward it just felt good. Mom got here Thursday night and we were set to go in Friday at noon to be induced.

Robby took Lily to preschool on Friday morning and then, about 15 minutes before we were going to leave we got a phone call from the hospital telling us they were full and they'd call us in a couple of hours when/if they got room. Talk about disappointment! I'd been doing really well handling my nerves until then.  And Robby was frustrated too. I had to leave the house and go on a walk for a few minutes to not lose it.  Mom and I went and picked up Lily from preschool, and she was very confused as to why I wasn't at the hospital having her baby brother! I told her hopefully he'd come today, though they probably wouldn't be able to see him until Saturday now.

After we got home Robby and I decided to go to Cheesecake Factory in Beaverton and then go and buy the carseat at the Target or Toys R Us nearby, and then go from there. So we did, and that was a nice distraction, and when we were on our way home around 2:30 they still hadn't called us. So we decided to swing by the hospital and basically see if they had room. I called my midwife's office because I was a little bit afraid that I was leaking fluid, and if they weren't going to induce me Friday and make me wait until Monday I wanted to make sure that I wasn't. So the midwife told me to go over to triage in labor and delivery and said most likely they'd let me stay no matter what.

At the hospital the lady at check-in was very nice and tried to make sure they checked me in by the doctors orders saying I was there to be induced, to reduce the likelihood of them sending me home.  They then hooked me up to a heart rate and contraction monitor, and I was having pretty decent regularly spaced contractions. I wasn't leaking fluid but they talked to the midwife and they said there was room and that I could stay. We had told them if at all possible we'd like to.  So that was great.  We later found out his heartrate had dropped while in triage; I don't know if that had anything to do with them letting us stay or not. So we waited for about another hour until they had a room for us, and then at 5:00 they took us back to labor and delivery.