The night before I had gone out to dinner with Mom, Dad, Amy, Vicki and the little boys. I was extra tired and my feet and ankles were extremely swollen. When I got home, I applied ice packs to my feet to help with the swelling. I remember thinking that my feet and ankles are going to get really bad over the next 3 weeks and that I would need to stay off them as much as possible.....
After calling the emergency line to confirm, we were told to head to the hospital as fast as we can. Not a huge rush, but get there pretty soon because you will have the baby within 24 hrs! Wow.... we were actually going to have this baby now! So, we took showers and attempted to throw together our bags. Of course, we had not packed our hospital bags yet, thinking we had time. We got to the hospital around 9am and got checked in!
We were taken to triage to confirm that the gushing fluid was indeed amniotic fluid.....it was. The nurse, Pam, was so nice and even showed us what the fluid looked like under the microscope. She checked me out and found out I was only .5cm dilated and of course, the goal is 10cm dilated for go-time. Pam's comment was, "Well, we have some work ahead of us....." At this point, I was feeling no pain, although was having contractions. I was wondering what Pam meant about this work comment.....
An hour or two later, I was checked into my own personal room where I would be having the baby. The room was equipped with everything needed to deliver and care for the baby after the delivery, along with a bathroom and pull out couch bed for the Daddy. Sooooo comfy - just ask Mark. At this point, the waiting began. I was given a pill called Cytotec to get things moving along faster. The word was spreading that I was in the hospital and I getting a lot of texts! Amy Jo was a huge help and went baby clothes shopping for me to get my go home outfit and a few other essentials I was going to buy that weekend. The pain-free waiting period lasted about 7 hours.
