EH's Birth Story - Part 2 - To the Hospital

We headed out the door to the hospital right around 7:15 a.m. on a Thursday morning, basically the peak of rush hour traffic.  I had two worst nightmares about going into labor.  The first being that my water would break while I was in bed and I would ruin our mattress, and the second being stuck in rush hour traffic while suffering through painful contractions.

So we were stuck in rush hour traffic but I wasn't experiencing any contractions, so I at least lucked out in that regard.

Interesting fact - Did you know that only 8% of women have their water break without experiencing any labor pains?  Guess I am one of the lucky 8%! Of course, for most women who plan to have a regular delivery experience, having your water break prior to experiencing any contractions usually means that the hospital will induce your labor via pitocin since they want a baby to come within 24 hours of your water breaking.  Pitocin was something I did not want to experience.  But since I was already a scheduled c-section, it didn't really matter whether I was in active labor or not.

Anyway, rush hour traffic was frustrating but since DH was with me, we were eligible to take the HOV lane!! For those of you who don't live near major cities, HOV lanes (stands for High Occupancy Vehicle lanes) allow you to bypass most of the congestion on the highways and zip straight into downtown.  I always get excited when we can take the HOV lane because it is sooo much quicker.

It was a beautiful day to have a baby - this is the view that we enjoyed on our drive.

Among the ridiculous things that I stressed out about on the drive:

1. The fact that I had a meeting scheduled at work for 10 a.m. that day to discuss my transition plan with the co-worker who would be taking over my responsibilities. 
2. The fact that my office baby shower was scheduled to take place the following day, and that this was already the second time it had been rescheduled because it was previously scheduled for the week that I was in Delaware following DH's mom's death. 
3. The fact that this baby might not be born on 8-18-11 like DH so desperately wanted (obviously, at this point, he didn't really care, but I still felt bad because I know he really liked the 8-18-11 date!)
4. The fact that I hadn't had time to dry my hair or put on make-up.  You know, because everyone is supposed to look their best when they're having a baby.

But none of that could be helped at this point!


So we arrived at the hospital, parked the car and walked up to the Labor and Delivery wing.  We checked in and were taken to a triage room, where I promptly had to get undressed and hooked up to monitors.

There's nothing like a hospital gown to make one look and feel like a marshmallow. 

They took my blood pressure, temperature, and all of that fun stuff, and then did an exam and test to make sure that my water had actually broken.  It had!!!  I officially had a ticket to the operating room, but of course had to wait for a room to become available and for my doctor to arrive.  I was only 1 centimeter - maybe 2 - dilated, and still not experiencing any contractions, so I was about as comfortable as one could hope to be. 

It was at this point that I started making phone calls and we both posted things on Facebook.  My mom hadn't even left for work yet, and decided that they would come down as soon as possible.  

Over the course of the next hour or so, I was seen by a multitude of doctors and nurses.  It was overwhelming how many people came in and out of the room.  I was hooked up to a contraction monitor (which showed nothing - ha!), a heartbeat monitor to track the baby's heartbeat and a blood pressure cuff that took my blood pressure every ten minutes.  For some reason (ok, well we probably know the reason) my blood pressure was abnormally high, so an alarm beeped repeatedly until a nurse who knew how to turn it off came in.

Although we were initially told that the c-section would happen either later that morning or early in the afternoon (we weren't necessarily an "emergency" but we also weren't scheduled) things happened extremely quickly.  

DH had to put on scrubs and a hair net so that he could be in the operating room with me.  The outfit looked like a painter's suit, and because DH is bigger than the average human, barely fit him.  But he looked great in it nonetheless - a proud and excited daddy-to-be.

We met briefly with an anesthesiologist who explained the spinal tap that I would be receiving. I was told that I had to take my contacts out and since we hadn't brought my bag upstairs (you're not supposed to bring your things until you're in your actual room where you'll be spending the night) and since I didn't have my glasses, I begged DH to run down to the car to get my contact case and glasses.  I did not want to be in the operating room and not able to see a thing.

The timing was very tight and we were both scared that they were going to wheel me away before he got back, but he quickly got out of the scrubs and ran down to the car.  He came back in record time, but not a moment too soon because they were preparing to wheel me out as he was putting the scrubs back on.  He admitted later than he was sprinting and that he made more than a few people in the hospital nervous by his manic speed.

Moments later we left the triage room and headed to the operating room...