Everything started around 2pm on Thursday January 8th. At least that is when I first noticed I was having contractions that seemed different from the usual braxton hicks contractions. Around 3pm I decided to start timing the contractions. After about an hour it looked like I was having contractions about every 8 minutes apart but they didn't really hurt so bad so I still wasn't sure if it was labor. I decided to see if moving around stopped them, it didn't. Then I tried drinking lots of water to make sure that I wasn't dehydrated, no change. Finally I decided to try to lay down and take a nap and see if relaxing caused them to stop. I semi-fell asleep for about an hour and then got up when John and Dom got home. I started timing the contractions again and after an hour it looked like they were about 7 minutes apart but they still didn't feel terribly painful.
Around 6pm I called my doctor's office to see what the doctor on call thought. It seemed too early for me to actually be in labor since we hadn't actually considered the idea of the baby coming early as I had to be induced with our first. Since I had a c-section already scheduled for January 23rd I just wasn't sure what the best thing would be to do. The doctor on call called me back, unfortunately probably my least favorite doctor in the practice. I explained to him about the contractions which were now about 6-7 minutes apart and everything I had tried to make them stop. He said "If you could sleep at all it probably isn't real labor" and "I can't tell you that you are on labor over the phone". I was a bit annoyed at this point because I wasn't asking him to tell me if I was in labor I just wanted to know if they thought I should wait and see for a bit longer or go to labor and delivery. I managed to not show my annoyance and said I understood that he could not tell if I were in labor over the phone and again mentioned that I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to do in this situation and what did he recommend. He then said "If you really feel you need to you can go to labor and delivery and I can monitor you for awhile, if that's what you think you need to do." So at this point I was really annoyed.
Maybe I'm being overly sensitive but I really felt like I was being blown off. He then let me know that they didn't want me to have the baby this early (37 weeks and 4 days) and if I went to labor and delivery it wouldn't guarantee me an earlier c-section. I really feel like he thought I just wanted the baby to come early, which is almost funny to me because that's the last thing I wanted. With my first I definitely felt that way by this point, however, this time I wasn't really terribly uncomfortable and I really really wanted to have the baby on my scheduled c-section date, about a month away from Christmas. I mean I would think the fact that I didn't schedule my c-section for the first date they would allow (January 19th) but instead went for the 23rd, only two days before my due date, would have shown him that I really wasn't in any rush.
So I got off the phone and talked it over with John. I really did not want to go into labor and delivery only to be sent home if it wasn't real labor and I didn't want to deal with this doctor either because I really felt like he wasn't taking me seriously and I already didn't like him much. He kept me waiting for over an hour twice for appointments (back in the room even not just in the waiting room) and he seemed annoyed whenever I would ask any questions at my appointments. Generally I tried to avoid ever seeing him but we are required to see every doctor in the practice at least once. Anyways, since the contractions weren't painful and the doctor didn't seem concerned I decided I wanted to wait and see for longer since I really did not want to go in if it wasn't real labor.
That night none of us got much sleep, Dom woke up at 1 am with extreme diarrhea and then again at 3 am with more of that and throwing up. I was still having contractions and although they were definitely uncomfortable they weren't that painful still but it was enough that I wasn't sleeping well in between Dom being up. Around 4 am they were about 5 minutes apart. Finally around 6:30 am it seemed like the contractions were stopping or slowing down and I fell asleep and didn't wake up until about 9:45. John had already gotten Dom up, who seemed fine in the morning so we were thinking something he ate upset his tummy. I got up started making waffles and bacon for everyone. I was still having contractions but I wasn't sure how regular they were. So while I made waffles John timed my contractions. We ate waffles and even played the Wii a bit for the next hour or so. Around 11 John said it looked like my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and he thought I should call the doctor's office again. So I called and the nurse I spoke with said I definitely needed to go to labor and delivery right away because they already knew the baby was in the breech position and since I was a repeat c-section already they wanted to be careful. She seemed surprised I hadn't been told to go in the night before. So we called Dom's daycare lady and she agreed to watch him until we could find out what was going on. We dropped him off and headed to the hospital.
Once we got to the hospital they set me up in a room and took blood, just in case to prepare for the c-section, and started monitoring my contractions. I was definitely having contractions and they were about 3-4 minutes apart. However, I wasn't dilating yet, though the nurse said she wasn't sure if I would at all since the baby was still in breech position and there was no head pushing on my cervix. They monitored me for about an hour and determined the contractions were regular. Then they started IV fluids to see if that would stop the contractions. They did seem to slow down a bit with the fluids but they weren't stopping. This was around 2:30ish I think. I'm still thinking that they are going to say it wasn't real labor and send us home, maybe I was in denial, lol. I even told a few friends I thought I would be sent home pretty soon. The nurse came back in at 3 and said they were going to take me into c-section at 4:30 pm because they were worried about my water breaking, apparently that would be a problem with the position the baby was in. I commented that I had thought they were going to send me home still and the nurse said "Not with the way you are contracting". She then explained that they had to wait until the food I had eaten that morning was out of my system, at least as much as it would be and that they would give me some stuff to make sure my stomach didn't get upset during the c-section.
An anesthesiologist came in and explained the spinal procedure and gave me pepcid, zofran, and reglen (sp?) through my IV and the nurse came back in with some alka-seltzer for me to drink (yum). We called my Dad to have him pick up Dom from daycare and the daycare lady to let her know what was going on and then we called and texted a few friends to update them. Time actually passed pretty fast and next thing I know we were on our way to the OR and they had John getting dressed in scrubs and were inserting my spinal. It went into effect quickly and they started the c-section. It was a lot smoother than the previous c-section I had. Everything went great and I felt just fine, well what I could feel lol. Baby Jamie came out at 4:58 pm and boy was he mad. He screamed his little head off. He was 6 lbs 5 oz, which was way smaller than we expected, and 19.5 inches long. He scored an 8 and a 9 on the APGAR tests. John got to hold him pretty much right away and he brought him over to me while they finished up the surgery. We talked and watched Jamie and when they got ready to wheel me into recovery they handed him to me. I got to hold him then and even though I had major surgery I seriously felt amazing. I was smiling and just feeling great. I did still feel rather amazed that the baby was here, it all felt a bit surreal. I'm still shocked at how fast it all seemed to go (the pregnancy and labor/delivery).
Right after surgery in recovery
The next day
Hmmmm...
Check out how cute I am!
