Not Yet

I always wondered how women could get a false alarm when it came to their water breaking. Until last night. Because that was me. As I was taking a bath I was remembering how when I was pregnant with Silas I never wanted to stay in the bath or the shower too long because I was nervous my water would break and I wouldn't know. I kind of laughed to myself at how naive I used to be. And then after the bath I thought my water was leaking. I know, you think it would be obvious. It should be, right? We all  know what it feels like to pee. And although it turns out the leaking was not my amniotic fluid, I have no idea if it was pee or what it was. I just might be losing my mind AND my bladder control!

Joe and I went back and forth for a few hours on weather or not to even call the midwives about the situation. Do we just go to bed? Or should I put in a call? I didn't want to go to the hospital, especially with the kids in bed because that meant I had to recruit someone to come over and crash on our couch, just to maybe come back home and lose a night of sleep.

I ended up calling in for peace of mind and the midwife suggested I come to the hospital right away because I am Group B positive and if it was amniotic fluid leaking they would want to get me on antibiotics right away. I actually kind of ignored her plea the first time. I'm going to blame it on Joe, he talked me into just going to bed and going in come the morning if I thought it was necessary. I was anxious, but also the hassle seemed like so much. But when I didn't show up at the hospital, they called me back (a little after midnight) and basically told me to hurry my buns in ASAP!

I called my dad (the sweetest of saints) to come crash on our couch while Joe and I headed to the hospital. He got here around 1:30am because he GOT STUCK IN A SNOW BANK. He got stuck a few blocks from his house, so he had to walk back home to get a shovel and shovel himself out. The same guy who drove in a snowstorm to deliver me pacifiers at the hospital when Veda was a day old. Nothing fazes him, I swear. He got here and Joe and I hit the icy roads to the hospital.

I was greeted in the ER by a maternity nurse with, "Happy Birthing Day!" Um, no, don't get me excited, I could be walking out of this place still pregnant yet tonight.

But regardless they took it all seriously and I checked in, filled out the paper work, they hooked me up to monitors and asked me lots of questions.

The midwife thought it sounded like a case of water leakage so she did some tests. Which of course take thirty minutes for results. And thirty minutes in hospital time is more like two hours.

So two hours later we get the go ahead to head home. I thought I'd cry, but I didn't. I just wanted to crawl in my bed and sleep.

At first I really wanted this to be the real deal. It was great timing for things like...my house was clean, I was showered AND my hair was clean, although Joe's parents were leaving for NY the next morning my dad was easily able to come over, and Joe's business was a little slower due to the colder weather. My toes weren't freshly painted, but I could easily get over that!

Then when the midwife was telling me the run down of possibilities (before we know it was a negative) I was hoping it was a false alarm because petocin scares me and would be my last resort. Due to the Group B they would need to make some decisions if labor hadn't started 12 hours after the water broke. And although baby can stay in there for a while longer, they don't want to have to keep pumping me with antibiotics every four hours. And since labor hadn't started (as far as I could tell, no contractions that were painful) the outcome was still iffy as to when my body would kick in (assuming my water did break). Anyway, with that, Joe was all about inducing labor ASAP and I was all about shushing him up and the midwife got a good laugh. Joe, always advocating for me.....  ;-)

So as you can imagine, we were stuck in a little hospital room from 2-4am waiting. It was fun to hear baby's heart beat for those two hours non stop. Made things even more real. And I am totally fine with the outcome, I'm just happy baby is A-OK. I mean, it would have been nice to deliver that night, but I guess it just wasn't time yet. Walking out of the maternity ward with my bags in tow and still pregnant wasn't the most exciting feeling I've had, but it was fun to say, "See you soon!"

Hopefully next time it's for real!