37 Weeks and an Unexpected Delivery! Part 1

These are my very last weekly belly photos. 

The day before they were taken I began having what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions that were about 20-25 minutes apart. They felt pretty uncomfortable and some even took the breath out of me, but because they were so far apart I decided to just keep track of them and see if I could make it until my next non-stress test on Monday. Well, on Sunday at 37 weeks exactly my contractions were still coming and getting closer together.

This is what my belly looked like during the contractions:

I tried to keep my mind off of them throughout the day but I timed them in the morning at around 13-18 minutes apart. Silly me I decided if that was going to be the day I went into labor that I HAD to make sure my kitchen was clean first haha! I got on a small stool and scrubbed the microwave, scrubbed the stove, wiped all of the counters, did the dishes, vacuumed and mopped the floor. By the time I was done my contractions were coming about every 6 minutes. I drank lots of water thinking it would slow them down if I was dehydrated but I didn't eat anything after 12:00pm just in case I needed to go into the hospital.

My husband and I were getting ready to meet up with my mother in law for her birthday dinner. By the time we were about to leave the house, they were every 4 minutes and I couldn't talk through them very well, and that's when I said, "We have to go!!" So I called my mom to have her meet us at the hospital with my bag and medical records, and Dylan called his mom and told her we wouldn't be able to make it to dinner because we might be having a baby haha.

When we got to the Labor and Delivery unit of the hospital at around 3:00pm the contractions were about every 2-3 minutes, and starting to really hurt. I was admitted to triage, hooked up to some monitors and given an IV with fluids.

The doctors there checked me to see if I was dilated, which I wasn't but I was 50% effaced. After that they gave me 4 pills of Procardia to help relax my uterus, 2 pills at a time over the course of 2 hours. They didn't help! In fact the contractions got even stronger, peeking on the chart at 110, and oh boy did they hurt!! Here is an example of what the chart looks like:

After they tried the pills the doctors consulted my OB and they decided that it was time to prep for my c-section. Dylan and I were so nervous and excited!! At this point I had been in the hospital for about 4 hours. They hooked me up to more IV's and got me cleaned up to go to the O.R. and Dylan got changed into his scrubs.

They brought us back to the O.R. and gave me my spinal while Dylan waited out in the hall for a few minutes.

Then they called him in and began my c-section. I was a nervous wreck! Dylan was right by my side the entire time. When they opened me up and were about to pull Emily out, he stood up and got his camera ready. The doctors gave him a funny look, expecting him to be horribly grossed out by what he was seeing, but he was so proud and had already seen me go through a c-section before that he wasn't bothered at all. I heard over the curtain, "Okay, lots of pressure!" and they pressed on my belly, and just like that at 8:08pm Emily was out and crying!

The most shocking part about her birth, though, was when the doctors discovered a few scary things. One, my previous c-section scar was very thin. The delivering doctor kept saying over and over, "I am SO glad you came in when you did!" If I had waited any longer I could have ruptured, my biggest fear this whole pregnancy. The other scary thing they found was Emily had a true knot in her cord, and it was slightly wrapped around her neck. The knot itself could have become life-threatening for her if it were tighter... but thankfully she was 100% unaffected by this!

They took her to the side of me to get cleaned up and have Dad cut her cord. He was in absolute awe of our sweet girl. I was able to kind of see what they were doing over my shoulder. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 inches long, and had an APGAR score of 8 which is great.

Once she was all cleaned up they wrapped her in a blanket and brought her to my face so I could give her lots and lots of kisses. Then they whisked her and Daddy away to the nursery to finish cleaning her up.

The doctors finished sewing me up and brought me back to the triage room to wait to see my baby. Not long after I got there Dylan came back in with Emily and put her skin-to-skin to my chest. She was so, so, SO beautiful!! I attempted to breastfeed but she was a sleepy baby and just laid with me, which was okay :).

Since she was still premature even at 37 weeks, and a c-section baby, she had a little trouble with getting the fluid out of her lungs so she had to be admitted into the NICU. That was emotional for me but I was relaxed knowing she would be in the best hands possible.

Stay tuned for part 2!