My scenery has changed drastically the last twenty-five days. Goodness, I can’t even believe it’s been twenty-five days. My hope is that before I give birth, sometime in the next 18 days, I can recap all that has happened here in the hospital so I can write about our journey after little miss is born!
March 9th was a day like any other. I got up and got ready to go to work. For any woman out there that has ever had a baby, you should be able to relate to this next part. I was about to leave when it felt like I had just peed my pants a little bit. Now, for those who have never been pregnant before, this is a pretty typical occurrence, especially as you get further into pregnancy. One wrong move and you’ll be running towards the bathroom. I thought it was a bit strange because it wasn’t actually pee, so I changed and continued on my day. Mid-morning I felt the liquid more and more causing me to ask some questions. I did some research on what happens when your water breaks and called my mom. Sidenote: I have been talking all pregnancy about what it will look like when my water breaks. The fear of the unknown and how your body just one day decides this is what is going to happen was freaking me out. Anyways, I called my mom and she delicately told me that I needed to call my doctor right away. After what seemed like an eternity, my doctor called me back and told me that it sounded like my water had broken and I needed to go to the hospital right away.
The immediate emotions when she told me that caused me to start crying. It was too early. I was only 27 weeks 5 days. I still had 13 weeks left to grow Maizie. I couldn’t lose her, although different circumstances, last time I left the hospital I also left without my sweet Everett. I sucked it up, called my mom back, had her grab Jeremy and they headed down to the hospital. The next hour seemed like a whirlwind. My boss so graciously drove me to the labor and delivery entrance where my sister and sweet niece were soon to follow. They just so happened to be right around the corner (not typical at all) which was a total God thing, as I wasn’t alone waiting for very long.
I checked in, waited a few minutes, and they brought me back to labor & holding. Labor and holding is basically a triage room for pregnant woman where they can either go home or be admitted if necessary. Jeremy arrived right before we walked back, so as we made the journey together I was trying to not freak out. We got into the room and I put on the all to familiar hospital gown and waited. My mom was able to come back and once my niece had been picked up my sister was back with us as well. The uncertainty in the room was weighing pretty heavy, so without much hesitation I turned on my worship playlist. We waited for a bit before I was seen, and when the nurse came in, they decided that they were going to do a test to see if it was indeed amniotic fluid that had been coming out.
After about an hour, the nurse returned and told us that the test came back negative. I was so confused. I knew my body, and I knew that something else was going on. Moms, I know you know this, but you know your body more than anyone else. If something seems wrong, speak up. At this point, my doctor came in and told me that I should be home by supper but, they were just going to do an ultrasound to confirm what the test had shown, that it wasn’t amniotic fluid. I went downstairs to a preinatal specialist practice and after some confusion they did the ultrasound, sent me back upstairs, then back downstairs where we got the results of my fluid being extremely low.
Most pregnant woman have a fluid index of 8-18cm, mine was at 4cm, which we just so happened to find out on Friday during my last ultrasound. At this point, the doctor told me that I was going to be admitted and they were going to watch me for 48 hours, start an IV with fluids and antibiotics, and give me two doses of a steroid shot. When your water breaks early, they can do a few things in order to help slow the process down of going into labor, and with me being still so early, they were determined to do everything in their power to keep Maizie in me. The antibiotics were in case an infection started to develop in me, the fluids were to help increase my amniotic fluid levels in the hopes of giving sweet Maizie some more room, and the steroid shot was just in case I went into labor, Maizie’s lungs would be measuring a week ahead of schedule.
I guess at this point I was able to rest a bit easier knowing that she was indeed okay, and that had I not listened to my intuition, I could’ve been walking around with a slow leak of her fluid, which could’ve been deadly. We headed back upstairs to the room where I was going to be staying for the next day, and through a series of events, I found out that my nurse had gone on the world race, and that we knew a lot of the same people, which was such an awesome thing! After being hooked up to an IV, getting shots, and doing a few more tests I took a deep breath and realized I may not be getting out of here in 48 hours.
stay tuned for the next few posts..
Faithful in the Fray 