Nora's Pre-Arrival

I'm sure this will have to be in parts because I've been so neglectful of writing all this stuff out lately (with good reason, I guess!)

It all started on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009. I'd been feeling yucky for a day or so. All day I'd had a hard time getting around at work. Once, at Rob's desk, I had to lean over to catch my breath and when I stood up I saw stars. I was slowly getting to the point where I was going to just go home sick. Around 2pm I finally decided to go home, however, my office all of a sudden got busy and I didn't end up leaving until 330pm. Rob dropped me off at home and I went right to the couch and laid down. He then went to pick up Amelia and to pick up dinner (chili and Greek salad from Apovini, my favorite!) While he was gone, I noticed that I was having contractions. I figured I'd been having them all day but since I was at work moving around, I hadn't noticed. I was doing the thing the doc says to do to get them to stop: drink lots of water and lay down. If they don't stop with that, then there's really something happening. They weren't terrible, but they were definitely there and every 5 minutes apart. I called Dr K's office and the nurse, Sue, told me to head to the hospital. Rob came home with Amelia, and I said we have to go. We got our stuff together, took Amelia back to my mom's and went to the hospital. Once we got there, we were in Triage first. The week before, at a doc appt, I'd measured 1cm dialated. When the nurse checked me this day, I expected to be 1. She said "Well, you're not 1" and the first thing I thought was "Oh great...I'm 0?" and she said "You're 4cm". I was shocked! I hadn't really felt anything terrible, so I never suspected I'd be at 4 already! With that, I was admitted and put on fluids to try to stop the contractions. Because I was 35 weeks, nobody wanted to stop it with drugs, and they didn't want to intervene to induce with either drugs or water-breaking. Consequently, I had to be pumped full of fluids, and painkiller (luckily!), and wait it out to see what would happen. After a night of contractions every 5 minutes (that were getting painful, btw), the fluids finally worked in the early hours of the morning and the contractions stopped. So, at 4cm and 25% effaced, Dr Smith sent me home with an Ambien to take a good nap and a shower. Also, I was now on bedrest for the time I was home which meant no work, and only necessary walking.
I'd only had ice chips all night, and once I was in the car I ate one bite of a banana and threw up that plus the Ambien. Even without that, I had no problem sleeping for 4 hours once we got home. I took a shower, and Rob went in to work for a couple hours to close up his desk. While he was gone, I started having contractions again. They were 5 minutes apart again. Dr Smith had said that she expected to see me at the hospital that night, and to wait until the contractions were 5 minutes apart and intense for at least an hour. When they started up again, they were immediately intense. I tracked them for an hour. I called the office and Sue said to wait another hour and head to the hospital again. The general rule is to go to the hospital when the contractions are 5 minutes apart. Mine had been 5 mins apart for 2 days! When Rob got home, we went back to the hospital. I was still at 4cm, and they got me hooked up to fluids right away. I spent the night at the hospital, again waiting for the contractions to either stop or progress on their own. Sometime in the early morning, they stopped and I was released later in the morning. Still on bedrest, we went home to wait for what happened next. From Friday through Tuesday, I had contractions off and on, of varying severity.
On Tuesday, March 10th, we went to my regular doctor appt with Dr K. I found out I was now at 5-6 cm dilated and 50% effaced. So...over the weekend, and without realizing it, I had progressed again. We were all a little nervous that I could be just sitting at home and Nora would just pop out in a surprisingly uneventful fashion (ie while sleeping! Like in my dream where I fell asleep at my desk at work and had the baby and woke up to my coworkers babysitting!) To avoid that, we hatched a plan where I would show up at the hospital the following morning, when Dr K was on, complaining of contractions. She would be ready for me to be there, and I'd be admitted so she could break my water and get things going. Rob and I were relieved and thrilled because we finally knew what was going on and wouldn't have to be nervous about my situation anymore. We went home, called everyone, and tried to get some sleep that night (which for me was pointless because I couldn't turn my brain off).