Yes I'm at the birth center and no I didn't have the baby....yet. I forsure wouldn't have been there Sunday night if it weren't for my amazing mom. Moms really do know best and I can't wait to be one. So this is how I ended up at the birth center at 9pm Sunday night.
My mom called me from my dad's cell at 9:30 pm saturday night (which is 9:30 am sunday morning in germany) This is rare because they live in Germany and it costs a butt load to call the states on a cell, plus they were at church at the time. I missed the call but got her voicemail. It went a little something like this, " hi cari it's mom, I had a feeling I should call you, I dont know why, just want to see if you ok. Love you call me back." To be honest it kinda freaked me out... but sometimes that's what it takes. I called dezy to see if he was ok and then looked down again and again at myself to make sure I was ok.
I called my mom back and told her everything was fine that I know of but I will let her know if something comes up. All my senses heightened but I tried to get some sleep. The baby must have been on her toes as well cause she was up all night tossing and turning. Morning came and I'll spare you on these details but basically I thought I might be leaking some amniotic fluid... But what do I know, I've never done this before, so I tried to let it go. By 2 pm we're at church. During relief society we had a lesson on family responsibilities and were discussing the importance of a mother sharing her promptings with her children. I shared my incident with my mom's phone call from the night before. I'd been prayin that I would have a more obvious sign of what my mom meant and what might need to be addressed.
Not even 30 minutes later I had a contraction, not like the other practice ones I usually have. It was strong enough to get my attention. I texted dez to tell him what happened. In the mean time dez riled up and enlisted the help of his fellow brethren to google symptoms of going into labor...during his class. After class I was the first girl to exit. All the men were waiting for thier wives in the hallway and looked at me like I had some sort of disease. (I had no idea that dez told anyone, but I should have known better) I had another contraction about 45 min later and we went home from church to figure out what to do.
Google can be dangerous in two ways... (well more than that, but that's a blog of its own) It can freak you out and make you think more of what's going on, or it can comfort you enough to let something go. If it weren't for my mom's inspired call, I would have been a victim of the later google danger and DONE NOTHinG. Luckily I have plently women in my life who's opinions I trust and who finally convinced me to call the birth center. Why did it was to be on a weekend, past office hours and so far away!! I really didn't want to be that freaked out clueless first time caller... But my mom told me we make sacrifices for our children. I swallowed my pride and called. They were super nice and told me to come in. I grabbed my hospital bag and we left. That one hour drive gave me a lot of time to think, and I wanted to talk about what could happen but dez was coping another way and turned up the music.
They gave me a gown, put me in a room, hooked me up to the machines to monitor the baby's heart rate and my contractions then ran some tests. Turns out my leaking had stopped by the time we got there (I knew that would happen!) but what was tested was negative for amniotic fluid. While that was all good, the nurse told me I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and more intense ones every 5 or so. Enough to be affecting the baby. NEWS TO ME! I thought it was just gas or the baby still assaulting me from the inside. They called my dr and then gave me a shot to stop them. The shot made me feel like I drank a Redbull... And then they made me drink a supersized cup of water which gave the baby some mean hiccups. I was in the room alone at one point with my own heart racing from the shot, then listening to the quick heartbeat of baby intertwined with her hiccups... with a more than full bladder that was being pushed on. Feeling a bit cracked out I thought I was going to go crazy or just pee everywhere, or both. Anywho I wasn't dilating (but had thinned out some) so we got to go home. The nurse told me to try and keep her in a bit longer so she's at least 37 weeks.
I don't want to think about what would have happened if my mom never called me and I never went to the dr... It stresses me out too much. But I'm so grateful to have such inspired loving people in my life to help me along the way.
I went to the dr again on Wednesday and she told me that because I'm almost 36 weeks and the baby is at least 6lbs that if I start having contractions again... That's it! Let's just hope I recognize them this time! Haha
