So I went to work on a Tuesday morning, just like any other Tuesday really. It was a cold day in January, but not bad for Calgary really. I drove in as I always do, feeling really tired from only sleeping about 5 hours the past two nights in a row. Got into work, everything was calm, and I sat at my desk in a daze thinking somehow I got ready and got into work, and I don't know how I did it being such a zombie right now. Two hours later I get a phone call from my fiancee at home...
My fiancee was mid way through her 38th week of pregnancy and she was really uncomfortable all the time. She also had something called P.U.P.P.P.s which is just this horrible rash that happens to a small percentage of pregnant women in their last stage of pregnancy. So on top of being sore and big, she was itchy all over, but could only take a certain cream that the doctor prescribed that really didn't do all that much for her. Needless to say, she was done, and wanted to get this show on the road.
On the phone she tells me she lost her mucous plug in the middle of the night, and shes been having contractions for the past hour that are about 5 to 10 minutes apart. I almost drop the phone, and say "Oh my god" about 19 times, and realize my work is open concept and allot of people are looking at me right now. So I tell her, I will come home now. I go over to my boss, who is having a meeting with someone and say "Its Time", he says "Time for what?", I tell again, "No, IT'S TIME", he says "Ohhh, ok goodbye and good luck", and I pack everything up and leave to go back home.
I surprisingly woke up quite allot at this point, Ive had 2 extra large coffees, my nerves are flying all over the place, but somehow I am driving quite calmly. I expected to act like a lunatic like in sitcoms and movies, but I remained calm, called my parents to tell them what is happening, called my best friend and let her know, and drove at a good pace home. While I was driving I remembered when she told me she was pregnant, thinking wow, that seemed like it was just yesterday, I don't understand how this is happening so soon.
I get there, and nothing is happening. Her contractions she says aren't very strong, and we start timing them for a while, but nothing very repetitive. From this point we watch it for about 2 hours, and finally I just say, we have to call your doctor, I need to talk to someone who knows whats up. The receptionist says on the phone, if you lose your mucous plug, you should go in as it may get infected. So we went to the hospital.
Again, driving surprisingly calm, I remember so many instances of movies and shows where babies are born in vehicles, and it just wasn't like that, yes my fiancee is having contractions but really nothing that serious it seemed. So we get to the hospital where we are meeting her parents at the hospital, her Mom is the other helper in the room other than myself. They admit her, and we go through the process of waiting, then they check her out, and we are sent home, with the following conditions to come back; 1 - If there is excessive bleeding, 2 - If her water breaks 3 - If contractions are steadily at 2-3 minutes apart.
We get home around 4pm, contractions have stopped at this point. I call my boss, tell him it was a false alarm, and let him know I will be coming back in to work tomorrow. All four of us sit around and talk about what has happened. I fill my parents in on whats occurred. She begins drinking Raspberry leaf tea that she bought, as we were told that would help induce labour. We order some Chinese food, its funny, everyone I know has a food that "starts" their labour, they all say the same thing, "You want to start going, go have a
At first they are few and far between, we don't really do much about them, but she has probably had 4 cups of tea at this point, and she is feeling something. We are all playing "the dice game" as its referred, I don't know the name of it, its just something to pass the time as her Mom is not leaving her site, her Mom has a feeling the baby is coming and doesn't want to go home. From 8:45pm until 10pm we had over a solid hour of contractions that are less than 5 minutes apart in between, some as low as 1 minute. So we go back to the hospital.
On the drive over, which is lets say a little more than "legal" driving, but still way less than a high speed chase, she finds that her contractions come to a halt. We go through the same process as earlier that day. Admitted, checked, hook her up to the machine that measures her contractions, and they are 10 minutes apart, still way too far apart. They say "Go for an hour walk around the hospital, see if helps move things along". Now keep in mind, its knocking on midnight, you have a pregnant women, that is almost 39 weeks pregnant, that is itchy all over, is extremely tired, and now you are telling her to walk all over the hospital, you can imagine how this goes over. So we take things slow, the four of us walk around with allot of stopping, massaging, and coaching, an hour goes by very very very slowly.
So we get done the hour, FINALLY, we go back to the room, they check her in, again, she gets hooked up to the machine, again, and we try to rest. We all start talking how its just not happening, we are going home soon, there is no point in being here, you can see on the read outs still 10 minutes apart. Then the nurse comes in and says "Ok still nothing we are going to send you home, but your doctor is here and wants to talk to you" Our family doctor happened to be at the hospital that night, and she was going to come in and talk to us but was in the middle of delivering a baby so we were going to wait. So I start putting my fiance's shoes on for her, she hadn't done that herself in over a month, I put my jacket on, then our doctor showed up.
The doctor says she had a talk with the obstetrician, and they said due to the fact that her PUPPPs is in the state its in, shes 38 weeks pregnant, and there is some stages of labour occurring they want to induce you. The cutest part was when my fiancee says, "you mean right now? Could we not go home and come back tomorrow after sleeping?" To which the doctor replied "Yes now, not tomorrow". So we all get comfortable again, and wait for the final room to open up.
Around 6-6:30am rolls around, my fiancee is sleeping uncomfortably in the bed, there is a chair that resembles a dentist chair and a lazy boy combined, that her mom is sleeping in, and there is an office chair from 1982 in there, so I am sleeping on the floor. Needless to say salvation came knocking on that door saying, we are going to the final labour room, and I am overjoyed to get outta there.
Stay tuned for the next part of the story...
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