Labor and Delivery

 Friday morning:

I woke up and rolled out of bed (Literally rolled. For the last couple of weeks I was unable to lift my my torso off the bed so rolling became easier.  If I was in the middle of the bed I would have to roll 2 or three times to make it to the edge) With MD starting school I had been trying to get up earlier so I could stay with the other kids while my mom dropped MD off.  While I worked on breakfast I noticed I had a pain start up in my lower right side of my back that spread to my lower right front of my abdomen. I have felt pains similar to that but this pain would not let up. However it wasn't bad enough for me to think it was anything more that ANOTHER uncomfortable thing about pregnancy. I got ready for the day. I had gymnastics to work out, Hyrums cast to get put on and we were going to have a "family day" out in town. So we headed out. I noticed that the pain started to get more intense so I mentioned it to Michael who jokingly asked me if he needed to check me into the hospital while they put Hyrums cast on.

We arrived at gymnastics where Hyrum happily showed off his broken hand to his instructor. After we worked out the details of when Hyrum could rejoin the class we headed out to town to buy our "treats" for our family night. The pain was STILL there and was still slowly building but I decided NOT to mention it to Michael because I knew he would either make me call my doctor or make me go lie down-both things I didn't want to do. 

At Hyrums doctors appointment I had a contraction. Nothing that got me too excited, except when I had that contraction the pain in my side intensified. As we headed home I had two more (We only live 7 minutes away from the hospital) And the pain in my right side had built to the point where it hurt just to sit there and I kept trying to get comfortable while grunting in pain. (Sadly yes, I do grunt) Michael started to realize what was going on and got excited-especially after I got home and had 2 more contractions in the next 5 minutes. My mom started talking about me being in labor, and even though I argued, Michael told he was going to call my doctor and made me go lie down and count the contractions. 

After I layed down the contractions started to slow down. They did that with Seth too and so I felt that calling the doctor or going to the hospital would be a complete waste of time. When Michael came upstairs I tried to make it clear that I was NOT going to the doctor any time soon, nor should he contact my doctor- simply because I didn't want him too. He completely ignored me. He called my doctor who of course told me to get my bum into the hospital because I had a much higher chance of uterine complications than most other woman. I wasn't even suppose to go into labor.

I still fought Michael, who was packing everything up until Michael told me that if nothing happened that night he would buy me a piece of chocolate cake from my favorite sweets shop. 

Fine.

As we left I noticed that my contractions had slowed down and had become relatively painless so I told Michael to take me somewhere to walk around. We ended up at BYU where we walked around for about 10 minutes before Michael forced me to get back into the car and he drove me to the hospital.

After they hooked me up I noticed my contractions were about 6 minutes a part but I still was sure I was going to be sent home. Sure enough my doctor showed up and told me that because I was only a few days shy of 38 weeks it would be much better for the baby to hold off until then. To be on the safe side though he was going to give me some medicine to stop the contractions. (If it was real labor the contractions wouldn't stop) He wanted to monitor me for an hour before he sent me home.

I was furious at Michael. I was also tired and they had to administer the shot to slow the contractions down on my bum, so I was humiliated too.

Surprisingly, as soon as the doctor walked out of the room my contractions picked up and became two and a half minutes a part and painful. I kept waiting for them to go away but they just kept coming and the nurse finally came in and told me that she was calling my doctor back and we were going to deliver the baby that night.
Everything seemed to speed up and become a blur at that point.

They hooked me up to all the fun needles and administered the meds and some antacids though the IV.  A few minutes after they finished I started feeling horrible. I felt breathless and antsy and I couldn't sit still. I started rocking back and forth and changing my position to calm my racing heart down. I was SO thirsty and when I asked the nurse for water she told me they couldn't give me any because I was minutes away from surgery. She watched me rocking back and forth and realized I was having an anxiety attach. Apparently the antacid medicine has that as a side affect.

Well I didn't believe I was having one. All I wanted was for her to leave the room so I could get Michael to sneak me some water and so I could tell him I decided NOT to have the baby that night and that I wanted to go home and sleep. (Sleepiness was also a side affect of the meds they were putting through my IV)
(Side note: I had always thought that "anxiety attacks" were mild little things that people exaggerated. I am SO SORRY to those who experience these on a regular basis-I had no idea just how intense it really is)

Luckily after about 15 minutes of this, the anxiety DID go away and I realized that I wasn't THAT thirsty and that the baby was probably coming tonight whether or not I stayed in the hospital or not so I should probably stay put. I was still a bit upset at Michael because I was hurting from everything and I just wanted to cry and I blamed him for forcing me to come to the hospital against my will :) I didn't feel prepared to have this baby right then.
But I received a blessing that told me everything was going to go fine.

They wheeled me into the operating room, got me prepped, gave me the spinal block and 20 minutes later Clark was born.

And the doctor informed me that my uterus was paper thin (again) and it was a good thing we had the baby that night.

I am glad Michael took me in when he did.

Clark is perfectly healthy

I will be perfectly healthy

and because of the c-section I get to spend the next month taking it easy and getting to spend a lot of one on one time with this sweet boy.