Vincent was due Thanksgiving day but to no surprise he didn't come. The Wednesday before I had been diagnosed with gestational hypertension aka preeclampsia. Because of this I got the pleasure of taking home a blood pressure monitor to report my bp to a nurse every morning. I also had to collect all of my urine for the following twenty four hours. Now that is how you want to spend your Thanksgiving weekend. Even after taking a non-stress test and being examined the following Monday I was nowhere close to being in labor. So my doctor bumped up my induction date from December 5th to December 1st. Feeling contractions after I got home I started timing them, they were all over the place. Plus I had just sat on a monitor for an hour and didn't have a single contraction! It seemed I was just getting my hopes up so I just gave up.About two hours later my dr called and told me they finally got my urine test results and the protein levels were double what they should be. She said based on those test I should come into today and be induced. In fact, based the results, I should have been induced on my due date had they known they were so high. I immediately called Johnny. I could sense he was a bit panicked. But nonetheless he rushed home. After collecting some things we headed to Kaiser Walnut Creek.Knowing that once we got there they wouldn't allow me eat so we decided to grab a bite. We went to Panera Bread for what Johnny called my "prepartum pit stop."
We finally made it to the hospital around 3:30pm. After filling out paperwork we were led to our room and met our first nurse of the night, Barb. Now Barb was probably in her early fifties, but she was still spry as ever. Johnny pegged her accent immediately and asked if she was from New Zealand. She was, and that was the beginning of a good but short lived relationship. I would then have to be changed into my gowns. Barb told me that she would be doing that in the restroom. It turns out that she wouldn't, but the time that we were together in the restroom was when the protocol questionnaire for domestic abuse was completed. For the record, there isn't any :) After changing, they examined me again and told me I was already 2cm dilated. They asked if I was feeling contractions yet. I was, but I thought they were supposed to be more intense. After the exam they started me on pitocin to induce labor. Due to my preeclampsia they also gave me magnesium to prevent convulsions.Pretty scary stuff. Around 8pm I started feeling contractions. They gave me some pain meds but they only lasted 30 minutes...but I made the most of my time. I was feeling so good that I decided to make a few phone calls. One of the calls made it all the way to my dear friend Ashley in Texas, who was obviously shocked/excited to be hearing from me.
Not long after my drugged phone call spree started did the pain come back! I was examined again and this time I was at 3cm. The pain was so horrible that the nurse offered me an early epidural. I was practically begging for it at that point. After the epidural my blood pressure dropped from high 150/90s to low 90/40. Shortly after I started feeling super sick. The nurses were adjusting the epi meds and giving me oxygen trying to stabilize me. Let's just say I lost my "prepartum" meal during this time. Johnny was running around with the nurses fetching buckets for me to...you know. It took them about an hour until I was feeling better.
Around midnight I was 6cm. Johnny and I got about an hour of sleep before I started feeling contractions again. I called the nurse and she got permission to give me the "button" to give me extra meds through the epidural.. After another hour I finally stop feeling the contractions.The nurse checks me and she asks if I feel pressure. I did but I didn't know what that meant. Apparently I was 10cm dilated and she could see his head!!! But my bp started to drop again, so they spent 30-45 minutes re-stabilizing me. Around 3am I began to push. In between contractions I was so exhausted I literally slept until Johnny or the nurse woke me to start pushing again. Finally at 4:38am our sweet little Vincent was born.
Vincent entered the world in amazing fashion. While passing Vincent to the midwife Dr. Probst yelled out "PLUMBING WORKS!!". Yup, he peed on them. Back to the important stuff. He was perfectly healthy and loooong! I couldn't believe he was 22 & 3/4 inches long! And he definitely has his daddy's nose!
