unexpected

Today is the day I would have gone on leave from work if things had gone as planned.

Instead, about 3 weeks ago, I started having some extreme discomfort whenever I walked which I just took as the normal aches and pains of pregnancy. I stopped doing long walks at work and switched back to doing easy prenatal yoga. At my next appointment, the midwife looked at how I was doing and said she wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor the following week. Eek! And that she was quite impressed with how large my belly was for my due date.

I wasn't quite sure I believed her and was a little in denial since I had so much to do still particularly at work. But the next weekend, I finished up a bunch of errands and started a packing list. We had one last baby related chore which was getting our car seat inspection at LPCH on Monday. I was busy Monday at work since I had to give a talk to my team so was prepping all that morning and then went off into a meeting with my manager where I told her I may need to work from home the following week in case the baby came early. During this meeting, my water broke though I wasn't quite sure so I didn't say anything. I ran to the bathroom to check and ran into another female coworker who said I needed to call my doctor right away. I had many more meetings that day scheduled but I just hurried off and told everyone I had to run without really saying why.

The midwife told me to go get checked in at labor and delivery and it still felt really surreal to me. I called C telling him my water broke but I guess I didn't give him more explicit directions than that since I assumed he was coming home straight away but when I called him back 15 minutes later, he was still at work! I told him I was going to head to the hospital and he should come home and pack a bag with my list. Once I was admitted, it turned out that I was strep B positive which meant I would be hooked up to an IV to get penicillin and that I would definitely be induced if contractions didn't start by a certain point. C soon showed up with my bag and he sent out an email to everyone telling him we were in the hospital. His parents called him a little while later saying they would head over right away which really baffled me since I wasn't sure why they would be coming over to see me in labor! 15 minutes later they called again asking if the baby was here yet. Hah.

We had lots of time to kill until 9pm which is when they would start inducing me so my sister brought over dinner and I made sure to eat lots of it since I wouldn't be allowed to eat after they started the pitocin. C's parents appeared and his mom kept telling me to not be scared (which slightly annoyed me - what am I supposed to say back to that?). It was then a little awkward because his parents just sat down in our room and looked like they were just going to sit there forever. That was not going to be at all comfortable or relaxing for me. Luckily 5 minutes later, C suggested strongly to them that they just go stay at our house since it would be many many hours yet before anything happened. Phew.

Next: the birth story