Where were you two years ago tonight? (Part 2)

It's about 10:00 pm right now and two years ago tonight, they were just starting my pitocin drip for induction.

After being monitored all night Thursday, I spent Friday, August 3rd, 2007, waiting for my OB to come do rounds at the hospital so I could hopefully be released and go home, back on bed rest. The protein in my urine seemed minimal and the swelling in my feet had even gone down. My BP was questionable, but not alarming. I had been a good girl and stayed in bed all day.

My dearest friend JoAnn had shown up at the hospital out of the blue to keep me company around 2pm in the afternoon. I love her and she just always seem to know what I need to make life seem normal. She brought me a beautiful angel to watch over me while I was in the hospital and was even willing to run down to the gift shop and find a bottle of lotion since the hospital would only give toiletries out to women who were admitted to the hospital after having a baby. (I'll never understand such a policy. I had been in my hospital room for about 30 hours and they couldn't even find a small bottle of lotion for me??? Most other units have giant racks of bins of toiletries to provide to patients.) Anyway, JoAnn was there to raise my spirits and she did.

I had had an ultrasound in the morning and "Turtle" was showing to be about 6.5 lbs. Development looked good too.

JoAnn was still there when my doctor finally stopped by around 4pm. She told me she believed it was time to consider induction because of my blood work and continued protein in the urine. I was uncertain, although JoAnn seemed unsurprised by this at this point. Given my uncertainty, my OB agreed to called in a neonatology specialist to come review my chart and recent ultrasound and give his opinion. He came by shortly thereafter and said he believed I had only two real options....bedrest, but while remaining in the hospital where I would likely decompensate and end up being induced or requiring a c-section in the next 7-10 days, or go ahead and induce now while my body was better able to deliver naturally as I intended. When given those options, as uncertain as I was, it seemed there were no good options. The specialist answered all of my questions and assured me that the ultrasound showed that "Turtle" was healthy and developed enough for the delivery to be of low risk and that 36 week gestational babies do just fine all the time.

My sister stopped by at this time and was very excited at the idea that I might be having the baby soon. She and JoAnn stepped out of my hospital room for a short while when Craig arrived so I could talk to him about the doctor visits and recommendation. Then my OB returned.

I told her I had met with the specialist and relayed, the best I could, the information and reassurances he had given me. Craig and I then agreed to induction.

Craig ran back home to feed the dogs and let them outside, as well as grab a bit of dinner. Heather agreed come back with Bob and drive my car back home for me, as well as let the dogs out for the foreseeable future. And dear sweet JoAnn agreed to go back to my house to get Grant's smallest clothes, wash them at her house and then bring them back to the hospital. (I should note that I had brought one outfit for him in my suitcase, but since I had expected a large full term baby all along, the 3-6month size outfit I had brought was not going to fit my 1 month premature little guy.)

I took a quick shower, much to the frustration of my nurse. I knew that I wouldn't get another chance to shower and shave my legs...and since I had been admitted without preparing, that was important to me. When I got out, I packed my items back into my suitcase and then a transporter with a wheelchair pushed me down the hallway into my newly assigned labor room.

The nurse started my IV and hooked me up to the fetal monitor. Craig arrived back with the laptop and his own suitcase...bigger than mine I should add. Heather also came back briefly to pick up my car and bring me my birthing ball. She also brought an enormous ballon to be my 'focal point.' (Can anyone tell that my sister watches too many episodes of the birthing shows on TLC?) We shooed Heather away though, and nurses came in to start the pitocin around 10pm.

Craig figured out how to tap into the hospital's wireless internet connection and found he could watch episodes of "Land of the Lost," while I started having contractions...