Part 1 left off with me arriving at home, jumping in the passenger seat and Shane and I heading off to the hospital – all the while I was having an internal freak-out over green water and strep b.
The drive to the hospital takes only about 15 minutes…but on this particular evening there had been an accident of some sort and (surprise!) the road was closed. We were rerouted along back roads adding an extra 10+ minutes to our drive.
Shane was doing his best to keep me calm, telling me I was doing the right thing by going directly to the hospital and accepting the antibiotics.
Thankfully, even though my water had broken about 30 minutes before I was not yet experiencing contractions. But that also made me a bit concerned given that when my water broke with Bram contractions came hard and fast almost right away.
We eventually made it to the hospital and I hobbled in with one towel between my legs and another wrapped around my waist. We went to registration. This should have been a quick process because I’d pre-registered online…but I forgot our insurance had changed and I hadn’t updated it. Oops. More waiting. It didn’t take too long, but given my state 10 minutes felt like an hour. I was starting to get, uh, testy.
We then made our way down the hall to maternity. The receptionist took one look at me in my towel, smiled and said “I bet I know what happened to you!” She was very nice, but since maternity is locked down and I had to wait for someone to come escort me to a room, I didn’t feel like playing nice. I wanted to shout “Open the freaking door woman!!” But I didn’t, I smiled instead. I think I deserve extra credit for that.
From here things started to pick up.
We were taken to the labor/delivery/recovery/all-in-one room where I met our amazing nurse, Holly. I wish I could adopt her into my family. She was fantastic.
Holly took my information, hooked me up to the monitor, calmed me down when I wanted to freak out about needing to be hooked to the monitor for 30 minutes and again when she told me I’d need to be hooked to the iv for an hour at a time with antibiotics.
You don’t understand, I like to m-o-v-e when I’m in labor. I need to move.
She understood. Somewhere in the midst of Holly hooking me to the monitor and leaving to make sure my antibiotics were on the way, my mom made it to the hospital. This was the first time she’d made it to the hospital in time to see me before I have the baby (again, my labors are generally fast).
I never thought I’d want my mom, or anyone other than Shane, in the delivery room with me, but seeing my mom in that moment gave me so much peace. I was a little girl again wanting her mama. My mom told me numerous times “if and when you want me to go, just say so, I don’t mind, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” I assured her she was welcome as long as she wasn’t “front and center”.
So there we were, my mom, my husband Shane and me on the bed hooked to the baby monitor feeling the first faint hints of contractions. And this is what was going through my head.
Panic. Full blown mental panic. I turned to Shane and my mom and told them I was scared, that I just didn’t know what to do. I tried to be calm, but I’m sure they could see I was close to tears. I was scared, I had no answers yet about the green water, was scared about strep b and just as scared about the effect of the antibiotics, and I was terrified of having another hard labor like Bram’s.
And my mom prayed. Hallelujah, my mother prayed. That was a turning point and I was able to refocus.
Did you miss Part 1? Be sure to read the end with Part 3 and The After.
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