The Time Has Come

It is 9:10 p.m. and I'm here in the hospital.

This morning I went to my doctor's appointment.  First they did a non-stress test.  They hooked me up to a monitor and measured the baby's heartbeat and any contractions I might be having.  I had a little clicker that I had to hit every time I felt him move...which wasn't much because he was sleeping.  So the nurse took this device that made noise and vibrated to kind of wake him up.  Right when she did it his heartbeat spiked and he kicked around.  It was kind of neat.

After the test I had an ultrasound.  They did the baby's measurements and measured the amniotic fluid levels.  The fluid levels were low which indicates that the placenta is not functioning at 100%.  So the doctor decided we needed to induce.  He said they would do a ripening agent tonight (to continue to soften me up) and then start petocin in the morning.

For the first time in the pregnancy I lost it.  I just broke down in the car.  It was a flood of emotions...excited, nervous, scared.  I really didn't expect to go to my doctor's appointment and be told I was going to the hospital that night.  It was now VERY real.

I left work today at about 2:30 and Ryan got home about 3:30.  We finished packing up and getting some last minute things taken care of.  We ate some dinner since when I get to the hospital I can only have liquids.  We got to the hospital about 7:00 and signed in, got my room, and I had to strip down and get into my lovely gown.  I'm hooked up to monitors similar to what I was this morning which is monitoring contractions and the baby's heartbeat.  I have an IV started, which took three tries to get inserted!  That wasn't much fun...it really hurt.  Then the doctor came in and inserted the ripening agent.  Now I have to sit around for 2 hours before I can go to the bathroom just to make sure the medicine gets absorbed.

They suggested I take an ambien tonight so I can sleep well.  The nurse will be coming in all through the night, so they said it would be a good idea since after the baby's born I will not be getting much sleep.  Then the plan is that they will start the petocin around 5:30ish and once I get some good contractions going they will break my water, and away we go.  The doctor did say that there is a chance that I won't react the way I should, so we would go through the whole process again....ripening agent tomorrow evening and petocin on Saturday.  If I don't give birth Saturday, then they will have to consider a C-Section.

But for now we are expecting that Baby Huber will be born sometime tomorrow.  Here we go!