Our First Trip to Labor and Delivery

***Forewarning: Many of you may not want to read this post. It may be too personal and may be disgusting, but I want to document every bit of this pregnancy so I'm posting it. Hope it doesn't offend any of you, but you can't say I didn't warn you.***

Well, today has definitely been an unexpected and eventful day to say the least. I had a regular doctor visit scheduled at 8:20. Ben usually doesn't go with me to my appointments because he can't miss that much work. For some reason, I begged him to go with me today. I'm guessing God knew I would need him, and gosh am I so glad that he was there.

Everything at the appointment went well. We got more great news. I am now dilated 3 cm and thinned 80%, so we are definitely making some progress. My doctor told me that at this point in pregnancy when someone has already shown this much change, sometimes they will "strip the membranes" during the exam which will sometimes help speed up the process and eventually start labor, and he asked if I wanted him to do that. I, of course, said sure! Anything to get her here ASAP! haha

So all of that went well. Before I left, he told me I might have a little spotting throughout the day, but not to be alarmed. Well, as Ben and I were walking to checkout, I knew something wasn't right and actually thought my water had broken, but when I checked I was actually bleeding pretty significantly. I turned around and told the nurse that something wasn't right, but she just said it was fine and that the doctor said I would have spotting. I tried to tell her and another nurse that this definitely wasn't just "spotting," but I don't think they really understood. They just gave me stuff to clean up, and sent me on my way. As we were checking out, I told Ben "I'm not feeling great right now," but still didn't think anything of it. We left the office and went down the elevator towards the parking deck. As we were going down, I continued to feel worse and worse. When we got to the bottom floor, all of a sudden I couldn't see where I was and I knew I was about to pass out. I told Ben to get some help and then I crumbled. Luckily, I kind of knelt down and Ben was there so that I didn't completely fall out. I was sweating profusely and felt so nauseous. I was terrified, and really had no idea what was going on. Luckily, a nurse from my doctors office just happened to be down there. She rushed over and started helping and called the doctor. Next thing I know, there were tons of nurses and paramedics surrounding me and wiping me off with wet rags. It was total chaos, and I seriously felt HORRIBLE. I didn't know what was happening. They ended up putting me on a stretcher, and at that point I started feeling MUCH better. I began to cool off, realized where I was, and didn't feel as sick..but they took me on to labor and delivery to monitor everything.

We spent about 2 hours in Labor and Delivery and they basically just monitored the baby's heartbeat and my blood pressure. Both were great. I eventually quit bleeding so they said it was fine for me to go home. Nobody really knows why all of that happened. They said I may have just had a reaction to the membrane stripping or it may have been that I lost so much blood so quickly.

But, all is well now, and I've just been taking it very easy and resting all day. It was such a scary moment. Ben and I laugh now because at the time, Ben didn't act so well under pressure. I kept telling him to get help before I crumbled, but he just stood there and kept asking "Do I need to get somebody?" haha to which I continuously responded, "YES!" Luckily, other people were around and took over. haha I later said to Ben "Apparently you don't work well under pressure, you just freak out. I'm kind of worried about the actual delivery process haha" His response was "It's not that I don't work well under pressure, I just don't do anything." haha Hum...haha This should be interesting. We have laughed all day about that.

So, as of now, nothing has happened and it doesn't look like I'm going in to labor anytime soon. My doctor did say that there is a high percentage I won't make it another week, but if I do he will schedule an induction at my next appointment. I'm hoping Baby Girl decides to make her debut before then!! We are SO ready to meet her!!!

So, we have experienced our first trip to labor and delivery. I guess one good thing about it is that I was able to go ahead and pre-register for when I actually do go in to have baby girl. That will save us a little trouble. It's hard to believe that in just about a week, we will be there for the real thing!! Ahh! I'm so anxious/nervous/excited!! Keep the prayers coming!!