On April 14, 2012 me and Stephen went to our last labor/birth class at LDS Hospital. They were on Saturdays from 9-1. Since this was the last class, they offered a tour of the labor and delivery facilities. After our class of breathing techniques, stages of labor and other helpful information we went on the tour. As we went into the labor room, I honestly almost started having a panic attack. Thinking of the process of birth was still pretty scary to me. I felt really prepared by the class, but I still was concerned about things like my doctor going out of town when I went into labor, or Stephen not being there for some reason, and just simply the fear of the unknown. As we left the hospital, I told Stephen, "I'm just not ready yet". I was 36 weeks along, and the common question from family and friends was "aren't you just ready to be done?" In all honesty, I wasn't. For the first time in my pregnancy, I was enjoying it!
I threw up at least twice a day for the first 5 months. The 6 month brought some relief with throwing up only 3-5 times a week. As the morning sickness started to go away, I started noticing an extra strong heart beat every now and then. As it came stronger and more often, I called my OB/GYN and the nurse said to get to an InstaCare right away and have an EKG taken of my heart. I left work a little nervous, but after the EKG, all looked fine. I called the nurse back thinking all was well, when she said "ok, our next step is to get you into a cardiologist". The whole thing was making me worried. I went to the cardiologist within a week. They put me on a heart monitor for a month, along with some low dose medication. The main concern was the fact that I had passed out at the temple due to being much too warm. The extra heart beats were keeping my temperature up and making me extremely hot. The medicine was great in the fact that I didn't pass out any more. But the heart monitor is something I believe came from medieval torture practices. There was a unit that clipped to your waist band, and a separate unit the size of a large iphone. These two devices could never be more than 10 feet apart or they sounded a warning fit for a nuclear meltdown. So you think to yourself "just don't let them be separated". The unfortunate thing about that was the unit would periodically reset which also caused the beeping warning to sound. Also, you had to change the battery every night, which also... you guessed it, caused the beeping. Both of these units were to be on me 24 hours a day, except for when I showered. Maybe this wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact I learned I was allergic to the adhesive on the three sensors attached to my skin. This caused extreme itching that nothing seemed to calm. I literally woke up one night from a dead sleep in a panic because the itching was so intense. The other frustrating thing was the warming beeps the unit made at the times mentioned above put Brady into panic mode. This meant he would try to hide behind the toilet or anything else, and would shake and whine in total fear. This went on for the entire month I had the monitor. I did finally get the sensitive skin adhesive, but it still had to be put where the rash from the other adhesive was. Going to the bathroom with this contraption on was also a fiasco. And I think most of you are aware of how many times you go to the bathroom at 6 months pregnant. I know that the monitor was for my own good, and was keeping track of my health, and maybe I'm just being a total baby about the whole thing, but it wasn't pleasant.
So here at 36 weeks the fact that I was not vomiting, fainting or dealing with the heart monitor meant that I was enjoying being pregnant. My little girl was extremely active and I loved being totally abused from the inside. She loved music. Especially Maroon 5 and Rob Thomas. She kept her feet pushed permanently in my ribs and with every breath I could feel her body pushing on my lungs. But it was wonderful. I was completely content, and not at all ready to be done. However, on April 15th at 2:30am I received the shock of my life. While laying in bed, my water broke. It was unmistakable. I have never felt more sheer panic in my life. I wasn't ready mentally or physically! I should have another month to buy diapers and finish the nursery! I had to really wake Stephen up since he is a very deep sleeper, he was in shock as well. My mom had texted me earlier that day saying she bought me a nightgown to take to the hospital when I go into labor... I texted her saying "hey, I might need that nightgown tonight.... my water broke". She is always up in the wee hours of the morning, and she was as shocked as I was. My parents came over and my Dad assisted Stephen in giving me a blessing.
My Dad was insistent that they were coming to the hospital right then, but since I hadn't had a single contraction I didn't see the point in any family coming up and being there for possibly 24 hours or more. We went to the hospital after I took a shower trying to prepare myself for this totally unexpected night. Stephen packed the back while I shouted things to remember from the shower. When we got to the hospital I still had not had any contractions. They checked us in and then started on a mission to prove what I knew had happened. They had to make sure my water had actually broke. This was frustrating to me considering I knew the soaked sheets, towels and PJs at home could only mean one thing. They did test after test and really didn't believe me, but finally they announced my water had broke.... gee thanks for that surprise. Anyway, they gave me some medication to help my body prepare more for labor since it was so early. They were trying to pack in 4 weeks of preparation into a few hours. I threw up a couple of times, and started getting some cramps. They said it wasn't really contractions yet since nothing was showing up on the sensors. It was a long night. The nurse - Brandee - was an absolute angel. She was so concerned about me getting some rest that she called the doctor and asked what she could give me to help me sleep. They decided a mild pain medication might help. But come on... who can sleep at that point? When the doctor got there, she said what I knew I would hear a lot "it's gong to be a long night, you've got about 12-24 hours of labor to go through, so just try and relax" We informed family it would be an extremely long time, and we would keep them posted. No point in everyone coming to just wait for a day. My wonderful husband had packed all my favorite TV shows and movies, so we tried to settle in.
But Daphni was once again going to show us she was in control. Her heart rate dropped, the nurse came in slightly frantic and got me on my left side with oxygen. Daphni's heart rate returned to normal, and we all passed it off as a one time thing. A little while later her heart rate dropped again, and again. They decided to get the internal monitors on so they could get a more definite idea of what was going on. These started to show I was having more contractions then they thought. They had originally wanted to give me Pitocin, but it was obvious I didn't need it. My wonderful Dr. Cannon came in and said that as long as we keep her heart rate up, all should go well. My labor was going a lot faster then she had thought but it would still be 9-12 hours. She wanted to stay the course, and was sure all would be well. As the doctor and nurse left, Daphni's heart rate dropped again and again. They walked back in... and her heart rate went to normal. At around 4:00pm (16 hours in and lots of heart rate drops) they started putting the bug in my ear that C-Section might be a possibility, so just have it in the back of my mind. As long as the nurse was in the room, Daphni's heart rate was fine. She left again, and down went the heart rate. So she came in and said "we are going to do the epidural now, just in case we end up with an emergency and need to rush you into surgery" Sweet Sweet epidural. :) Dr Cannon checked me and said I was to a 4 or more and 97% effaced. But Daphni hadn't come down any. When they left this time, her heart rate dropped multiple times and it became obvious Daphni was having a harder time bringing it back up. Dr. Cannon came in and said she didn't think Daphni would make it another 9 hours under this stress. She felt strongly that a C-Section would be best. She said we could try and push it and see how she does, but she didn't want it to become dangerous. This led to lots of texting and phone calls as Stephen and I suddenly realized the family should be there NOW. They came in and gave Stephen his clothes to change into and started prepping me for surgery. I for some reason still thought it would be a while so I said "wait... we are doing it now?" and the nurse smiled kindly and said "yes, now hun". When I learned that none of the family could be in the surgery with me anyway, I decided it wasn't worth waiting and risking any problems with Daphni. They took me and Stephen into the operating room. We were both very scared. We were scared for me, but mostly our little girl. We just wanted her to be ok.
After about 30 minutes, I heard the most wonderful words from Dr. Cannon "there she is... Oh Brittani, she is a good size, and she has hair!" Stephen and I smiled at each other, but were waiting to hear that sweet sound... soon it came. A perfect cry from our baby. With relief washing over us, we cried like babies ourselves. Since she was so early, they passed her straight to the nursery, where they announced she was perfectly healthy. They came and grabbed Stephen so he could go see her. Then shortly after Stephen brought her in. We sat there while they finished the surgery, and just looked at our beautiful daughter, who was strong and healthy. 6 pounds, 5 ounces, 20.5 inches long, APGAR score of 9. Lungs were working great and all was well.
The night was filled with me throwing up and in considerable pain. But we had made it, and we had our sweet angel here. She has proved from the beginning that she is going to run the show... and that is just fine with us. :)
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