thom's birth story, part 1

It has been ten days since Thom was born. It seems like he has already changed quite a bit. He is becoming more alert and staying awake for longer periods of time. He smiles sometimes (though I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not…), most often when he’s sleeping but sometimes when he’s awake, as well. Although he has already changed, I am still dumbfounded by the amount of love that I feel for him. I am completely enamored with this little boy. I think almost everything he does is adorable. And I want to give him everything that is good.

So the birth story… it's a long one (or maybe I'm long-winded? Nah, I like to think I'm thorough. :)) so I'm splitting it into 2 parts. Well here's the beginning:

Because of the recommendation of the maternal fetal doctor that I be induced at 39 weeks (because of the stillbirth of Eve) and then the added recommendation of my midwife Jennifer that I be induced because of polyhydramnios, my induction was scheduled for Tuesday, May 31^st. We got everything ready: house cleaned, bags packed, mentally prepared, etc. etc. The nurse at the hospital called me Monday night and said that I was number 8 on the list of inductions for the next day so if I didn’t hear from them by 1 pm tomorrow, call them to see when I should come in. Needless to say, that night neither Chris nor I slept. We were so excited to meet Thom! This was it! Tomorrow was the big day!

Tuesday morning we enjoyed our “last day of sleeping in.” We had a nice breakfast, showered, got ready… no call. 1 pm rolls around and the hospital still hasn’t called to tell me to come in and have my baby. So I call them and the charge nurse tells me that they’ve been really busy, I’m next to come in, but that it will probably be 2 to 6 hours more hours before I can come in. Ok. I can wait a few more hours. Chris and I are going nuts waiting for this birth to happen so we decide to go see a movie. We went and saw the Adjustment Bureau at the Dollar Theater. Decent movie. I kept my phone on the whole time. No call.

So then it’s around 4 pm and Chris and I are pretty hungry and I’m thinking, “This will be my last meal before I give birth. I should get something hearty with lots of protein but not too heavy.” We went to Café Rio and split a beef salad – my favorite. We ate slowly. Then dinner’s over. Still no call.

We head home and try to think of things to do to kill more time. I decide to take a nap since apparently I’ll be birthing through the night. Chris goes on a bike ride to get rid of some stress. Finally… around 6 pm Jennifer calls and tells me the situation. The hospital has been crazy busy all day. When she talked with the nurses, she got the impression that I was higher on the list than I was since I was medically indicated. Apparently not. So what do we want to do? We can either come in later tonight when there’s an opening, but that could be the wee hours of the morning. Or we could reschedule for Friday or Saturday since the lists of inductions are shorter on those days. For some dumb reason, hospital policy wouldn’t let me just be bumped to the next day because I hadn’t been on the list for more than 2 weeks. And I’m thinking “SERIOUSLY?!” I told her I didn’t think Chris and I could go another night and day without sleep so we’d be willing to come in whenever. She said ok; take some Benadryl to go to sleep and they would call me as soon as there was an opening. SWEET.

Around 10 pm the charge nurse calls and says that she called her manager and was able to get me bumped to first on the list for the next day. They’ll call me first thing in the morning to tell me when to come in. Yesss….! Jennifer must have been very persuasive. So then I talk with Jennifer and she lets me know that she won’t be the one at the hospital tomorrow; it will be Claudia. We met with Claudia during my last pregnancy but not this one but we’ve heard that she’s awesome to work with, plus she’s the most senior midwife in the practice that we go to, so we feel good that we’ll be in capable hands.

Now it’s Tuesday night and still Thom isn’t here, but at least we’re going in tomorrow. June 1^st seems like a good day to have a baby. We take some Benadryl to make us drowsy and then drift off into pleasant dreams of our baby being born tomorrow…