Tuesday – January 31, 2006 had been a very stressful day. I was easily overwhelmed because of my intense tiredness and though I know it sounds odd – the dog was getting on my last nerve! I had no way to keep her out of my way and she’s a big dog so physically dragging her out of my way was wearing on me. I had had it with her – I’m ashamed to admit that I wore myself out yelling at her that night!
Later that night the kids were all in bed and I was finding that I needed to use the bathroom quite a bit – something didn’t feel right! I’d been telling my sister for a few days that I was feeling like I did just before I went into labor with the other boys – she just laughed at me and said that I was worrying too much and that it was just because they were so big. I was scared to death! I desperately wanted to get to 36 weeks which was still 2 weeks away!
At 9:30pm – Suddenly I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at my husband in sheer panic. He asked me what was wrong and I started bawling and told him that my water was leaking. A very distinct trickle had begun that was definitely not normal. I went in the bathroom and made sure and though I wasn’t soaked I was definitely damp. I was devastated! Dear Hubby held me and tried to comfort me, but all I could do is cry and say “It’s too early, it isn’t time yet!”
We began making the necessary phone calls – let triage at the birth center know we were coming and get someone to the house to be with the kids. Our first option fell through – they wouldn’t answer the phone. Then we called my parents and they quickly loaded up and made their way out to our house – we live 30 minutes away. As we got into our car all I could do is tell my parents that we’d let them know and hopefully I was wrong (though I knew I wasn’t).
Once at triage the nurses tried to get samples to test to be sure that I was leaking amniotic fluid, but I was leaking so slowly – honestly only a drip at times – so this proved to be a huge challenge. The first 2 tests came back with no fluid, and the doctor came in and said that maybe I was mistaken. Meanwhile the babies were being monitored the whole time. It kept getting later and later and I finally felt a tiny bit more fluid and told them to test again. Bingo – finally a sample that they could actually get a reading on. The thing that had been fristrating was that they look at the samples in the microscope in the triage unit and send the samples to the Lab to be tested and they were getting inconclusive results until the last sample.
The doctor on call had been an interesting duck! He kept coming in and telling me that “the results were negative” or “the results were conflicting” and then would break into another story. Finally, after the last sample results, the Doctor came back in and told us that yes indeed it was amniotic fluid and he looked at me and said “which you already knew”. But now hubby and I are thinking – ok, now what? The doctor says that they will not induce me but they will not stop my labor either. I will not be going home until the babies are born.
I was not in labor, so I was admitted on the 4th floor (also where triage is located) and put on antibiotics. I had not done the Strep B test yet, and since I was leaking I was at an increased risk for infection. The nurses brought in a cot for Hubby (since he’s over 6 feet and they were NOT going to let him attempt to sleep on those terrible chairs that make into a bed) and we settled in for the night – by this time it was about 12:30pm. Made a quick call to let my parents know what was going on and tried to sleep.
Around 2:30 I started feeling some pretty heavy contractions – I told my nurse that I thought I was going into labor. Based on my history of quick labors I need to be watched closely. By 3:00am I knew I was in labor and told the nurse that she’d better check me and get things moving to get me downstairs (I wanted to get going before I was in so much pain I couldn’t make any good decisions). When she checked me I was dilated to 3 – which for me means get moving. She put a call in to the doctor who was in the middle of delivering another set of twins downstairs.
By 3:30am I was in agony! The doctor still hadn’t arrived to move me downstairs and I knew that time was getting short and I think that Hubby was getting nervous too. The doctor finally arrived upstairs at 3:40am and when he walked into the room he began giving me a lecture “Well, you know that if I check you and you aren’t in labor it could cause you to go into labor .. . . . . . . . “. I was about to blow! I looked at him as piercingly as I could and made it VERY clear that he was to check me and get me downstairs! He actually looked at me and said “So you want me to check you?” I didn’t say anything I just looked at him and nodded – no telling what would’ve come out of my mouth at that point. I was dilated to 4 and he decided to get me downstairs.
The rest of the story? Check out The Birth of Twins.