I’m back! It’s been a while and a lot has happened since my last post on November 7th. So let just dive right into it all!
On Tuesday December 2nd (36 weeks and 5 days), I had my routine midwife appointment. When I arrived I noticed some major swelling in my legs which concerned me. When the midwife came in she told me that there was some protein in my urine. Both swelling and protein in urine are signs of pre-eclampsia (I had this condition with my first son). She ordered me to collect my urine for 24 hours so that they could get a better reading of my protein levels and come back at the end of the week.
During that appointment they also performed the routine Strep B test and discovered that I was 75% effaced and 2 cm dilated. She was surprised to see how low the baby was when she checked me. I tried not to get too excited when I heard my progression because I know people sit at 2 cm for weeks and weeks before going into actual labor.
Over the next few days I took it easy and returned that Friday, December 5th (now 37 weeks +1) with a bucket full of urine to the midwives. Turns out my protein levels were not at a level that they were overly concerned. So they said to just take it easy through the weekend and to return on Monday.
The next day my son had a basketball tournament a little over an hour away. I really wanted to go see him play (it was his first tournament in with a new basketball team) but my husband and I both decided it would be best for me to stay home and relax.
Something got in me to do all the laundry in the house and start gathering stuff together for my hospital bag so I took advantage of the urge to do so.
That evening I made a curry dish (that I sprinkled WAY too much extra cayenne pepper on – it was HOT!) and we watched a movie together as a family.
In the middle of the night (around 2:30 am) I had to get up to use the restroom (as I normally did). When I went back to bed I had a menstrual like cramp and then felt like I peed my pants. I was very confused because I had just emptied my bladder. Confused, I made my way to the restroom to investigate. Sure enough, the power was out. Turns out our neighborhood had an outage and had to use my phone as a flashlight. I muttered, “I think my water broke.” My husband heard this and jumped out of bed concerned. He wanted me to call the midwife but I said I wanted to wait and see since I was still unsure if I just peed my pants. I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Thankfully the power came back on. We decided to get everything I had gathered earlier in the day into a bag for the hospital just in case. I told my husband to go back to bed and I decided to take a shower just in case this was the real deal. While I was in the shower, I started to feel some contractions but nothing too intense. When I got out, I downloaded an app that helped me time my contractions because I still wasn’t convinced it was the real thing. I started timing them around 4am and by 4:45 I had 8 contractions; the first ones being about 6 min apart and then the last 4 of them were 3-4 min apart. The intensity was definitely growing. At this point I knew it was time to call the midwife. When I called she thought it would be a good idea to get to the hospital soon since we did not know the results of the Step B test I had taken earlier in the week. She told me that I could take a shower before coming into the hospital but since I had already done that, we gathered out stuff and headed that way. Thankfully it was only a 5 minute drive away…….
To be continued
Emanate Yoga 
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