Birth Story- Part 1

August 31st 11pm-12pm

I went shopping with my best friend at the 24 hour Walmart. I definitely felt that nesting urge. I was picking up items that I wanted for when I delivered, like thank-you cards for my children and gift cards loaded with money on them for supporting their Mom this past year.
When I got home I went immediately and put their thank-you cards and gift cards in my packed hospital bags. (so I would have them to give to my kids after I delivered) I went and got ready for bed. While I was using the bathroom, out of nowhere, I had a surprise bout of watery diarrhea. Immediately a light bulb went off. As I was climbing into bed I told my husband about what happened in the bathroom. I also said "It could be nothing, but it was just like what happened before I had Kate. My body might be emptying itself out before labor starts, so I may be waking you up in the middle of the night. Or it might be nothing. Just thought I'd mention it."
And we went to sleep.

Around 10:00am as I was waking up, I felt a little "click" or "pop" inside. My eyes weren't even open yet. "Hmmm" I thought half asleep, "that felt like when my water broke with Kate" So I purposely changed positions and rolled over to see what would happen. Nothing. No water came out. My eyes were still closed. I went back to sleep.
Around 10:30am I woke up again, needing to go pee, and while getting out of bed, I stood up and my water broke. Thank God I was wearing flannel pajama pants, because this gush of water soaked them. I knew immediately what it was and I stupidly stood there on the carpet beside the bed for what seemed like a full minute, shocked and surprised and unmoving. Then I realized I better get my ass into the bathroom, and onto a tile floor as I was dripping water down my legs with every movement.
Adrenaline kicked in and I started to shake. But in a good way. I knew the babies were going to be here- today was the day! I remember sitting on the toilet, peeing and amniotic fluid water coming out at the same time (weird feeling) trying to calm my racing mind. My kids were both sleeping (it was the last weekend before school started) and needed to be woken up. Allen was at work, I needed to call Carly and Ben... I was in labor! What a rush!
Then I looked down at the bathroom tile between my feet and noticed that the drips on the floor were medium pinkish/red. Not clear fluid. But not dark red. Medium pink. And I started to panic just a little.
I woke Kate up, calling to her from the bathroom, telling her that "Mom's water broke!" And she went into my room ( TJ had crawled in my bed sometime in the early morning after Allen had left for work) and woke him up. All of our bedrooms are near the bathroom I was in. We told him that my water had broke and that Carly and Ben's babies would be there that day. The kids were so excited.
I called my husband at work, to come and get me.
Next I called Carly and Ben.
When she answered the phone I said, "Hi, my water just broke."
She said "OMG, are you serious? I laughed and said "yep, it's for sure." She started freaking out immediately saying to Ben in a breathless voice "Dee's water just broke, OMG, my legs are like jello, I can't stand up!"
I heard Ben in the background saying "Carly, calm down!" But he sounded like he was plenty nervous too!
I told her as soon as Allen got home, we'd head over to the hospital. The hospital is located in between their house and ours. (15 minute drive for them, 35 for us, we're a little farther away)
Then she asked me if I had called our OB yet.
I hadn't, it had only been a couple of minutes since I woke up, and he was next on the list.
I called his office and got the "Office is closed" message. HUNH? It was 10:30 on a Friday morning? WHY wasn't the office answering? I waited on the line like they said for emergencies and was put through to his answering service.

"Dr's Answering service"

"Hi, my name is Dee(Lastname). I'm a patient of Dr.Lastname. I'm trying to get through to his office and - the answering service lady cut me off-

"Well, there's been a problem in the building today, and the whole building has been closed."
Her tone sounds like she trying to tell me "that's it, you're not reaching the Dr." Final answer.

I copped an attitude. My tone changed from nice, to abrupt and a little snotty.

"Well" I countered, "I'm 34 weeks pregnant with twins, my water just ruptured and it looks like there's blood in it. I think he might want to know."

"Well" she responds sounding a little less huffy, "I guess I better get you through to him."

Stupid ass.

10 seconds later, I hear my OB's voice on the line. Fancy that. I didn't even have to wait for a call back. Directly connected. The problem is, I can barely hear him. I mean barely. I tell him it's me, that my water broke, and he cuts me off, and tells me to head to the hospital, and we were disconnected. Even that exchange of information took a couple of minutes because we could barely hear each other and we were repeating things over and over. Gah. I didn't even get to tell him that the fluid wasn't clear. Maybe the answering service did? I was worried about the color of the fluid, but not too much, because I know that it only takes a tiny bit of blood to make fluid (urine, amniotic)look pink. I figured it could have been from my cervix opening so fast when my water broke. It had been firm and closed only a few days before at my OB visit.



Ok- that's it for now. Next installment will be how I ended up DRIVING MYSELF to the hospital... and some more of the birth story.