If you know me then you know I have tried to blog, vlog and journal with zero success most of my life. This, however, is something different. This is a place for updates and information on our son Henry. How can we have a son already when just last week I was only 23 weeks pregnant? Well friends and family here's how.....
They say that the day you give birth/meet your child for the first time is the happiest of your life.... mine was terrifying. I want to tell you all about it and the 4 days that led up to it.
Let's start from the very beginning, Saturday, June 25, 2016. Nook was open but Matt and I were working on a catering event for that evening. Matt was butchering meat and I was working on 120 mini angel food cakes. Around 9am I had a twinge of pain, that I thought nothing of, the same thing happened around 10, but small pain, like a cramp. I assumed I was dehydrated and started to chug water. As the day went on, the cramps came and went and I decided it was round ligament pain, which is completely normal for a pregnancy, but then I noticed that the pain was a little too low, so I called some of my best friends that had kids and asked for their advice, and it was unanimous, they all said that my body was just telling me that I needed a break. So I sat with my water while Matt and the servers loaded up our cars to go cater this wedding. When we arrived at the wedding and unloaded the car my cramps came on more regular, every 7 minutes to be exact, thats when I decided that I must have had the craziest pregnant woman gas of all time and it just wouldn't come out.
One of my friends from high school was there with her 3 kids and she asked how I was feeling. I said "Pretty good, a little off today, I've got these weird cramps". Her response was that it happens and that all of her pregnant friends ask about everything. It was the same response I had gotten from all pregnant people. Matt, However, said that we should leave the wedding and go to the hospital. I didn't want to be that dramatic pregnant woman that ran to the ER every time she needed a nap or had gas, so I was set on finishing up the wedding and getting home to lay down. Then everything changed.... I was finishing up the angel food cakes and I got an intense cramp, and it felt like I just really had to go to the bathroom. So while the servers and Matt loaded the cars I went to the bathroom, I had another big pain and I felt something strange down below, when I looked there was blood. I ran out of the bathroom grabbed Matt and we left to the ER, the pains were getting worse every time they came around.
It took about 15 minutes to get to the ER, I got out of the car and walked in, found the front desk and the lady said "how can I help you" and I started crying and said "I'm 6 month pregnant, in pain and bleeding".... thats when it started. They had me in a wheel chair in seconds and in triage in minutes, by the time I was in my gown on the bed waiting for the doctor I was having full on contractions every 2 minutes. The nurse checked me and said she didn't feel a cervix, then the doctor walked in and examined me and I will never forget her words, "You are in labor, you will probably have this baby in the next 12 hours and he probably won't make it." they gave me an IV and pain meds immediately and moved me to a private room. NICU came in to give us all of the nasty statistics about a preemie that's only 23 weeks and 1 day old. It didn't look good.
My parents showed up right away and my brother was there minutes later, they, including Matt, all stood around my bed and we had THE talk. it went like this " This will not define us as a family, we will get through the good and the bad together. If we weren't meant to have this baby now then we will get there"
From there I was upgraded to another room, I was given an epidural and tests were taken. My white blood cell count was too high, my water had already descended but had not broken, then I had an amniocentesis (a huge needle going into my stomach through everything to test the amniotic fluid, assuming I had an infection). By 2 a.m I was just playing the waiting game, with 1 goal STAY PREGNANT.
We didn't meet you on Saturday Henry... I kept you in!
Nikki