I can’t believe this time 3 weeks ago (yesterday) I was waking up and getting ready to head to my 39 week appointment. I had finally started feeling contractions the night before, but they came and then went away about an hour and half later. J was debating if he should go into the work that morning since I had been contracting, I was 3cm dilated (since week 37) and was going to have my membranes swept. I told him he should definitely go because most of the time membrane sweeps don’t make you go into labor instantly. Sometimes they don’t work at all. He finally decided to go to the office and I headed to my appointment.
When I got there everything was routine until my nurse took my blood pressure. My blood pressure had been amazing my whole pregnancy until that day. The nurse goes “Your BP is high. We’ll have to tell the dr and let her decide what to do and take it again in a little. She will probably send you for monitoring.” My mind immediately started racing. J had just texted me asking how my appointment was going to which I responded “Not starting off good. My BP is high.” He asked what that meant and I told him “I’m not sure. They will retake it in a bit and probably send me to the hospital for monitoring.” The nurse popped back in and said “I forgot to ask are you getting a cervix check?” I replied that I had planned to have my membranes swept so she brought me a sheet and said she would bring the consent form to me in a few. A couple minutes later my doctor came in. She asked how I was and said she heard my BP was high. She started asking if I had any other symptoms like vision change, swelling, headache, etc. to which I replied no. She also asked if I had started feeling contractions since I had been 3cm dilated and 70% effaced 2 weeks before. I told her I had felt some contractions the night before, but they went away after about an hour to an hour and a half later. She said "Well let’s check you and see if you’re dilated any further. I will have to send you to L&D for monitoring since your BP was high." After checking me she determined I was 4cm dilated and asked me if I was in a position to have the baby today. I responded with “Yea, I guess." She goes "I’m the dr on call today and since you’re 4cm dilated I can just break your water and you can have a baby. With your contractions last night I think you could be in early labor anyway. That can last a while or things can move quickly." I said “ok" and started to cry. I told her the story of how J had debated going to work and apologized for crying. “I’m really happy and ready I swear! I was gonna have a membrane sweep and schedule an induction today anyway so idk why I’m crying!” She said “It’s ok. I get it. Your whole afternoon just changed in an instant.” We chatted for a few and she walked me through where to go, what the next steps were and told me not to freak J out. She said I would have plenty of time so he didn't need to rush home. She said it would be at least an hour or 2 before she came to break my water.
The next little bit is kind of a blur. I remember walking up to checkout and there being 2 women in front of me that were kinda far along so they were scheduling multiple appointments. I just kept thinking OMG! Please hurry up! I need to call my husband!!! I shot him a text briefly telling him what was happening and that I would call him when I got outside since check out was taking forever! The ladies at checkout seemed convinced I was going for monitoring so they kept my appointment for the following week on the books and said we’ll see you then. As soon as I got in the hall I called J and asked if he saw my text. He hadn’t so I said “well, are you ready to have a baby today because I think that’s what’s happening.” I proceeded to tell him how the appointment went and what the doctor said. I also told him that he was right and probably shouldn’t have gone into the office that morning. We ran through all the things he needed to grab and I started my short walk across the street to labor & delivery.
Photos by Sarah DePasquale
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