So it’s been a while. I’ve been busy. That’s no excuse. Ok, really, I’ve lacked the motivation to write but I’m hoping to get back into this little blog now that I have more energy and my motivation is back (and that I don’t have to sleep for 12 hours out of my day anymore). So with that being said, I annouce to you Campbell Beth Baudoin born on Saturday 3/29 weighing 6lbs 10oz, 18in. She was born at 10:18am and came out with lungs like no other. I really want to recap her birth story before I forget it all. She’s now 11 days old today and I’m sure I’ve already forgotten half of what happened but I’ll try my best to recap the moment. Really I need to start from the beginning of the week. That’s when things started happening for lack of a better term. On Sunday night my friends threw me an “induction party”. This party was basically a party where everyone brings foods that are supposed to induce labor in ladies past 39 weeks (which I was at that point). There was a lovely spread of all types of foods that are theoretically supposed to induce labor. I brought a fruit salad consisting of mangos, kiwi and pineapple as I was told there’s some ingrediant in these fruits that’s supposed to trigger labor. I had a wonderful time and we all reminesed about our births of our first children and how horrid the experience was. Monday morning I woke up to find that I had some brown blood when I wiped after going to the bathroom. This is exactly how my labor with Emmett started so I texted all my friends and told them that the induction party had worked and that I was starting to get my bloody show!! Everyone was super excited and were on standby. Well, nothing happened that day or the next or even the next. Wednesday I had an appointment with my OB to get get checked out and I was told that I was pretty much the same as the previous week and hadn’t really dilated or effaced at all since the last time. Bummer. I left super depressed knowing that my due date was the next day and nothing was really moving or going to happen anytime soon. Wednesday night is where things started to get a little more interesting. If you remember 3/26 is our anniversary and while we are selfish and don’t want to share our day with anyone, we actually just wanted to get things moving and to get this show on the road. I had gone up to Boulder to eat lunch with my mom earlier in the day and when I got home started feeling nausous. That’s nothing new but the nausea didn’t subside like it usually does. It started to get worse and worse as the night progressed. My mom ended up surprising us and coming over to babysit Emmett while we could go out and enjoy what may be our last night out as parents of one. Even though I wasn’t feeling well, we decided to make the most out of it and go anyways. Who passes up free childcare!? So we headed out with no plan. The longer we drove the worse I got. I was having contractions lasting about a minute from about 15-20 minutes apart. They weren’t bad, just uncomfortable. I was actually half convinced we were going to have a baby before morning. I asked Chad to hurry up and just find a place for us as I didn’t know how much more I could take of driving around. With every contraction I felt like I was going to throw up. Thankfully we decided very quickly where to go. As soon as we stopped the car and got out to walk I started feeling better. We went to appetizers and drinks at the Corner Office downtown. We had wine, beer and calamari, and yes, you better believe I ordered wine! Of course I only had aobut 3 sips before my horrid heartburn started up but it was fun none the less knowing that I had ordered my own glass of red wine. Chad finished up the rest and we continued onward. Our next stop was the Populist located at 5 points. It’s a farm to table type place and the food there was amazing. The atmosphere was perfect for what we were wanting that night, super hip, very trendy, and all organic. It was amazing. We sat at a high long table with probably 6 others. Chad got a burger and I got the tandori chicken. Unfortunately I couldn’t eat very much and after my first bite I actually had to push my plate away from a while. I felt super nausous and thought I was going to throw up again. Luckily we slowly got through dinner. We decided to head back home around 9pm. When we got home my contractions had picked up and I felt even worse so I asked my mom to stay the night in the event that tonight was indeed the night. She agreed that it woudl be a good idea to stay since she and my dad were our babysitters for Emmett for when we finally were going to go to the hospital. We all decided to get to bed and get some sleep. The next thing I knew it was 7am and there was no baby and my contractions were completely gone. To say I was frustrated would be the understatment of the year. Earlier in the week we had asked my in-laws to come out on Thursday since I knew I’d be totally over my pregnancy by that point. Thursday 3/27 was my due date. I felt horrible but knew I had to keep going and continue life with a toddler. My mom helped me tremendously by doing our laundry and cleaning the house for my in-laws. Meanwhile, I had plans with some friends to go curb walking and have a picnic lunch in the park with our toddlers. It was nice to have plans and to get out and to get my mind off of things. I started feeling better and better and also started developing a strong urge to clean. I now know that was probably the nesting urge that people get right before labor starts. So once I got home that day I was manic and cleaned every little part that my mom didn’t get to.
Chad and I had also decided earlier in the week that if this baby wasn’t here by her due date that we would call for reinforcements and have his parents come out to help me with Emmett. So another motivation to clean was so that my in-laws wouldn’t think that we’re complete slobs. It seems as though every time they’ve come out here to visit, I’m sick and the house is a mess. Anyways, they got here Thursday evening right before E went to bed. This was perfect timing because Emmett was able to play and get re-acclimated to them in the event that I went into labor that night and I finally had the help I so desperately needed. Well, as one could imagine, nothing happened that night. A few random contractions but that was about it. I had a doc’s appointment on Friday morning for a non stress test so my in law took Emmett while I went to do the test. The baby pasted within the first 5 min. but they kept me on the machine for the full 30 due to protocol. My doc. then came in to check me and I was 3cm dilated and almost 100% effaced. She told me the baby had engaged and that she’d be really surprised if I didn’t have a baby by Monday!! She also told me that when I enter active labor, things are going to go really fast. I was so excited! My doc. made me schedule an appointment for Monday morning for another non stress test in the event that I didn’t have the baby but she said it was highly unlikely that I’d actually be coming to that appointment. I called my mom immediately to let her know the great news. She had taken the day off work so she invited me to go to a toddler free lunch and shopping. I quickly took her up on that offer. We had an amazing afternoon together including a wonderful mom/daughter lunch at White Chocolate Grill for a total of 2 hours. The last time I enjoyed a 2 hour was lunch was probably when I skipped out on work or when I was unemployed! It was amazing. I was having contractions pretty much all day and they started to get a little stronger as I headed home. At one point I was on the highway and one hit me and I thought to myself, “please god don’t let this baby be born on the highway!” Luckily I made it home. My family ordered dinner from a pizza place that night and I couldn’t stomach any food. It was the oddest thing because I can ALWAYS eat but I just wasn’t interested in food. After we got Emmett down for the night Chad and I took a walk around the neighborhood. I started having more consistent and more uncomfortable contractions during the walk. I’d have to stop about every 8-9 minutes to sway and rock my way through the contractions but I still didn’t believe that anything was going to happen anytime soon. We decided to head home so that I could shower and get some sleep.
I slept pretty soundly until about 1am when I got up to go to the bathroom. I had slept through any contractions that had been happening and still felt them once I woke up. I quickly did my thing and crawled back into bed. I decided to time the contractions because I was curious how far apart they were so I went to the bathroom again with a timer. About 8 minutes apart. Dang. I crawled back into bed. I was having more and more uncomfortable contractions that I couldn’t sleep through so I woke Chad up and told him what was going on. I told him not to react but wanted to keep him in the loop as to what was going on with me in the event that things were to pick up. I went downstairs and put on Parenthood on the ipad as I swayed and rocked through contractions that were still only 8-9 minutes apart. I was frustrated after about 10 minutes of this so I went back upstairs to see if I could sleep another night.
After crawling back into bed I had another very uncomfortable contractions then pretty quickly after I had another one but with this one I felt a small gush that definitely felt differently then going to the bathroom. This one felt like it would if I were to start my period. I was convinced it was blood so I woke Chad up and told him I was going to the bathroom. Well, after sitting on the toilet more of that gush feeling came out and it was clear. My heartrate was faster than it had been in months because I thought, “wow, I think this is it, I’m about to be DONE with this pregnancy!!!” Chad had already gotten out of bed and started gathering the remainder of his items for his hospital bag. I begged him not to react so quickly as I wasn’t sure that it was my water breaking and I didn’t want to get sent home from the hospital. He said he didn’t care and that we were leaving. He raced the monitor down to his parents bedroom and told them we’d keep them posted. We actually argued about leaving and calling the doc or the hospital. From what I remember, you’re supposed to alert the hospital that you’re coming in or call your doc. to ask them what they think you should do. We decided to just call the hospital. I told them I had felt a gush and the nurse decided to just have us come on in as the doc. on call was in the OR and couldn’t make that decision for us. They don’t mess around with water breaking so we were lucky they wanted us to come in.
As we drove to the hospital my contractions started getting a little closer together which made me feel more confident about going. The hospital is 30 minutes away no matter which route you take so I’m glad we left when we did so I didn’t have to labor in the car. When we got to the hospital my contractions were definitely more consisten and more uncomfortable but I was able to breath and rock through them just fine. I was handling them much better than I did with Emmett because I was better prepared this time and did more research on how to handle contractions. I truely believe it’s a mind over matter thing. We entered the hospital enterence and told the guards we needed to get to the labor and delivery ward. It was shut off to the public so they called up to get someone down. It took a good 10 minutes for someone to finally show up but I think they could tell I wasn’t in a ton of pain. Chad and I were laughing and joking-something we haven’t really done in months due to my bad mood about being pregnant. When the nurse finally did show up she had a wheel chair with her. I asked her if I could walk. She said that was fine so we all headed up together. Once we got to the room she checked me in and had me get in my gown. She checked me and also did the amniotic fluid test to see if my water had indeed broken. The test came back positive but it was only a leak. I was also 5cm dilated. You have to be 4cm in order for them to check you in so this was great news! The nurse said that she could feel my bag of waters totally stick in tact and that they’d let the doc. break it as soon as she came in to assess me if it didn’t break on its own. She also told me the same thing the doc. had said not even 24 hours earlier, that when this happens it will happen very quickly since the baby was so far down. I wish Whitney had been my nurse for the entire time but it was almost 5am and they were getting ready for a shitft change. We texted both sets of parents and told them we’re having a baby today!
The above post is all about those small details I don’t want to forget…Part 2 is where it gets interesting…Stay tuned!
Thin Runner 