#TBT – Labor
Here’s what I was doing six years ago from today. When this picture was taken my water had broken, but I didn’t know it yet.
birthday
Minefields of Nostalgia
My relationship status with nostalgia apps like Timehop and Facebook’s On This Day is, “it’s complicated.”
It’s (sort of) my party and I’ll cry if I want to
She wanted a Honey I Shrunk the Kids birthday party.
I made giant decorations. Baked the cake. Prepped and planned. The weather was beautiful; an early April day perfect for kiddie pools and bathing suits. I was 29 weeks pregnant.
Friends and babies
The past seven years have grown my tribe exponentially. I’ve met so many great people who have given birth to so many great kids. But first… first there was Qais. After years of living on opposite sides of the country and then the world, my friend Charlotte had moved back to the same town as me. And while other friends had had babies by that point, this was the first tiny tribesbaby who I could visit anytime I wanted.
Happy birthday, Nora!
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time thinking about all the ways I was disappointed in both of my experiences giving birth. I had been forming a post about it, yet again. Then I woke up and realized today is my best friend’s daughter’s fourth birthday, and reflected on that instead.
Transport to Duke
Right around midnight the EMTs arrived to transport me to Duke. I’d never been in an ambulance before! They were very nice and managed to keep me calm. We arrived at Duke, and a doctor there checked me. He said I was only the outer os was dilated, so that was good. This doctor also couldn’t tell if my water had broken. He used a giant q-tip to gather whatever fluid he could and put it on a slide. They check for something called “ferning” on the slide, to see if there was amniotic fluid. He said that there was no ferning on the slide. But yet, they still kept going with the idea that I was ruptured. So they started IV antibiotics. In the meantime my blood pressure was high, so they collected some urine to check for protein. It turned out I was spilling a bit of protein, so I was officially diagnosed with mild preeclampsia.
Call the midwife
April 11th was the day of Lorelei’s birthday party. I spent most of that day, and the day before, on my feet. But I was pregnant, not sick! Little did I know. After the party Charlotte and I went out and got dinner and had a lovely girls’ night. We got home around 8:30 pm, and I went to the bathroom.