A Birth Story: Brody Lawrence Part 1

My due date had come and gone.  In fact 3 more days had passed as well.  I was hoping I wouldn't make it to my appointment with Linda, my midwife, on Thursday, but it wasn't looking good on Wednesday night.

Justin and I went to bed, me fully knowing we'd be seeing Linda tomorrow and getting a non-stress test.  I woke up early in the morning with a few painful contractions but nothing too serious.  I had been having on and off painful and non painful contractions for about 2 weeks at this point.  Justin left extra early for work so he could come to my appointment with me.  Kayla and I went about our morning business then got ready to head out.

My appointment with Linda was at 10 am.  Justin met us there.  The receptionists and everyone else there were very happy to see Kayla, but sorry I hadn't had the baby yet.  :)  Linda's nurse brought us back, I got weighed, my blood pressure checked and then she hooked me up to the fetal and contraction monitors for the non-stress test.  It wasn't recording Baby's heartbeat very well so after a bit, Linda came in and said she wanted to do an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels before the technician left for the day.  So off to the US we went.

She said my fluid was a little low, but within the normal range.  During this US, despite my strong "girl" feelings, I got a very strong "boy" feeling for some reason.  Justin asked about the baby's size and she told us it wasn't very reliable at this point in pregnancy.

We headed back to the room to be hooked up to the non-stress test again.  During the 15-20 minute test, I had 4 pretty regular contractions.  Not terribly painful, very much like what I had been having for weeks so I thought nothing of it.  When Linda came back in she said, "Are you in labor?" with a smile. I said, I don't know.  Haha.  She continued to check me and stripped my membranes (I had this done with Kayla as well).  Said I was 3.5-4 cm.  (How the heck was I not in labor???)

Linda then asked me to lie down so she could try to get an idea of how big the baby was.  She then said she had a feeling the baby was pretty big and that if she didn't see us tonight or tomorrow in the hospital, we were to call her and likely schedule an induction for Monday or Tuesday because she was worried about the baby's size and the fluid levels.  I said, "How big are we talking?"  She replied, "Oh I don't know, 8 or 8.5 pounds?"  Phew...I think.  (This is sort of important later in the story.)

After our appointment, Kayla and I were going to meet Gigi for lunch and ice cream, but she had to stay at home with the decorator for their new kitchen reno.  So Kayla and I went to the grocery store quickly and got lunch at Corner Bakery.  I kinda had a feeling it was going to be our last Mommy and me date for a little while.

When we got home, Kayla went down for her nap and I text with Justin telling him I was having somewhat regular, not painful contractions but I was going to try to take a nap.  I was able to nap for about an hour and 15 minutes and when I woke up, I had slept so soundly I was confused what time it was and what exactly was going on...

To be continued. :)

Thursday morning before our crazy day began.  I love my little girl so so very much. :)