Maria's Blog: The Birth of Baby D: Part 1 (The Diagnosis)

Wow, what a crazy three weeks it's been! We increased our household by 33% and our cumulative cuteness by about a gazillion percent. Check it out:

I've had the bulk of this written for a couple weeks, but I've been just a little busy. :-) This was kind of a painful story to write, but I think it's important to share, at least for me, in order to get it off my chest.

PART 1: The Diagnosis

So, as I've mentioned before, I was having some health issues towards the end of pregnancy. On Wednesday, my midwives took a blood sample and sent it off to be tested. On Thursday morning, I got the call: it appeared that I was in the early stages of toxemia, and it was now necessary for me to transfer care to a physician. My midwife Heather gave me the number of a doctor that she highly recommended, and I called his office and set an appointment for that afternoon.

That afternoon, before the appointment, Adam and I made a very delicious stop at Famous Dave's. My mother-in-law had very thoughtfully arranged for us to get a hearty meal there; we just hadn't been able to have a convenient time when Adam and I would both be off work! So, we thought, "Well, we're not doing anything this afternoon, and who knows when that baby's coming-- let's go eat!"

Little did we know that this would be a VERY good idea.

After finishing off the last of those BBQ ribs, we made our way down to the doctor's office. Let me tell you one immediate benefit of midwife care: NO WAITING!!! Out of the two or so hours spent at the doctor's office, I think we actually saw the doctor for twenty minutes. Next time I go, I'm bringing a book!

So when we finally got to see the doctor, we did all the tests: blood pressure, urine, and... the cervical exam. Dear God, that was seriously the most painful part of the entire birthing experience. Contractions were nothing next to that! After all that unpleasantness, they took my blood pressure again, and for some odd reason, it was sky-high. Gee, I wonder why!

Anyways, the doctor left the office, and returned a few minutes later with his prognosis: my condition was starting to get dangerous, and he very strongly felt that the best thing would be to induce labor as soon as possible.

And the slot for "as soon as possible" was in two hours. The doc told us to go home, do whatever we needed to do, and come back at 7:30.

We drove home and I kind of wandered around in a state of shock. We were not prepared at all for Baby D's arrival! I had always thought that when labor started, I'd have some time to tidy up the house and do other last-minute baby preparations. I had Adam throw a random assortment of baby stuff in the laundry, because I hadn't even washed any of Baby D's clothes at that point. I called my midwife. I had NO idea what to pack for a hospital birth, because I wasn't supposed to be giving birth in the hospital.

So, we tried to relax, packed some things, and took one last preggo picture: