A Baby Story: Jude Monroe

Disclaimer: there will be words used in this post that are associated with birthing babies...if that freaks you out, don't read.  :)  This will also probably run quite long...

Friday, November 23, 2012
After cooking and stuffing myself full of good food all day Thursday, I got up early to open the store Friday morning.  On my drive in to work I noticed that I was having a bit of cramping and some contractions.  This was my "roll-over day" so I was officially 35 weeks pregnant.  Throughout the morning, I kept having contractions that were a little painful.  I knew they were more than Braxton Hicks, but they weren't really regular and seeing as how I was standing on my feet doing fast paced work I figured they would ease up once I got home.

After work I rested on the couch with my sweet Liam bird.  At some point when I went to the restroom, I noticed that I was spotting a bit.  This is exactly how things started progressing with Liam's premature arrival, so I started to pay attention and record the contractions I was having.  Over the course of a few hours I was having contractions every 8-12 minutes.  Kirsten, who had been staying with us, had gone to spend the night with some other friends and we had plans to meet up for lunch on Saturday.  I decided that I would call the doctor Saturday and see what they wanted me to do if I was still having contractions after sleeping all night.

Saturday, November 24, 2012
When I woke up Saturday morning, I still wasn't feeling right.  I was still having frequent contractions along with spotting.  So, I started cleaning and doing laundry!  Around 10:00am, I called my OB office and the on-call doctor said that I should go into the hospital to be checked and monitored for a little while.  So, we met up with Kirsten for an early lunch and then went to the hospital while she took Liam home for his nap.

Once we arrived at the hospital, they checked me into OB triage and got Jude and I all hooked up on monitors.  I was relieved to see and hear that his heart rate was doing great with the contractions that I was having.  We discovered that I was actually having contractions every 3-4 minutes but since I wasn't in active labor they didn't really hurt and I didn't notice a lot of them.  It took 2 nurses and 1 doctor to check my cervix (not exactly a walk in the park), I was dilated a "fingertip."  After about 30 minutes on the monitors, Jude did have a drop in his heart rate after I had a really strong contraction.  This resulted in earning us a "23 hour observation" stay in the hospital.

At this point, I was a little frustrated.  We had company in town and had planned to decorate for Christmas and go look at Christmas lights with Liam for the first time.  I really thought that these contractions were the result of me over-doing it for the past few days.  So, we assumed that resting, fluids, and some anti-contraction drugs would do the trick.

Sunday, November 25, 2012
The medication I was given to slow/stop my contractions seemed to be working pretty well during the night.  I was still having contractions, but they hadn't developed into active labor and I wasn't in any pain.  So, Dr. Heideman (the on-call & amazing dr) decided to let me go home.  We talked about bed rest and continuing to take the medication.  I was supposed to follow up with my OB on Tuesday.

After leaving the hospital around 1pm, we had to go to target to get my prescription filled.  While walking around there (why is the pharmacy always closed for lunch when we are there?) I started having some pretty painful contractions.  I thought it was just because I was getting close to needing my next dose of medication.  We got home and I laid on the couch for a while and took my medicine.  The contractions lessened for about an hour and I was able to rest, then they were back with a vengeance.  I was in so much pain that I was vomiting and couldn't walk or talk during the contractions, they seemed like they were right on top of each other.  So, I called the doctor back and she told me I needed to come back to the hospital.

We checked back into the hospital a little before 7:00pm and they immediately put me on the monitors. I was having back to back contractions, but Jude was doing really well.  They checked my cervix (in one try!) and I was dilated to a 4.  This sent everyone into hyper-drive, they started immediately checking me in for a c-section and getting IVs started and getting the doctor called back to the hospital. They were concerned at the speed that I was progressing and they reacted accordingly (I was told later that the bottom portion of my uterus was so thin that I almost definitely would have hemorrhaged if I had continued progressing).  I was so impressed with the calm approach everyone had.  They had me checked in, prepped, anesthetized, and ready for a c-section in a little more than an hour.  We were calm and ready to see our baby boy!

And, at 8:44pm Jude Monroe was brought into the world!  At birth, he weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.  He was pretty quite upon birth and started grunting a lot which is a sign of lung distress so he was immediately taken to the NICU and wound up being intubated for a few hours to clear his lungs.  We are so happy to have baby Jude here and are hoping to not have a long stay in the NICU.