The Wednesday after Mother's Day in 2013, I ran on State Route 51 between Spanish Fork and Springville, running my furthest distance of 4.5 miles without stopping. During this run, a school bus drove past me with it's passenger door open, about swiping me off of the shoulder. The first thought in my head? "What if I was pregnant?!?" Why this question popped into my head was beyond me, but I finished my run, went home, and took a pregnancy test. Low and behold, I was pregnant. That Saturday, I was to fly out to California to assist with my mother's hospital recovery. I had phoned my nurse practitioner to notify her of the positive pregnancy test. I was called on Friday to go to Outpatient at UVRMC to get a blood draw. It confirmed I was pregnant, and that my progesterone was still low, that we needed to up my dosage. I was told that I would have to get my blood drawn every week until we reached week 14 of the pregnancy to make sure my progesterone level was adequate, as this hormone is what I needed to sustain the pregnancy.
There weren't many issues with the pregnancy, other than migraines during the second trimester, sacra-illiac nerve pain in my back towards the end of the second and into the third trimester, and gestational hypertension. Throughout all of this, I continued to work. My job was pretty intense, as I had worked in Park Maintenance for Provo City. I was often found assisting with volunteer park maintenance projects, driving heavy equipment, doing labor-work. I was told I needed to relax a bit, and let others work while I supervise. This was hard for me, because I often felt like I needed to lead by example. By week 26, I was experiencing Braxton Hicks after these projects, and was told again, to relax, do more office work. I put my two-weeks notice in, with my final workday being the day before Thanksgiving, week 32.
Monday on week 34, I went into the OB/GYN to get the reading on my 24-hr Output Collection Test, to find out that I was borderline pre-eclampic, that I needed to be on bed rest. The main goal was to keep this little guy in until we reached 36-weeks gestation. I was then scheduled to come back into the office every week to check my blood pressure. That Thursday, I decided that if I was going to be visiting the OB/GYN every week, with the possibility of being moved to Labor and Delivery, I m going to at least be prepared, and packed a hospital bag.
At 1:00 am Friday morning, December 13th, I woke to visit the bathroom, and found that there was mucous and watery discharge. When I went back to bed, I would leak, not a gush of fluid, but slightly leak. This was made worse if I tried to get up, sit down, roll over. I called the night nurse at the OB/GYN, and what she said confused me. "Is it mucous, or is it watery?" I told her it was both. "No, it's either watery or mucous. If it's mucous, you're good. If it's watery, you need to go to labor and delivery." Well, instead of taking her advice, I stayed at home, though I woke Ryan up and asked if he thought he should be going into work that day. He had planned on waking up at 2:30 am to go into work. At 8:30 am, we decided we would go to the OB/GYN. When we arrived, the night nurse had spoken to the nurse who was to see me, and the nurse explained, "there's nothing we can do here, you'll need to go to Labor and Delivery."
By 10:30 am, I had been admitted, had an IV, and a pelvic exam and test run on the leaking fluid. The nurse came back and said, "Well, the leaking fluid is amniotic fluid, you are 80% effaced and 1 cm. You aren't going anywhere until this baby comes." Ryan and I looked at one another, and we were in total shock. This baby wasn't supposed to be due until January 20th, 2014, another 4.5 weeks. The doctor came in, put me on antibiotics and petocin and said, "the baby will be here within 24 to 48 hours." I called my mother, a school teacher in California, and she was able to hop a plane.
By 1:30 pm, my contractions were getting painful, and I was put on an epidural. I was 90% effaced and at 4 cm. The nurse explained that this baby would be here sooner than the 24 to 48 hours they thought it'd take. The nurse came back in around 4:00 pm, did an exam, and said I was 98% effaced and at 7 cm. I was progressing quicker than they thought. My mom wouldn't be here for the delivery as I'd hoped. During the 5 o'clock hour, the nurse said that the doctor would come by to visit again at 6:00 pm, and most likely, I would be taken to the Operating Room. Because this baby was 5.5 weeks early, he would be admitted to the NICU. The Operating Room was next to the NICU.
At 6:00 pm, I was completely dialated and effaced, and ready to go. I was moved to the O.R., the nurse and Ryan assisted me through contractions and pushing. The doctor had gone downstairs to visit with other patients. Another doctor came in right as I was crowning. I had to have pushed for close to 30 minutes, and at 6:38 pm, J.J. was born. He weighed 5 pounds and 7 ounces, and was 16-inches long. The NICU nurses took him immediately to check him out, and then brought him to me to look over. As soon as J.J. was born, Ryan left my side to be with our son. I had a first degree tear that needed to be sewn, but other than that, everything was perfect. Our son was premature, but didn't need ventilation. He was put on IV fluid and a feeding tube.
For 12 days, our son was in the NICU. He had to be put on bilirubin lights a few times. He had severe tongue tie, which was remedied on day 3. He had an issue breast-feeding, but by day 9, took to a bottle. December 25th, 2013, our son was able to come home.
