Birth story of Pecos Joe!
For about 2 weeks I felt like I was leaking fluid. My waters gushed with Caleb and leaked with Dax, then gushed when we got to the hospital. This whole just leaking thing was driving me crazy because I was never sure if it was water leaking or me peeing my pants. At 36 weeks my AFI was 12, which is normal, so I tried not to think about the leaking even though I was dilated to a 4 already. At 37 weeks, I was dilated to a 5 and my AFI had dropped from a 12 to a 7. I was sent straight from my MFM to the hospital (that was on Thursday 12/27).
As I walked over to triage, I couldn’t get ahold of Casey on either of his phones. I was in a panic and needed him to calm me down. Luckily, a friend he works with answered my call and he tracked Case down!! My MFM told me I would most likely be admitted and I wanted my husband there. However when I got to triage they told me a different story so I told Casey to wait to take off work until we knew what was happening.
During triage, they tested me to see if my fluid was leaking and told me that all test were negative. They determined that I had a high leak and that is why my AFI dropped from a 12 to a 7 in just a week. They said I was okay, baby is okay and I could go home. I was sent home dilated to a 5 with a high leak... and had so many unsure feelings about being sent home! I was nervous that I would get home and not make it back to the hospital in time for an epidural.
I got home around 6pm Thursday night, we had dinner, picked up some stuff at Home Depot, stopped for milkshakes at Sonic and went to bed by 10pm. I was woken up at 2:34am with some mild contractions that were 5-6 minutes apart. Triage told me to come back once contractions were less than 5 minutes apart... so I decided to lay on the couch, watch a Hallmark Christmas movie and count contractions. Once I got up to move to the couch, I started leaking again. I knew I wasn’t peeing, so I decided to do the pooling test (laying down for 30-45 minutes, then stand up to see if waters come leak again). I did this a couple of times and went through 3 pair of undies. I kept telling myself I would wait for Casey to wake up for work at 6am and then tell him to see if he thought we should go back to triage or not.
At 5:15am, I was walking back to our bedroom (for some dry undies) and a huge gush of waters fell on my kitchen tile. It stopped me in my tracks... then I started walking again and another big gush came out. I finally made it to the bedroom, leaking the whole way, and woke Casey up to tell him we needed to get to the hospital because my water broke!!
I stood in my kitchen, naked from the waist down while standing on a towel while Casey got dressed, got Dax up and got him dressed and then we headed to my mother in laws to drop Dax off. (Caleb was at his dads house).
We made it to the hospital around 7am, which was shift change, so it took a while for us to be seen. When the doctor finally came in, they tested me again to see if it was my water breaking and told me the test was negative AGAIN!!! I was super annoyed!!! I know for a fact my water broke! They checked me and I was dilated to a 6. The doctor said “I am not sure if we are going to admit you or not, let me go talk to your doctors office and we will figure out a plan.”
I was PISSED!!! I am dilated to a 6. Contracting every 5 minutes. And my water broke but they didn’t believe me!! Finally at 9am they decided to admit me. I was wheeled to labor and delivery and around 9:30am the on call doctor came in to break my water and start pitocin. When she went to beak my water, she said “oh wow, there isn’t anything to break.”
UMM YEAH BECAUSE I ALREADY TOLD YOU, MY WATER BROKE AT HOME!!!
I decided at 10:30am to get my epidural, the nurse checked me and told me I was dilated to a 7. I had told my friends and family (and photographer) that it would be late afternoon/early dinner time and to not rush to get to the hospital. After the nurse checked me when I got the epidural, she said I needed to call everyone back because this baby would be here by noon!
Boy was she right!! At 11:45ish she checked me again and I was a 10!! They called the doctor and I started pushing around noon.
Pecos Joe Flowers joined the world at 12:12pm!!!
