I was bound and determined that Julie was going to be born on her due date, as scheduled, since she had a deadline, and Hudsons do not miss deadlines. So, after our 39 week, 2 day appointment, when I was told I was not dilated at all, and my cervix was high and closed, I decided to do whatever I could to help the process along. I went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, scrubbed floors, ate spicy foods, and bought a bouncy ball to sit on. By Sunday evening, I'd given up hope that we were going to have a baby on Monday, our due date. I wasn't having any contractions, didn't feel any different, and had no signs of labor. Little did I know, Julie had plans of her own.
I went to sleep Sunday night on the couch since it was more comfortable than our bed, and was easier to get up from to go to the bathroom. I'd been wearing panty liners for a few weeks from all the extra mucous and fluid that comes out in the weeks leading up to delivery. I'd noticed each time I got up to pee during the night that I was changing my panty liner, which was abnormal, but I didn't think anything of it. When I woke up at 5:00AM, I didn't really have to pee yet, so I laid on the couch with Ani by my side, and wondered what the day had in store. My in-laws were expected to arrive for Thanksgivings, I had dance class on regular schedule, and I was trying not to think about it being my due date.
Around 5:30AM, I decided it was time to pee. I stood up from the couch, and the flood gates opened! If you've never had your water break at home, be glad! I will forever be scarred by this experience!i left a trail of fluid from the couch, down the hallway, into the bathroom. I originally thought I'd peed on myself, until I sat on the toilet and realized my bladder was still full. I yelled for Shaun, but he didn't hear me.
When the fluid stopped flowing freely, I decided to maneuver to the bedroom to wake Shaun up. As a word of advice, if your water breaks at home, and you're walking barefoot on laminate flooring, be careful! I slipped in the hallway, and almost busted my butt. I caught myself, and headed to get Shaun. I shook his arm and said, "Either I just peed all over the house, or my water just broke!" He jumped out of bed, like a kid on Christmas morning! I went back to the toilet since I had fluid dripping down my legs, and he was helping me determine if the fluid was pee or not. As we'd learned in our prenatal classes, he collected some fluid on a piece of toilet paper and decided it was definitely not pee since it didn't have a smell or color, and it was slick to touch, similar to oil.
By this point, it was 5:45AM. I sent David a message letting him know my water broke, and decided to take a shower while I waited for his response with further instruftions. When I got out of the shower, he responded, "Get here, now!" We were out of the house by 6:15AM, and were on our way to have a baby!
We called our parents on the way to let them know we were headed to the hospital. We stopped in Bluefield at Burger King for breakfast, and made it to Beckley by 7:30AM. I was having contractions about every 6-8 minutes by this point. They checked me into OB triage to make sure my water broke. I leaked brought an overnight pad in 90 minutes, and when I sat on the toilet in triage, I peed for a good 5 minutes. When they got me into a gown and laying in bed, they hooked up two monitors - once for Julie's heartbeat, and the other to monitor contractions. The nurse didn't believe that my water had broken, and decided to do a paper test. They stick a piece of paper up your vagina to collect fluid, and if it turns the right color, your water has broken. She couldn't decide if my paper was the right color or not, so she called a midwife to check for dilation, which would also show if my water had broken. We watched the Today Show while we waited for the midwife, and learned how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey in a pillow case!
Around 9:00AM, when the midwife arrived, she looked at the contraction strip, and I wasn't contracting at all. However, when she checked me, she told the nurse that my water had definitely broken! I was 3cm dilated, and 80% effaced, so I got to stay at the hospital! Since I wasn't having contractions, and my water had broken, already, they decided I would need an induction. Once your water breaks, you only have 24 hours to deliver the baby due to the risk of infection. They started pitocin around 9:30AM.
About the same time, Shaun's parents arrived. Once the pitocin was started, I began having contractions. Pitocin stimulates labor, and the dosage would automatically increase every 30 minutes until Julie was born. My nurse monitored me regularly, and though I was having contractions, they weren't consistent. Around 1:00PM, the nurse and midwife came into my room, and I knew something was wrong. I'd been watching the monitor and noticed that Julie's heartbeat had started in the 160s and had started to drop, and was now in the 130s. The nurse said, "We're going to unhook the pitocin for a little while. Your baby didn't seem to like it, so we're going to give her a little break a while." About 5 minutes later, David came to see us. He explained that as the dosage of pitocin got higher, Julie's heart rate got lower. This, combined with inconsistent labor, was not a great combination. He recommended that we do a non-emergent c-section later in the afternoon. He said we could continue the pitocin for a few more hours, but that if her heart rate continued to drop, I could end up with an emergency c-section. We decided that a c-section was the best decision, and signed all the consent papers for the operation.
David had said the c-section would be later on the afternoon, so I was expecting to have some time to process what was going on. However, by 1:20PM, I was calling my parents to let them know what was happening, Shaun was suiting up in scrubs, and I was on my way to the OR for a spinal tap. Once I was medicated and draped, around 1:30PM, David started the surgery. They brought Shaun into the room by 1:35PM, and Julia Rose Noonan was born at 1:42PM!
