Well, it's been a bit crazy last few weeks. I meant to update everyone before now, but as you'll soon see, it's been a BIT of a whirlwind.
At my 36 week appointment last Friday (the 22nd) the midwife noted that I was measuring VERY small for 35 weeks - more like 29/30 weeks. Because of the concern, they wanted to do an in depth ultrasound and monitor Brianna through Non-Stress Tests (NSTs). On the next Tuesday, they did the scan and found that she was indeed very small - about 4 1/2lbs and only in the 10th percentile. They were further concerned that her abdominal circumference was even further behind, only the 2nd percentile. They wanted to continue monitoring her, and if she didn't improve by the 10th, they were going to induce.
On Friday (the 29th) I woke up around 3:30am with contractions. They were fairly intense, but nothing to be concerned about, and after going to the bathroom at 4:30 they tapered off and were gone by the time I left for my NST appointment at 9:30. My NST showed that everything was going fine, and my amniotic fluid levels were good, so I came home.
That night I woke up around midnight again to some pretty good contractions, but they were very irregular, and again, nothing that caused me any concern. Besides I'd been kind of sick to my stomach from lunch the day before. For whatever reason, eating at Ruby Tuesdays always messes with my intestines (sorry for the details, but if you don't want to read gory details, then you'd better stop reading and just go look at the pictures!!). The contractions were pretty short, around 15-30 seconds, really intense (had to breath through them), but VERY irregular - mostly 15 minutes apart, but sometimes 5, 10, or even 20. They continued through the morning and I was just not feeling well. In fact, I began to get worried that something was REALLY wrong, and that Brianna might be in trouble. I didn't, however, think I was in labor. We called Labor & Delivery and they said to come on in and they'd check me out.
We left for the hospital around 10am, bags packed in case they needed for Brianna to be born that day. I still didn't think I was in labor, although the contractions were getting closer together, they weren't getting harder to deal with. I was dreading having to deal with contractions like this for an indefinate amount of time.
We got to the hospital and I got out of the van, and it hit me - really hard contractions. I realize, okay, I think I'm in labor now. I was having to stop a lot on the way in. We got inside, and I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. With my sister attempting to stop me, I went into the bathroom. After starting to go, I realized that I didn't need to go to the bathroom, that was the baby ready to be born!!! My sister dived under the door after hearing me scream when I tried to "go", I stopped pushing (NOT easy to do when you're immenent to give birth), and we started down the hallway, Heather running ahead looking for someone to get a wheelchair.
A man came out from the hospital and came to hold me up. He wanted me to wait while someone was getting a wheelchair, but I screamed that we needed to keep going. We got to the elevators, went up to the L&D floor and started down the hallway, the good samaritan practically carrying me while I screamed from the effort NOT to push my baby out. Someone came running down from L&D and got me in the wheelchair. They pushed me down to an exam room, I climbed up on the table and they shouted that the head was right there. They got me BACK into the wheelchair, pushed me down to a delivery room, I climbed up on a table on my hands & knees while the pulled my pants off, I screamed out something to the effect of "OH MY GOSH!" because with that push I watched my baby's head come out of me - she was still in her bag of waters because they never broke! With that, my daughter was born in her bag of waters, they passed her up to me and I finally rolled over and held my daughter. My shoes were still on, and we had barely arrived at the hospital 10 minutes before.
Brianna was born a month early, but thanks to everyone's prayers, she was perfectly healthy. Tiny, but healthy. She was 4lbs 12oz and 17.5 inches. We're now safely at home, and she's nursing like a champion! Enjoy the pictures!!
