I can’t believe that almost 4 weeks ago I had a baby. He’ll turn one month old before we reach his due date. It’s a miracle he is doing so well!
I had high hopes of making it to full term. In my mind, I had decided that he was going to come over Easter. That would have put me at 37 weeks. But it wasn’t meant to be.
April 5th was a fun day. Early that morning I had gotten up feeling contractions and a little more “off” than usual. But these things had been happening. So I just drank a ton of water and went about my day. I went in to work, shot a promo with Daily Blast Live for a mommy makeover, and had a lot of fun on the noon show in studio for the Rockies Home Opener. The station threw a big barbecue in the backyard complete with cracker jacks, peanuts, hot dogs and burgers… this mama was HAPPY.
There were no significant contractions coming, so I really wasn’t worried about anything… until late that afternoon. I was sitting at my desk having a conversation with a coworker when I briefly stood up. That was the moment I realized the back of my dress was soaking wet. I looked down at my desk chair and realized it, too, was soaking wet. In that moment I thought, “Crap, I think my water has broken, and I’m at work.”
It wasn’t the same gush of water like my previous 2 pregnancies, but it was obviously enough to be concerning. Lucky for me I was wearing the kind of dress where you couldn’t tell it was soaking wet. So, I finished my conversation and went to the backyard to call my doctor. Her thoughts were the same as mine. Sounds like my water broke and it was time to get to the hospital. After all, I still had that dang cerclage in!
I went to tell my news director that I needed to go. She walked me back to my desk and helped me close up my work station. In my mind I was going to drive myself there. My contractions weren’t bad! But we were quickly approaching rush hour and I needed to get to the other side of town. So, instead, we played it safe and decided Cory Reppenhagen, my friend, coworker and fellow meteorologist would drive me.
It had been my plan to arrive at the hospital inconspicuously. I didn’t really want people knowing I was there, especially if the baby was coming early. I wanted the chance to deal with it emotionally before blasting the news to the public. Hahahahaha… plans!
đ¸: Cory Reppenhagen
When asked to describe the 9NEWS storm chasing vehicle… WeatherTitan… inconspicuous is not a word one would use. It’s a ginormous truck with 9NEWS tattooed all over it. Yet, this was my transportation to the hospital. The same truck we go storm chasing in, got me to the entrance of labor and delivery. When we arrived Cory and I were laughing pretty hard at the irony. EVERYONE was staring. In fact, it was so awesomely obvious that it was a 9NEWS vehicle that security thought we were there for the 9Health Fair happening there the next day. Imagine her surprise when I continued to check myself in! So much for plans. At the end of the day, it got me there safely, and I am very thankful to Cory for that!
My husband arrived about 15 minutes later, and nurses quickly confirmed that my water had, in fact, broken.
We also could tell that my cervix had thinned and I was already 2 cm dilated, despite the stitch. Fortunately contractions, still, were not that bad so my doctor was able to, relatively easily, remove my cerclage without medication. I wouldn’t say that process was totally painless, but I’ve experienced worse.
After the stitch was out I immediately dilated to 5 cm, and then my OB/GYN broke the rest of my water. Unlike my other two babies, this time my water broke up high… that’s why there was no rush of fluids. Then, I was told that if I wanted the epidural, to get it now, because if we waited it might be too late. So I got that epidural, and we waited. It’s possible the epidural slowed the process down a bit… but a few hours later, after about 3 pushes, the baby was born.
My husband was phenomenal during the whole process. He was the one who got to announce to the room the gender of the baby. And the joyful shouts of “It’s a boy!” after his first exclamation were so cool to hear.
I think the kids were fairly excited for their little brother… the hospital setting scared my 6 year old a bit, especially when she saw mommy attached to all kinds of things. But eventually she relaxed and realized I was okay. Waiting for the baby to arrive was the hardest part for them. If I had to hear “when can we go home?” one more time… đ. It was a good thing the baby came close to their bed time!
Jeffrey Thomas arrived at 8:30 pm. He weighed 5 lbs 12 ounces… the biggest of all my babies. Since he came early, he was required to spend the next 12 hours in the NICU. It wasn’t my favorite option, but his health was most important and I knew I could visit him whenever I wanted. That was my plan, to start nursing immediately and visit him every few hours overnight in the NICU. But that’s the funny thing about me and birth plans… they never seem to go the way I want.
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