Marlo's Birth Story Part 2
On the drive it just felt so surreal. I felt totally fine, normal. Brad was convinced we wouldn't be going home without a baby and I was convinced that I was going to be told I'd been weeing in my pants all day and sent home.
We talked about what we thought baby #2 was going to be (Brad still thought boy and I still thought 60/40 in favor of girl) and I spent some time on the phone notifying my mom and best friend Sarah of what was going on. I told both that we'd let them know the verdict after we'd been to the labor & delivery triage to get checked out.
We arrived at the hospital at about 10 o'clock and upon entering the emergency room the female security officer shouted, "Whoa! Congratulations mama bear I'll buzz you up to the 5th floor!" with a smile on her face. I however, was a bit shocked since I was walking normally and not behaving like someone in labor... but I suppose everyone else could tell I was going to be having a baby soon other than me!
We went on up to the 5th floor, checked into triage and I was told to give a urine sample. Then we were escorted to a tiny room that had sliding glass doors and curtains. The nurse instructed me to strip from the waste down and climb onto the table and she'd be back soon. I did as instructed and as I moved to climb onto the table a small gush of fluid splashed to the floor. My husband, the saint, wiped it up since he knew I was embarassed and was sure that this meant he was right~ my water had broken. Whereas I thought I had hit a new low and peed on the floor.
The nurse came in and used my panty liner to rub a PH strip on it and immediately it turned blue. She looked at me and said, "Well, blue means amniotic fluid my dear. I think we'll be checking you in but let me call your doctor." I was shocked. Shocked. I started giggling with Brad nervously and we were chatting about how crazy it was that we were now going to meet our second kiddo in less than 24 hours since they don't let you go more than 24 hours past when your water breaks.
My doctor was not on call, her partner Dr. Hallahan was. She came in, checked me (still at a 3cm) and she had to insert a speculum as well and check for amniotic fluid. She ran a slide and determined that my water had definitely broken and I was experiencing a slow leak. There was slight concern about how long this had been happening since I was so unsure but they decided to just assume that 3 o'clock was what they'd go with. That meant I had until 3 pm the following day to have this bambino.