False Alarm

I wrote the following yesterday:
"Kyra's water has broken! No contractions yet, however, so we've been at home.

"The midwife suggested resting and calling back around 6 pm, so we'll see what happens then!"
Here's the story about what happened yesterday. (I may not be 100% accurate about what happened to Kyra, so there may be some revisions later. Check our site for the most up-to-date entry.)

Kyra was running an errand at the diaper service company, and she had a sharp pain in her side while walking to the store. She sat down once inside, signed up for the service, and experienced another sharp pain when she stood up, and then decided to go to the bathroom. There, she discovered what she thought had been a large amount of amniotic fluid, indicating that her water had broken.

She sent me a text message with the letter "B"--our code for "baby" or "birth," meaning I should call ASAP. (It's clearer to receive a text message than a phone call while at work, especially while I'm in a lot of training sessions and meetings.) I called and she told me she was downtown and thought her water broke, but she wasn't having consistent contractions. I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up, but she said she would drive home.

I raced out of the office to get to the apartment, where I got our stuff ready to go when she arrived. I called the medical office to contact the midwife and the receptionist what happened, and she said she would have the midwife call back to talk to Kyra. Kyra arrived, still without consistent contractions, and I helped her out of the car and into the apartment. Shortly after, the midwife called and discussed the situation with Kyra. She thought that perhaps the water had broken and the baby's head had plugged the opening, so that not all of the fluid escaped, but dripped out slowly. She told us to wait until about 6 pm, and if nothing happened at that point, to call back again.

We decided to call our friend Carla to come over and stay with Kyra so I could go back to work. Since there were no contractions yet, and no other problems, there was no need for me to miss time at work. We decided it would be best for me to have as much time available to take off when the baby arrives. Since I started a new job, they only offered one week of unpaid leave for the birth. (This upsets me, but it's an entirely different topic that I'll probably write about later.) Carla stayed with Kyra while I was at work and I checked in hourly. Kyra rested and then got up to bake muffins and cookies. She had planned this as her "labor project"--something to do while waiting the hours it could take before going to the hospital. (Yeah, it's really NOT such a panicked rush like the movies depict.)

I arrived home after work, skipping out on the last bit of a very dull meeting. Kyra baked cookies, we had pizza and watched TV with Carla, and Kyra called the midwife. She suggested we wait until the next morning to come to the hospital. We waited and waited all night. No consistent contractions. She was having something, contractions, cramps, whatever it was, but it wasn't consistent or overpowering. We did things to urge the contractions on, like yoga and walking around at the mall. Still nothing.

We waited all night, and still no steady, rhythmic contractions occurred. Kyra was worried all night that they would have to induce her, and she didn't get much sleep. We woke sometime around 3 or 4 am, and we talked. I told her we needed a "contraction stimulus plan." We laughed quite a bit lying in bed waiting (and we may have more funny marital quotes to add later). We fell asleep again (at least I did, Kyra got up to read at some point), and woke around 5 or 6 am. Still no contractions.

Eventually we called the midwife and went to the hospital around 7 am with Carla (she had stayed overnight). They conducted two tests to determine if the "water" (that is, amniotic sac) had broken, and the tests, one of which was a visual inspection, determined that it had not. Disappointed, we went home. Kyra felt guilty for getting everyone's hopes up and not coming home with a baby, but it wasn't her fault. How were we to know that the water hadn't broken and the baby plugged it as he descended? (Yes, this can happen.)

Now we are back to where we were before: Waiting. I suppose we can finish a few things before our son arrives. We'll certainly need to buy more cookie dough!

Comment(s):

Chris S. said...

We received the following email from Kyra's Aunt Polly:

"Good Morning family and friends!

"It was reported last night that Kyra's water broke. She went to the hospital and the exam shows that it was still intact. Kyra is resting at home and doing fine. Grandpa Marquis was really excited to relay the news to Vicki Domack last night that Kyra's water had broke. Grandpa Marquis is on full alert waiting for the call that she is indeed going into labor! Vicki seems to think that Kyra is holding out for October 6th to have the baby so her favorite Aunt can win the baby pool. Once she does go into labor, she will be at Meriter.

"Some suggestions to get induce labor would be: 1. Walk, walk, walk, walk! 2. Chris take her bowling. 3. Yea you guessed it SEX! That is all..."

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