13 September 2007-I was planning on going to enrichment night at church, which was a lesson in the chapel, including a dinner served prior to that. As I was making dinner for the kids, I started wondering if I should go to enrichment night. I didn’t know if I was feeling up to going as I was wondering if David would be able to put the kids to bed, and I didn’t feel up to taking the kids with me, since Kyle was at work and wouldn’t leave until 9:30. About 6:00 PM I fed the kids and decided to stay home so I ate too. After dinner I was noticing some strong painful contractions, but I didn’t mention anything to Kyle because I didn’t want to alarm him or make him come home unless I was sure I needed him home. About 7 I was hurting so much that I just wanted the kids to be in bed. So to stall a bit we cleaned up the toys and I remember thinking that I was bending over way too much considering the pains I was having. After cleaning up and getting the kids ready, we went through our nighttime routine of praying, brushing teeth and reading books. I read the kids their bedtime stories that they had picked out and then we read a bit from the scriptures. My belly was hurting so badly that I just couldn’t read the whole chapter. So I told the kids that my belly was hurting, we put our scriptures away, and I laid Jeremy down first, then Ethan, then I got Tyra off the potty chair and laid her down too. I asked David to water the garden for me.
About 8:30 PM I broke down and messaged Kyle admitting that we should probably go to the hospital. He didn’t respond right away, so I tried calling his cell phone, but he didn’t answer. Then he saw my instant message and he said “What?! Now?!” So after telling his manager what was going on, he left work for the 45 minute drive home.
While having contractions, I had to go down the hall several times to tell Jeremy to get back on his bed, and to tell Ethan and Tyra to be quiet. And when the contractions got really intense I would impatiently call Kyle to find out where he was. He had to stop off and fill up his car, which just added to my stress. I went around and gathered up the things that were in my suitcase that I had pulled out because I was using them and I asked David to put them back in my suitcase for me. I also put my laptop in its bag to bring it with. When I called Kyle and he said that he was driving into our valley, I called Claudia. She asked me for some details, and said that she was already at the hospital and she told me to just come in and that we would see what was going on. Kyle got home just a few minutes after I got off the phone and we left immediately for the hospital. (The kids were all asleep by the time Kyle got home.) On the way to the hospital, Kyle noticed that the contractions were about 3 minutes apart.
When we got to the hospital we went in through the main entrance, and walked passed the security guy that visitors were supposed to check in with, and as we passed he asked “Are you here for you?” Kyle said “We are here for the little one inside her.” And the security guy said “Well we will consider that part of her.” So we got in the elevator and went up to the 3rd floor. When we got off the elevator Kyle picked up the admittance phone and the nurse at the desk answered, “Can I help you?” Kyle responded “You can help my wife. She’s the one that’s pregnant.” The nurses let us in and we stood there to wait for the nurse to come back to the desk. Claudia was sitting there looking exhausted, as they were very busy that night, and said that she didn’t know what rooms were being used and where they could put me. She went into the third triage room, but there was no monitor in there. So the other nurse came back and told us to follow her and we would “go for a walk” and find an available room. So we passed LDR 1, where Tyra was born. We passed LDR 2, where Jeremy was born. LDR 3 was empty, but hadn’t been cleaned since the last delivery, so we moved on to LDR 4. That is where they decided to put me, and the nurse gave me a gown to change into. Claudia came in to check my cervix, and to try to get me hooked up to the monitors to see how the baby was. I was still only dilated to 5 cm but I was 100% effaced. We talked, and Claudia didn’t know if they should admit me yet, so they decided to monitor contractions for a little while, then check progress again before deciding that I was actually in labor and that I needed to be admitted. So she looked for the monitor but she couldn’t find the cables, so she had to go get a nurse to do that. That is when Sarah came in. She got me hooked up to the monitors, then left to go check on another patient and to get me some water.
Sarah came back in (about 10:30) to get me started on an IV to administer antibiotics that were needed because I tested positive for Group B Strep during the pregnancy. That really confused us because we thought that we were just going to hang out and monitor contractions for a while before deciding to start the IV. I mentioned that to her, and she explained that because my cervix had changed from my appointment that morning they were just going to get the IV started. So Kyle asked if they were officially admitting me, and Sarah said they were.
Kyle sat on the couch and pulled out his computer. I was just on the bed listening to the baby’s heartbeat when I remembered that we hadn’t recorded the baby’s heartbeat yet and I had the tape recorder in my suitcase in the car. So I asked Kyle to go get it so we could record the heartbeat before the baby was born.
While Kyle was getting the suitcase, Claudia came back in after having watched the contractions for a little bit. She explained that they seem to be calming down and was kind of wondering if my body was really in labor, questioning if giving me that dose of antibiotics had been a good idea.
Kyle came back and he brought all of my bags up, instead of just the tape recorder and recorded the baby’s heartbeat, then pulled the guest couch into a bed to lie down.
So when Claudia came back in about midnight to check me again, I was dilated to a good 6.5 almost 7 and she mentioned that my cervix was posterior. And because I was showing more progress, she was glad that we had decided to get the first dose of antibiotics started when we did.
Claudia brought in a birthing ball in case I decided to use it. I was so tired though, considering it was past bedtime that I was happy just relaxing (as much as I could) in the bed. I woke Kyle up and asked him to get my magazine out of my suitcase and I sat up and read for awhile, hoping that sitting upright would use gravity to help the cervix open.
About 2 Claudia checked my progress again and I was still only dilated to about 7 cm, but the cervix had moved forward more (which made Claudia happy). And as she was checking my progress the bag of waters broke, spontaneously. So Claudia decided to get Sarah to give me the second dose of antibiotics early since the contractions began to intensify and were becoming more painful. So when Claudia left I woke Kyle up and asked him to come be with me, since he had been sleeping off and on since before midnight. After awhile Claudia came back in and sat with me to apply some counter pressure to my legs during the contractions. Claudia decided that of all her patients that were at the hospital laboring I needed to deliver first because I was actually feeling my labor (all her other patients had epidurals and I was going unmedicated.)When she had to go check on another patient, I had Kyle rub my legs, since the contractions were really hurting my legs (my legs felt like they were going to fall off!).
Claudia came back and saw that I was fully dilated, and the baby’s head was just right there. But there was a bit of membrane still between the baby’s head and the way out, so Claudia decided it was time to break the membrane and just have the baby. Once the membrane was broken things happened fast, and after just a few contractions, at 3:30 AM, we had another little girl. They put her on my tummy and wiped her off. Claudia delivered the placenta and noticed that the umbilical cord had an unusually small diameter, and that it wasn’t really attached to the placenta in the usual way. I am just glad that she is alright. Then they took her to the scale and as Sarah took her she estimated that she would weigh 6 lb 4 oz. She put her on the scale and…. 6 lb 10 oz, a nice healthy size. Sarah took her to the table with the heat lamp and gave her the vitamin K shot, and put the goopy stuff in her eyes. Then they brought her back to me and left us alone for awhile. Kyle and I discussed what we should name her, as we had a few options we were considering, and finalized her name: Dinah Bethany Andelin. Kyle sent text messages to the family with cell phones with that feature, and sent e-mail to the others, while I tried to get Dinah to practice nursing, since she was wide awake.