Chloe Jane Nickle

Here She Is

*Warning~if you're a pansy and can't handle horror movies, don't read this post!...hahaha, just kidding. It wasn't that bad.

I went to the doctor that Wednesday, knowing full well that I wasn't dilated any further than the last visit. Knowing that I was going to go past my expected due date. Just knowing that I had plenty of time to finish all of the projects I had started for little miss Chloe's nursery. However, I was wrong. I had gone from a 1 to a 3 and my doctor asked if I'd like her to strip my membranes...now remember...I knew I was going to have her past my edd, so in my mixed up logic I thought that perhaps if she stripped my membranes I'd have a shot of maybe going into labor before the end of the year, so I said yes.

Have any of you experiences false labor? It's annoying. Especially when you're self pay and you know that if you go into the hospital to get checked out and they send you home it will cost you a pretty penny. That night, after my appointment, I started having this ridiculous false labor...contractions 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 3 minutes...you get the point, so I didn't sleep a wink. It continued on like this throughout most of Thursday, but around 4 pm they started to get a little more regular at 5 minutes apart. "I think this might be it, Joel. Why don't we head to the hospital and wait around just in case they get closer together." (I don't know if you remember Hunter's story...but he was born 20 minutes after we got to the hospital...I didn't want to risk having my baby in the car).

Then, naturally, when we got there it went back to false labor. We decided to bag it and go back home. With my other two, my water broke so there was no guess work. This was frustrating to say the least. We got home, gave the kids their baths, put Mikayla in her jammies, and then...I felt what I thought was my water breaking, so I rushed to the bathroom only to discover that it wasn't water after all, but blood. A LOT of blood. I yelled for Joel...this couldn't be good. Then I had my stud of a husband rush me to the hospital where we met his parents (so they could take the kids). We got to the emergency room where they proceeded to take their sweet time asking me stupid questions while in my head I was screaming that I was bleeding and would someone please do something about it!!!!! We made our way to triage where I told her about what happened and she told me that it was just some bloody show....what?? Then she checked me and I was only at a 4...she told me if I didn't start to progress further I might be sent home. Okay...seriously? I was not going home only to stress about whether or not my baby was okay. I mean, c'mon, I'd only been there for like 5 minutes, how the heck did she know how fast I was progressing?? She came back a little while later and told me that I should walk around for an hour. After 40 minutes of walking my contractions where 2.5 minutes apart. I came back, she checked, and I was at a 7. I was tired and after 40 hours of no sleep and contractions, I didn't want the pain. I asked if I could see the anesthesiologist. Then when she came in I asked how much she would charge for an epidural. She told me and then said we'd have to wait for the results of some blood work first, I asked how long that would take, she told me 30 minutes and I simply said "okay", but I was thinking You want me to go through this for 30 more minutes?! Do you know what's going to happen in 30 minutes? I'll be almost finished with this whole thing! Then, knowing I was going to have to deal with going through transition without pain meds, I asked Joel to get me my book. I decided to concentrate on the story rather than the pain. I was reading when the anesthesiologist came back in and told me that she would give me a spinal block at no charge, but we still needed to wait for the results of the blood test. As she was talking, the strongest most painful contraction swept through me and I pleaded for there to be some way we could fore go the results so I didn't have to feel it any more. I continued to plead as my nurse put my legs in the stirrups and told me to push through the next contraction. Then my cries changed from wanting medication to "Please get.her.OUT!!" It hurt, I was exhausted, and I as soon as they placed her on my chest, I was in love.