Jack was scheduled to be delivered on January 18th, a week before his due date. My doctor wanted me to go to the hospital the night before to get started. Inducing was new to us because labor with Charlie came on naturally. I wanted to avoid induction with Charlie and my doctor humored me, letting us go a week overdue to wait him out. With Charlie, my water broke at 2:30 a.m. and he was born a quick 20 hours later.
With our two-vessel umbilical cord and a possible heart issue, my doctor wanted Jack’s birth as controlled as possible. The goal was to deliver him during the day so that the full team of neonatologists, pediatric cardiologists, and assistants would be available. Our hospital (named #1 in the metro, BTW) always has these doctors available, but we were being polite and trying to have our baby when it was most convenient for them.
Side note: When you go to the hospital to be induced, you don’t get to come home until you’ve had a baby. That was news to me. I swear that my doctor told me that I’d come home and sleep after being monitored and getting the “ripening” drugs at the hospital. Then I was to report back to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. to start the hard drugs.
So picture me and Dave hanging out in the waiting room, wondering why it’s taking them so long to process our paperwork for this quick visit. (It’s because they were admitting you to the hospital, ya dummy.) After trying to explain to several staff members that my doctor said we could go home after I got the meds, a nurse finally came out to talk to us. She kindly smiled and shook her head and said that no one ever leaves (muhaha!) after starting the induction process. I cringe now thinking about what that nurse must’ve thought about us—and these people will be taking care of a new human being?!
Oh well, it made a funny side note in Jack’s birth story.
To be continued…
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