On April 25th we travelled about an hour to go out with our best friends who live in Racine. We really needed a "normal" night out to get our minds on something other than dwelling on what might be. We had our appointment at Children's Hospital that upcoming Thursday and had spent the whole past weekend hibernating at home together.
So we arrived and they're playing Wii Guitar Hero and WoW. We didn't have any firm plans but we knew we'd go get something to eat first, they put me in charge of picking the place since my diet was the most restrictive with the gallstones. I looked up a few places online and found that Olive Garden had an Apricot Chicken that looked good and was only 4 grams of fat (I tried to stay under five per meal). I thought I could have that and salad and as long as I could stay away from their yummy breadsticks, I'd be OK. Little did we know that I probably was already contracting when we left for dinner.
I had commented to my husband that when I woke up that morning Jonah was sitting more in the middle, versus on the side curled up like he had been for weeks. But I really felt nothing other than that, even with the benefit of hindsight, I just had no idea. I hung out with my mom that day, curled up on my friend's couch, and didn't have any problem standing and waiting almost an hour for a table. I never had a hint until after the salad I felt, um, something. My first thought was that I had peed my pants a little, gross, but I had heard that it happened to pregnant women towards the end of pregnancy. My eyes got wide and I excused myself to the restroom. As I was walking through the crowd waiting for their own tables, it was getting worse and worse and by the time I got to the restroom it was apparent that my water had broke. I just sat there thinking OH MY GOODNESS!!! Eventually my girlfriend came looking for me, sent by my husband and I told her what had happened. Her exact words are something we still laugh at to this day "Are you sure"...to which I pointed at my now absolutely sopping jeans and said, um, yes, I'm quite sure. She told me it would be OK and I said "It's too soon". I knew that especially for CDH children, time for the lung to grow in utero is critical. So I was freaking out that I was still six weeks away from my due date and that I hadn't even had my appointment at Children's Hospital yet. I wasn't registered, I didn't have a doctor assigned or a surgeon for that matter, and the Fetal Concerns Coordinator had told me that if I went into labor before registration, that I should go to Madison instead of to CHOW (Children's Hospital of Wisconsin)...yes, I really did ask, that's how much of a planner I am.
But, as anyone with a child knows, YOU are not in charge. So, my girlfriend ran to get my purse/cell phone and tell the guys we had to leave. She brought me my purse and I dialed the Fetal Concerns Coordinator, and of course got voicemail (it's 7pm on a Saturday night for heaven's sake). I waded through the maze of voicemail prompts and eventually found a live person to talk to, who told me to just show up and let them know the situation, she was not helpful. I also called my mom, who wouldn't pick up and who was, unbeknownst to me, on the other line with my husband. We decided that our friends would drive us to the hospital to shave off the 15 minutes extra it would take for them to drive us to their house where we had left our vehicle. I sat on my husband's jacket on the way up there as a sad and futile attempt not to leak all over their car and we made a mostly silent journey up to Milwaukee, punctuated every few minutes by someone asking me if I felt contractions or making a lame joke. Our driver nearly bit off the head of any driver that got in his way but it felt like it took forever. Luckily we knew at least how to get to the hospital, we had done a dry run the week before (yes, for the hundredth time, I AM a planner!). I didn't say this at the time, but now that I know everything is fine with Jonah, I do honestly believe the good Lord knew I was worrying myself sick and decided it was time for Jonah to show up and let us know he was going to be just fine. I still wish he wouldn't have been premature, but I do believe it was part of the plan and I'm thankful for that.
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