Surprise, it's preterm labor

My water broke yesterday around 12:30pm. I wrapped up a conference call, put Roscoe down for his nap and then settled in for a snack and some email catchup. A few small gushes and a double check in the bathroom didn't convince me, but as I walked back to my computer more water trickled out and I was back to the toilet where I sat for 30 minutes with water intermittently dripping and gushing as I called my midwife, Andy, my mom, and my doula, in that order.

36 weeks is the cutoff for home birth. I'm 33 weeks today. After much debate, and because we thought the baby might come quickly, we went to our nearest hospital, instead of my primary choice located in the heart of DC. I wasn't experiencing much in the way of contractions so we took our time at the house--I showered, we packed my bag, and gathered all the necessities including extra pillows. We left around 2:45; Roscoe was sawing logs in his bed, and my mom was elbow deep folding a huge pile of laundry.

When we first arrived I tried my best to resist any internal exams because they significantly increase risk of infection once the amniotic sac has ruptured. When the doctor couldn't visually see my cervix with the speculum she convinced me to do an internal, my first FAIL.

My cervix was soft, thick, and 1 centimeter dilated. We were told the baby might come tonight, or in a week.

The sonographer paid us a visit and Little Sears was well engaged in my pelvis, head down, and butted up snuggly to my cervix. I thought we might get a glimpse of his sweet little face but it was buried. He's measuring right on track (estimated weight: 3 pounds 13 oz. plus or minus 11oz.) and he hasn't shown any signs of distress so far.

We spent over an hour with the neonatal intensive care nurse practitioner to get a better understanding of the NICU's policies and procedures. At this stage in the pregnancy we're guaranteed a minimum two week stay, and of course the realities that go along with that break my heart, but we're trying to stay positive and advocate for the things that are important to us.

I can't imagine leaving him in the NICU alone. ever. We've been told that we can stay with him 24 hours a day, practice kangaroo care whenever possible, and I've expressed my very strong preference that he receive only breast milk. I was a horrible pumper last time so the learning curve will be interesting. Once he is born we will initiate the process to request donor milk in case he needs to be supplemented.

I was transferred to the ante/postpartum ward and ordered for strict bed rest with trips to the bathroom as needed. I've been able to change back into my own clothes and I have a "room service" menu to order from at all hours so, for the moment, I'm pretty content. Overall we've been pleasantly surprised, staff have been really wonderful and we're bummed that they'll be switching shifts in four hours. Of course, I couldn't escape confinement to the bed and continuous monitoring, didn't get to eat for almost 12 hours, or use the bathroom for the first 6, but comfort measures are hard to come by here. Even pillows are a hot commodity and I'm glad we brought three. 'Tis the nature of the hospital I suppose.

I finally fell asleep around 1:30am but woke around 2:00am with contractions that are now 5-8 minutes apart--they're not painful, but I would definitely categorize them as contractions vs. the cramping I've been experiencing off and on over the last two weeks. I'm torn between wanting to keep the baby in as long as possible (I received the first of a series of steroid injections around 6 this evening), and wanting to avoid infection and the higher risk for a c-section. When my body goes into labor they will not try to stop it. My doula is on call, and my hope is that I will still have a natural, vaginal birth. The current estimate is that he'll be born within the next three or four days.

For now everyone is exercising the wait and see approach, which is just fine with me. I'm still processing everything and I'm grateful for this little lull in activity which not only bides us time to emotionally and mentally prepare in the context of the current situation, but to gather our thoughts around our priorities and to adequately communicate them to everyone on staff.

Keep Little Sears in your thoughts, outcomes are typically great for babies at 33 weeks.