Baby Jack: The Final 24 Hours

The Final 24 Hours - Part 1

We had our weekly post-due-date checkup on Friday, March 3rd. At that checkup, Ann's blood pressure was once again higher than they'd like so we were sent again up to the Antepartum Testing department in Labor and Delivery. There they performed yet another fetal non-stress test to check to make sure Jack's heartrate and movement rate was normal and to also perform another ultrasound.As if he knew something we didn't, Jack stuck his tongue out at us during the ultrasound.

The results were all normal and we were sent home. We knew that it would all be over in just over a week since they don't let women go more than two weeks past their due date these days, but we were still getting frustrated. Ann had had enough of feeling huge and I had lame ducked myself at work. I knew I'd be taking two weeks off after the birth and had made sure that all of my major projects were done or on hiatus. So, I had little to do since I didn't want to start anything major.

Saturday morning at 8:30, Ann awoke with a fairly strong "cramp" and a need to go to the bathroom. The cramps were very commonplace. She'd been having them for days and sometimes they were at regular intervals (but never more than three at any given time) and sometimes felt the way contractions were supposed to feel: moving from top to bottom of the uterus and making the surface of the uterus feel tight. So, we thought little of it. I made my usual joke with her "Hey! This might be it!" and she went off to the bathroom. In the movies and on TV, women discover they are in labor when their water breaks. It's a dramatic scene always. In reality, it rarely happens like that. The breaking of the bag of waters (really, the rupture of the amniotic sack containing the baby) happens as a part of active labor and almost always happens in the delivery room. Well, it happened to Ann in the bathroom (thank Gods!). So, I called our friend James and told him we thought this was it. I was hedging that this really might be it and I wouldn't have a chance to call later and we needed someone to feed the cats for us.

Ann is one of the 20% of women who have "Group Beta Strep" or "GBS." This is something she just has and something that is harmless to her. But the baby can pick it up on his way through the birth canal and it can make him very sick and, in some rare cases, kill him. So, women who have GBS are given massive doses of antibiotics during labor to protect the baby. Because of this, there are certain conditions in which we have to get to the hospital immediately. Breaking the bag of waters is one of them.

So, instead of waiting for actual labor to begin on its own (something that happens 12 to 24 hours after the water breaks) we called James again and then headed into the hospital. Luckily we had packed our bags previously. We had three: Ann's suitcase, my suitcase, and my computer bag. The stroller, carseat, and baby bag would come later.

Continued on page 2

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