The Baby Story-Day 0

Last night I slept from 3:30 until the phone rang at 6:44, shocking me awake and out of an unsettled sleep. I hadn't really expected to get the hospital call this morning, although I still was showering and getting ready at 2:30 am, figuring if I couldn't sleep I might as well get myself ready to go just in case. The hospital did have room to get my induction going, so I left John and Thomas home to sleep and headed off. I was even early enough to watch the hospital helicopter come in for a landing and off load a patient, one of our favorite events on our twice weekly trips to the birth center for non-stress tests. Dr. Cook had warned me that today would be pretty non productive, and John could take his time coming in, but I secretly hoped that somehow my body would be ready, surprise us all and get going with having this baby. All morning long, Kristen, one of my many great nurses, assured me that although I was doing all I could, nothing much was happening, so I should just keep pacing the room and watching the clock. Because I was hooked up to monitors, I couldn't sneak down to the lounge to get a snack, I had to drink a lot but had to call the nurse to unhook my wires to use the bathroom, couldn't walk the halls with the other laboring moms, and couldn't eat anything but liquids from the hospital. I did manage to sneak two half sandwiches (my intake for the entire day) from the snack lounge with the approving smile of my nurse, who was taking pity on me, and I watched three hours of the Food Network Channel, but time was moving slowly with moderate pain from the meds and nothing to amuse me but the steady heartbeat of Baby Whipple and the slow increase of contraction lines on my monitor. By late afternoon Mom and Dad rolled into town to take over with Thomas and John joined in on the fun. I was thankful for his company and steady presence, pleased to be able to laugh and tease as the hours rolled on. Late that night, despite making steady and increasingly painful progress towards the magic number 3, we all decided I was too tired to continue into the night, and they knocked me out with a morphine shot-or so they intended. Of course, it only knocked me out until a little after midnight, which amounted to about an hour of sleep. John came back to the hospital after midnight and by two my two night nurses had assured me that by morning I'd be able to get my epidural. I was able to sleep sporadically throughout the remaining few hours, thanks to the morphine fog I drifted in and out of. By 6 am, we were all waiting to get the pitocin drip started.