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Julianne came early...at 35 weeks (5/20/07)
May 20, 2007
Here's the story:
I had plans to go to Chicago with my sister, Kitty (the OBGYN) and her daughter for Mother's Day weekend. Mom and I flew up from Louisville on a direct 60 minute flight on Friday. We went to dinner Friday night. Saturday morning we decided to walk to the Original Pancake House for breakfast. It is more than a mile from the condo and I wondered how'd I do since I was frequently getting braxton-hicks. Mom stayed back at the condo and the three of us started walking. I even commented on how I was feeling really good and not having any cramps. I was able to keep up for the most part.
We had a delicious high-calorie breakfast and it was worth the walk. We walked back and past the condo after breakfast to go to the Border's Bookstore on State Street - inside the loop. It's in the theater district and next to the theater that shows "Wicked." They give out matinee vouchers to the show that day so we signed up to win discounted tickets. At noon we returned to the store after walking around Macy's to see if we'd win tickets. Kitty's name was called as the last two pair of tickets. So, Katie, my niece and I decided we'd use the tickets while Kitty went back and checked on mom at the condo. We still had two hours to waste so we walked around a few shops on State Street (Old Navy, Forever 21, Children's Place). We had 15 minutes left until the show started and as we crossed the street I got to the street post and told Kitty to wait a second. She asked if I was having a cramp. I told her that my pants were wet. They weren't bad but enough to know if wasn't simply a leak. Kitty assured me that it was probably urine as many of her patients come in saying the same thing. We were both thinking it was that my water broke but didn't want to believe it and dismissed it. So, we went back to Old Navy and bought some dry maternity panties. Katie and I went to the play. Kitty was going to go back to the condo and get dry pants and meet us at the intermission. Our tickets were in the front row and everything went fine until intermission. I stood up and Katie asked how I was doing. I said "fine," walked 5 feet and woosh. I was wet to my knees. I had already wrapped my jacket around my waist and held my shopping bag in front and we waddled out to the lobby where Kitty was waiting. We decided that was it and it was time to go back to the condo, pack up and drive to Fort Wayne.
Kitty and I had jokingly said all along that at least she was with me if anything should happen. But, we never really expected anything to happen. But, she had already decided the best thing to do would be to drive to Fort Wayne to her hospital. So, we packed up and all piled in the mini-van and headed out of Chicago. There was traffic so Kitty tried to go around it and it only delayed us 3o minutes. I hadn't had contractions but then started having them 3-4 minutes apart. I didn't tell Kitty until we were clear of traffic and out of Chicago on the road. I didn't want to stress anyone out. Katie was in the backseat with me. Once I admitted to having contractions I moved to the floor since sitting in the seat was a bit uncomfortable. Kitty made phone calls to find a hospital along the way that would be willing to transfer me by ambulance if possible to her hospital. She decided it would be best to stay on the highway and go the long way instead of taking the backroads she usually takes. Normally, it takes a little over 3 hours to go from fort Wayne to Chicago.
So, the Goshen Indiana hospital was decided as the pit-stop hospital. I checked in, they weighed me and checked me out. I wasn't even a centimeter dialated which was the good sign. They gave me steroids for the baby's lungs and another shot to minimize the contractions. Once the paperwork to admit and discharge was done we were back on the road. We were there about an hour an a half, IV in arm and hospital gown on. Meanwhile, Ron had packed up the boys and was driving up 5 hours and we kept in touch with him along the way.
The entire family was kept in the loop and the cell phones were contantly ringing.
The doctor gave directions on how to go from Goshen to Fort Wayne and there was no easy way to go. It had gotten dark and we were now in Amish country. We passed more than one buggy. Mom was the "official" navigator and despite what she says she does have a difficult time reading small print. Mom didn't notice that the highway we were supposed to be on had two different numbers associated with it so we kept going until we hit a T in the road. It was decided a right turn, toward the west was best. Until we came to a dirt road or a right turn, North. North we went and at the next local bar, Kitty stopped to get directions. It was the one-bar town of Topeka, IN. Directions were given and we were on our way and we ended up in a long line behind a slow semi. The one hour trip took over an hour and a half and my husband and boys beat us to Fort Wayne.
We made it fine and my contractions were minimal. They checked me in. We were able to hold off the contractions and the second steroid shot was given on Sunday morning. The best case was to be able to wait 24 hours from the first shot. And we achieved that and evena few extra hours into Monday. Contractions picked up Monday morning so although we had planned the c-section for Tuesday morning, Monday afternoon was decided since I had convinced them to let me eat a breakfast.
Julianne was pulled out in front of a crowd of people wanting to watch at 14:14 military time on 5/14/07.
TODAY: She was discharged today. She is at 4 lbs even. She is on a sleep apnea monitor for her heart and breathing. Hopefully she will only be on that for the summer.
She is so tiny but she is doing wonderfully.
We are staying at my sister's house. Her bed is upstairs so while downstairs we keep her in a longenberger basket. She's just so precious in there.
We will be driving back hopefully at the end of the week. The doctor wanted us to stick around for a few days before driving for 5 hours. She said at the end of the week when we drive back to stop several times to let her move around because her heart monitor went off once while doing the car seat test at the hospital.
talk to me at... http://www.interact.iparenting.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=6603
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