Chris and I hunkered down for the night. The nurses from the Nurses' Station brought us some useless hospital blankets, and the waiting room had two recliners for us to sleep in. Allow me to pause to let you know these recliners were old, hard as a rock, and scary to sit in. They were broken so that when you leaned back, WHOA, you fell back in the chair without any resistance. And if I remember rightly, the one I was sitting in squeaked and creaked anytime I shifted my weight in it. Ugh!
Leslie came in a little after midnight and gave us the last update for the night. She said Amelia's heartbeat wasn't rebounding very well after each contraction. In other words, it's normal for a baby's heartbeat to slow down when a woman is having a contraction, but as the contraction subsides the heartbeat should resume its normal rate. Amelia's would slow with a contraction, and then it would stay slow after the contraction ended. The doctor thought that perhaps Abby was dehydrated. They gave her fluids and that seemed to address the concerns.
I laid awake all night. I was freezing laying under the paper thin blanket, and my muscles were sore and shaking from being tense all night. I think had we had comfier furniture to lay on, I may have slept for a few hours. I think Chris was able to sleep for a little bit. I chose to spend the majority of the night eavesdropping on the Nurses' Station. I tried to listen for clues as to when they were talking about Abby and Amelia. The one thing they kept talking about was sending Abby home if her labor didn't progress. I still don't understand this. Abby never dilated more than 4cm, but I think she was almost 90% effaced and she had consistent contractions all night. Why wouldn't they just get the show on the road? I know Abby wasn't wanting to stretch it out any more than was necessary. I literally watched the minutes pass that night on a clock on the wall of the waiting room.
Finally around 7am a doctor was called for a consult. Abby had only had one ultrasound during her pregnancy around 25 weeks. Thank God the doctor in this small town hospital had the wisdom to order another ultrasound before Abby was discharged. The results showed that although Abby was 38 weeks pregnant, Amelia was only measuring at 35 weeks. She was not growing properly in utero, and the doctor immediately ordered a C-section. I heard all of this from eavesdropping before Leslie came in to update us. She said the operation was scheduled for noon.
Chris and I freshened up a bit in the bathroom and went to grab a bite to eat. We headed down to the hospital cafeteria and proceeded to eat what we still refer to ask "the most disgusting breakfast we've ever eaten." We both got a croissant breakfast sandwich with egg, bacon, and cheese. Sounds delicious, right? That's what we thought. The croissant was moist, as if it had been dipped in butter. The eggs were greasy. The cheese was everywhere. You couldn't put your fingers anywhere on the sandwich without getting cheese on your fingers. And the bacon. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I ordered bacon, not a half pound of pure fat. Needless to say, we did not finish our breakfast.
We went and called family and friends before heading back upstairs.
More to come,
Amanda
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