The Wootens: 38 weeks...Happy Birthday Kinley

Saturday, July 16, 2011, started off like any other day. I woke up to the sound of little feet running down the hall and "Mommmmaaaaaa" from little man! He loves to come into the bedroom in the morning after he has had his milk and watched Clifford to wake me up. There is nothing sweeter than opening my eyes to see his little smiling face and hear him say "Mommaaa". How can I stay in bed and not get up to play with that sweet angel?!

Harper and I colored and read books while Josh went to the gym to workout. Harper loves to be into whatever you are doing, so he had to help me pack his bag for a spend the night party at his Nana and Papa's house. (Little did we know, we should have packed LOTS more things).

Josh got home and I got ready to go to work just like any other Saturday. Work was definitely steady...lots of paperwork to fill out after a full arrest, the usual belly and chest pains, a couple of psych patients thrown into the mix, and even a couple of kids to keep the day interesting. In the mean time, Josh had dropped Harper off at my parents, then headed into work.

Around nineish, I told my charge nurse that I was having some pretty intense contractions and may have to clock out and go upstairs to L & D to see what Kinley was doing. Well, I ended up getting pretty busy and before I knew it, one thirty am had rolled around and it was time to clock out and go get some sleep (or so I thought)...

After I got out of the shower and layed down, I was right back up and into the bathroom to pee...and I peed....and peed...and peed....peed....and peed...I seriously must have gone back and forth from the bathroom to the bed at least 15 times. By this time, Josh was awake and wondering what was wrong. I told him "I'm pretty sure I'm in labor, but I don't want to go up to the hospital and them send me home". This must not have raised any alarms because he rolled over and was snoring before I could blink! After about two hours of the nonstop bathroom trips, contractions, and restlessness, I woke Josh up and told him that we needed to go to the hospital.

Kinley and I waited patiently (and painfully) for Josh to get his hospital bag packed, feed the dogs, load the car, and lock up the house before heading out. We pulled out of the driveway at 4:40am to head downtown...(Keep in mind, Josh had just gotten off work at midnight and I got off at 1:30...both of us in not-so-pleasant moods). The weather was foggy, mist-like rain, and just a tad bit on the cool side with a HUGE full moon overhead. Josh drove 85-95 mph the entire way to the hospital because he "didn't get to have that experience" with Harper since I was induced. I knew I wouldn't win the "Slow Down" battle with him because "this was the last time he was going to be able to rush his pregnant wife to the hospital in labor"!

We arrived at St. Vincent's (in one piece thankfully) right at 5:00am. We signed in, the nurse checked me and checked to see if my water had broken (negative!), and put me on the monitor to watch Kinley's heart rate and contractions. My contractions were solid, consistently four minutes a part, and pretty intense in pain. We were told that they were just going to monitor us for about 2 hours, then make a decision on whether to send me home or admit me. Around 8 am (3hrs later), I was told to get up and walk for about 30 minutes to "see if we could move things along". Josh and I walked, walked, and walked until my pain got entirely too intense to walk any further. FINALLY, Dr. Stone (a.k.a. complete stranger with an entirely different OB/GYN practice that just so happened to be taking call for Dr Foster) came in and said that he would give me something for pain and just monitor me for a couple more hours...sigh......boy were we exhausted! We just wanted either the green light to stay and deliver or the red light to send us home so we could both get some sleep. 10:30 (5 1/2 hrs later) rolls around and the nurse comes in to start my iv. YESSS we are going to stay...or so I thought..."Oh no", the nurse insisted that they are just going to continue to monitor me...UGH!! By this time, I am super frustrated because no one can give us a straight answer. Josh and I both insisted that we needed to know a plan in order to notify family and friends, and to make arrangements for Harper if today was the BIG day. At 11:30, a completely different nurse comes in the door and says "We are going to the OR in thirty minutes. Here Dad, put on this gown, this hat, and these shoe covers. Mom, put on this hat, take off all metal things, and take these meds". WHATTTTTT!!! THIRTY MINUTES!!!!!

She walks out of the room, and I do believe Josh and I had a true Kodak moment! I'm sure the look on my face was just as shocked, surprised, and insane looking as the one on his. We frantically got into our OR attire, made our last minute phone calls to notify family of the plan, Josh got our things out of the car (most important: Camera!) and even managed to take a couple of pictures. I'm sitting there trying to think of things to stall the "30 Minute" count down in order to buy some time for our family to arrive...Needless to say, I ran out of things rather quickly. Before we could blink, we were in the OR having a birthday party! This is truly another day that has changed our life forever. Enjoy the pictures:

On the way to the hospital at 4:40am while Big Girls Don't Cry was on. (Ironic because my entire pregnancy we have joked and referred to me as "Big Girl")

Right after the nurse came in to tell us that we were going to the OR

Both of us were trying to be strong for the other, but really we were both VERY nervous!

Walking into the OR! They brought me into the OR first in order to prep my stomach, give me my spinal, put my foley in, and get me hooked up to the monitor.