Do not labor and drive

Some people might know that when I am pregnant, after about month 4-5 my uterus becomes very sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. This means I become a human barometer and I start cramping, contracting, and generally becoming very crabby before storms roll in. Once the storms actually get here, it's not usually a problem. Sometimes these pains come up to 24 hours before the storm does, and the greater the pains the bigger the storm. Well, yesterday I looked at the forecast and noticed that a drop in temperature was due to occur today (high of 70 to a high of 55 today) but there was no rain associated with this change, just some wind predicted. I figured if I did have any pains, they would be mild.



Yesterday morning I went in to the hospital to get a non-stress test done because my 34 week ultrasound had revealed that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and they wanted to make sure everything was on the up and up with the baby. Upon arriving I was told by the nurse that the test could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours, depending on how the baby cooperated. My window of time was only 3 hours max (it was 11:00 and I had to pick up Evelynn from school at 2:15) so I was really hoping for a cooperative baby, and luckily that happened. About 20 minutes into the monitoring the nurse said they were looking at the heart rate and everything looked great, normal ups and downs and a good consistent beat around 130 beats per minute. So she sent the results to Dr. Baxter and I waited for his ok to head home. She also commented that it looked like I was having some contractions, where upon I sighed and said "Yeah, that's normal." She asked if I was in any pain, and I said "No, not really," which was true, they were pretty mild. Anyway, a little while later I got sent home. Almost seemed like a waste of time, since either Eloise or Michael came out with the cord around their necks and were just fine (I can't remember which one because I didn't have a very good view of them coming out, and Doug doesn't seem to remember even though he had a perfect view) but I did get all registered for the hospital, so I won't have to play 101 questions when I go in to have the baby for real, so that's nice. I know they do these tests as a precaution because sometimes things can go wrong, but it seems like with this pregnancy there have been more things that almost have been wrong, but then weren't, and all because of the increase in ultrasounds! Maybe next baby I can go back to just having one ultrasound and call it good. :)

Well, I went home and managed to squeeze a small nap in before I got Evelynn from school. I woke up feeling crummy, but hey, what are you going to do. We got Evelynn home and started her on homework and I cleaned up the kitchen, thinking that getting my blood moving would help because I have low blood pressure and naps can sometimes really do weird things to my blood flow, causing me to feel crummy. It didn't help much. At 4:00 I started to contract, which I figured was due to my long walk that morning. at 4:30 we left to go get gas, inner tubes for Doug's bike tires and then Doug from work. First stop, inner tubes, I noticed the storm coming in. It was a bad one, with high winds and heavy rain, but you could see the end of it to the west. It was one of those micro-burst rainstorms. Fifteen minutes later getting gas, it was raining and blowing hard, and I was starting to notice that I was hurting worse. Then I got in the car to drive to BYU from Costco, and I started to get worried. The pains were getting worse and worse by the minute, and I was having trouble focusing on driving the car. It hit me about halfway to BYU (so 5 minutes later) that I was having the same level of pain that I had when I was in labor at the hospital. Then I started to wig out a little, which didn't help the pain situation at all. I got scared that I was going to have this baby too early, and so instead of being calm through the contractions, I tensed up and got all teary. When we got to BYU, I flagged down Doug and made him drive. When he asked why, I broke down, crying that I was contracting for REAL and I might have a baby. We headed home to wait things out, and luckily as the microburst moved through (with a spectacular double rainbow) things started to become a little less intense. By the time we got home and started dinner, I was still contracting but things were manageable, and I could tell I was winding down and most likely wouldn't be having a baby today. So total time from leaving the house to getting back, less than an hour. Which means, true to form, when the baby does come it's going to be another quick, wild ride.

Bottom line, driving while in labor is not a good idea, and if you must drive in labor, please try not to drive in a storm with three kids in the back. I was trying so hard not to be mad at them because they didn't know what was going on, but honestly how many time do I have to point out the friggin obvious rainbow before you can see it out your own friggin window?! Everything is back to normal today. I'm just praying that if another sudden big storm does roll through it will be in at least two more weeks, when I feel more comfortable about the thought of having this baby, though I would like to keep it inside me even longer. I know I won't be singing this tune in a few more weeks, but for now....