A Dry Run

As you know, we are expecting our second child this summer and I’ve already written about how differently we’ve approached this pregnancy as compared to the first. This laid back approach to the pregnancy has now been extended into how we’ve prepared (or not) for the actual birth part, as well. We didn’t take any classes, didn’t take the tour (even though it’s a new facility), didn’t have a bag packed by 30 weeks, and didn’t really have a plan in place for who was going to take care of our toddler should we have to leave in the middle of the night. We’d been there, done that, had the 2-inch binder and vivid memories of that awful video they make you watch.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, we were wishing we hadn’t been quite so laid back.

At 35.5 weeks into this pregnancy, we had to take an unexpected trip to the hospital. It was too early for my wife to deliver our second child, so we went with mixed emotions. On one hand, I was confident that should the baby come that day, he would be okay. She was well into her third trimester, and my faith in modern medicine gave me a sense of security that all would eventually be okay. On the other hand, my wife, visiting mother-in-law, doctors, nurses, and 200 million (give or take) people on Facebook were pretty sure that the baby needed to stay put for at least two more weeks.

Maybe I was too excited to hold my second son for the first time.

The previous couple of days had been especially miserable for my wife. Pregnancy is hard enough without adding a 30-pound toddler and a summer cold into the mix. Every night she went to bed coughing and spent the start of every morning doing the same till it triggered her gag reflex ... I’ll spare you the details.

That morning, my wife woke up feeling “weird” and things went downhill from there. She was having contraction-like pain, but it wasn’t what we were expecting. We weren’t quite sure what was going on, since none of the contractions fit the typical pattern or description.

We’re not a high-anxiety couple. We don’t rush to conclusions. We decided to just call the on-call service and took their advice to stay in bed, keep timing things and call if anything changed. She spent the day in bed, in pain, sleeping off and on while I spent the day consulting Dr. Google – trying to find out if this was normal or not.

Since I was scheduled to preach the next day, I also went about simultaneously finishing the sermon and trying to get someone to cover the pulpit for me, just in case. Finally, after twelve hours of irregular, but persistent contractions, the doctor went ahead and told us to meet him at the hospital.

This is where the flush of emotions came upon me. As I hastily packed the bag for the hospital with little socks and onesies, I imagined what it would be like to hold my boy. There were also traumatic flashbacks to our first birth experience, when my wife had a postpartum hemorrhage and we faced a scary hour or two. Feelings of excitement, nervousness and hopefulness washed over me in waves. As we drove to the hospital, we reminded ourselves that God was with us and would take care of us and the baby no matter what.

They have a new maternity wing at CMC in Charlotte, and once we figured out which door to go into (should have taken the tour), we were ushered into a state-of-the-art room, with warm wood floors and welcoming décor. The nurses were great. As they went to work, we got the good news that the baby was just fine; and some surprising news that the contractions were only six minutes apart. After a few preliminary tests, we found out that due to her illness that day, she had become dehydrated. This is when I got to add to my pregnancy-related jargon dictionary and learned all about ketones.

“What’s a ketone?” you might ask. Well, it’s a pretty important word in the pregnancy world. Ketones are present when the body is burning stored fat for energy. It’s often seen in starving people. A pregnant woman shouldn’t have ketones because a pregnant woman shouldn’t be starving! According to the doctor, this meant that she was dehydrated which irritates the colon which, in turn, does the same favor for the uterus. An irritated uterus goes into labor, and pretty much messes up your whole day.

Luckily, the treatment was simply a bag of fluids given through an IV. So, we spent the next couple of hours watching the drip and the clock. As the bag neared empty, the contractions lessened in intensity and spaced apart more. We were sent home about midnight. It took a few days to recover, but now we are back in the waiting game for our newest addition to make his (on time) arrival.

It was strange driving home without a baby and just returning to normal. Every minute in the womb is important, I’ve come to learn. At least now our bags are packed and we know where to park!

Photo credit: Ketones.org

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Editor’s Note: The Norton Family welcomed their second baby boy into the world the week two days before this article was posted. We wish them all the best!