An Unexpectedly Early Delivery

 I didn't plan to spend the week at the hospital. Baby just decided he wanted to come 5 weeks early and made it my problem. XD So story time.

Tuesday morning about 4am I woke up to my water breaking. At first I wasn't sure that's what it was, but about 5:30am I started having regular contractions. I told my husband and we packed up to go. Luckily I had already started collecting stuff for a hospital bag, so I at least had a few things already.

We got to the hospital about 7am and got checked in, and they confirmed my water had broken. After getting to the delivery room they started me on an IV with antibiotics and some Pitocin to regulate the contractions. It also made them stronger and more painful, so it wasn't too much later that I got an epidural. The next several hours were spent trying to rest and relax as much as possible before delivery.

Caladin was born at 3:21 pm at 18 inches long and weighing 4 pounds 14 ounces. The nurses cleaned him up and took him to the NICU, where he's been getting well taken care of with oxygen to strengthen and expand his lungs, as well as a feeding tube. His blood sugar was low starting out, but he's doing better now. He'll likely be there for a couple more weeks.

While he was being taken care of, my placenta was stubbornly refusing to come out. After a couple minutes of the doctor trying to force it out, he decided the best course of action would be to put me under for a D&C to remove it. Thankfully everything went well for that and I woke up around an hour later. Once I'd had some time to wake up fully, I was transferred to my room.

I stayed two nights at the hospital and was grateful for the time to recover somewhat and learn how to start pumping. We visited Caladin in the NICU multiple times, and we both got to hold him before I was discharged. It'll take some time to get used to the pumping schedule and daily trips to visit and bring him milk until he can come home.