To Induce or Not to Induce – Part 1
Monday March 11, 2013 started out like many other work days the past month – me propping my feet up at home to keep the lovely ankle and foot swelling down as I worked from my MAC computer and iPhone – lifelines to my job. I had an early morning doctors appointment and went for my weekly visit to Holy Cross Hospital to the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists to check in for the latest bio physical of my baby boy to see how things were progressing. After 6 weeks of non-stop doctors appointments to keep an eye on my high blood pressure, this was becoming a normal routine for me. But this day was different as the doctors decided that while I was 38 weeks, it was time to get the baby out b/c my blood pressure was 150/102. So a very serious team of doctors said to me “we should get the baby out this week“. I thought to myself – ok…this week…no biggie – we can do that. It at least lets us plan, right? So I proceeded to get in my car to head home and call my OB per their instruction to find out what the plan would be going forward. To my surprise, I got a call back that said the only opening to get me checked into the hospital was that day at 7:00 PM. GASP. Today? What? It was take that or get on a waitlist (yes – there are waitlists) to possibly go later in the week to get induced.
As I sat stunned at home around noon trying to figure out next steps, I was nicely reminded that getting organized was not going to be as easy as I watched 3 workers finish up sanding and painting our stairs to the 2nd floor. Hmmm….hopefully they would be done soon? Luckily around 4:00, they wrapped up in the knick of time.
Our friend Edgar working hard the day we were going to the hospital to finish up our LAST project for our 2nd floor renovations.
After reaching Ryan and letting him know the situation, the conversation went something like “What? Today? We aren’t ready!”. But ultimately, we decided it was best to take the appointment for that same day and not wait for waitings sake. After all, my blood pressure clearly wasn’t getting any better which was pretty clear by the continued swelling of my legs and overall just tired state I was in. So the craziness began with Ryan getting home ASAP and me getting out voicemails and emails to my colleagues. More importantly, I had to do some last minute updates to my hospital bag, that was packed but I of course decided it was missing a few items, like my robe, slippers, etc.
I was also fortunate to have a good friend, Mana, stop by my house on her way home from work to help me think about what was needed once I came home and rummaged through the MANY baby shower gifts I received a few days before that were still all in their gift bags sitting in the living room and dining room. Most importantly, Ryan brought us home food as we both knew once I got to the hospital, no more eating for me….sigh. Little did we know how long we would be in labor….
Arriving at the Hospital
With a TON of stuff in tow, including an exercise ball, magazines, overnight bags, pillows, and 2 MAC’s to name a few items, we headed to Sibley Memorial – it wasn’t our first trip to the hospital as I had been checked in twice before for “emergency” monitoring in the past month given the high blood pressure situation. So we knew where we were going. We checked into our very large labor and delivery room to meet with our nurse and doctors that were on rotation that evening. I started with getting IV, got hooked up to all the monitors to watch my blood pressure and the heartbeat of the baby, settled into bed, was given a quick dose of cervadil to get things started, and Ryan got comfortable (not really possible) on the sofa next to my hospital bed.
As we got settled in for the night, the plan was to get a “good” nights sleep and the next morning at 7 AM see how much the cervadil was able to get the labor party started….the fun was about to begin….
The Sasse's of D.C. 
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You both handled this in stride. When Ryan called me, there was no panic. He was cool, calm and collected – which he does so well – which doesn’t let on how he really feels. He is such a good guy and keeps it all inside.