9:30 am
We took the morning pretty slow, I slept in until almost 10 cause I was up late finishing work. Just got some work done around the house in the morning, getting it ready for baby to come, and for family to stay with us for a little bit
11:30 am
Headed to Swig, as a pit stop on the way to IKEA to get a new table (our old dining table doesn’t fit the baby’s high chair).
11:35 am
Rachel gets a call from the hospital while we are in the Swig drive thru. We were scheduled to go in at 6:30pm to start the cervix softening, but the nurse called to let us know it’s a very slow day at the hospital, and if we wanted to go in earlier, she could have us getting started as soon as 1pm. That was really nice of her, also caught us off guard tho, so we said we’d think about it, but to not count on us coming in early.
12:15 am
We get to Ikea just to discover the table we had seen before and fallen in love with is not in stock, and not available for another month. We already sold our old table so we had to get something, and we ended up spending the better part of an hour looking around at all of the other options, before eventually finding the perfect table and chair combo that will fit our space and match our vibe. Took forever, but we like it even more than the original table we hoped to buy. It fits and matches the baby’s high chair really well too! We also got a new plant for our living room and a metal bucket to burn stuff in.
1:45 pm
For Rachel’s last solid meal before we head into the hospital we got Chipotle.
3:00 pm
Made it back to the house, we are doing the last little chores around here to get everything in the house ready, showering/doing hair to get ourselves ready, and packing up the hospital bag (I know, I should have had this ready a long time ago, but we’ve known we were getting induced at 37 weeks for like a month now, and the chances of baby coming earlier then that were just too low).
T-3 hours until we head into the hospital. Everything is coming together, the Hansens are headed down from Idaho by now, the car seat is loaded in the truck, the hospital is just waiting for us now. Baby’s on the blocks, waiting for the gun to tell it to head out and come into our arms. Motto of the day is “Dads the Brain, Moms the Muscle”. Trying to get Rachel to exclusively focus on powering through, and offload any decision making/stressful thinking to me. Her job is to push with all her might, and nothing else (Though to be fair she’s doing a lot more).
Looking around the house while Rachel is in the shower just has me so excited and ready to bring this sweet baby into the world. It’s been a long 8 months, especially for Rachel, but it’s also flown by with how fun and fulfilling it’s been. My favorite part? Getting to put together the Nursery with Rachel. It turned out sooooo good.
5:00 pm
We’re packed and ready. Showered and clean, everything is good to go, stuff is in the car, and the hospital just called to move us up to a 6:15 arrival time.
5:30 pm
Gave Rachel a blessing and said a final little family prayer together before heading out the door. We know so many other people are praying for us as well and we feel immensely Gods love for us and for this baby right now. Everything is going to go so smoothly. Gods watching over us, he’s watching over the nurses and doctors, and he’s watching over this little baby, ready to send it down here to us. Rachel is so strong too. I’m already blown away by her focus and attitude in all this. Getting ready to head over now.
6:00 pm
Headed to the hospital!!!
6:30 pm
All checked in, just waiting for the nurse to come to the room.
7:15 pm
Had a flurry of nurses come through to do all the tests on Rachel. Drew some blood, got an IV in, blood pressure, all the questions about the birth plan etc etc. Waiting now on word from the doctor about what the induction plan will be.
8:00 pm
The cervix softening has begun! Our night nurse’s name is Liz and she has been absolutely fantastic, answering all of our questions super well and explaining everything. She got Rachel started on the medicine that will be softening her cervix, preparing for the labor. Rachel is only dilated to 1cm right now (so basically nothing) which means we still have a long ways to go. The medicine stays in overnight. Then once it comes out (tomorrow morning around 7:30) we have to monitor for a half hour, then they will start the pitocin around 8am.
This hospital seems really nice, all the nurses have been great so far. We’ve got everything we need. Rachel is still pretty uncomfortable, the primary side effect of this medicine is that she will have period like cramps, probably all night. Hopefully we can get some sleep haha
9:30 pm
Being nervous all day Rachel didn’t really have any kind of an appetite after lunch. After getting settled into the hospital and feeling a lot more confident with the whole process, her appetite came back and we both got hungry. Jared had just made it to town, so we had him run and pick us up some Chick-fil-A as well as bring in some pillows and blankets for me to get some better sleep tonight. Still just letting the cervix continue to soften. We’ll be here all night. Probably watching Netflix or something.
11:00 pm
All is calm in L&D Room 3. We’re going to turn in and try and get some rest. Rachel’s relatively comfortable all things considered, and things seem to be looking good and on their way. We are expecting to get woken by the nurses a handful of times throughout the night to get vitals checks and the baby’s heart monitor adjusted.
I’ve been warned that the hospital couch dad sleeps on is rough. So far hasn’t been bad, but I’ll let you know a final answer when I wake up
