Preterm Labor Journey

I did a lot of updating along the way during our journey the last month on my Facebook page to keep friends and family in the loop, but I still wanted to do a blogpost to maybe write from a different perspective and thoughts after it all. So before all of this happened Sean and I had a very busy summer and for the month of August we pretty much lived out of our suitcases. Once we were back in Fort St John from traveling we were so anxious and excited to move into our new house, unpack, get settled in and get ready for the arrival of our baby girl! The day we moved into the new house we felt so relieved. We were in the new house for 3 days before heading to the hospital. We literally had JUST hung our clothes in the closet, put the nursery furniture together & started to unpack the essentials. Little did we know we would be living out of our suitcases again!

September 19th (33 weeks + 4 days) 

I woke up in the early morning with pain in my upper stomach so we went to the hospital to get it checked out. It started out as a pain between my upper ribs and eventually got stronger to the point it was taking my breath away. I almost thought maybe it was baby girl's foot kicking my ribs, but the pain was consistent and didn't let up so I woke Sean up. Once we arrived to the hospital to our surprise we were informed that I was in preterm labor. I was having consistent contractions and 1.5cm dilated. Everything seemed to happen so fast with the nurses explaining everything to us, examining me, telling me all the names of the meds I was about to be given.. I felt like in a daze almost because I couldn't believe it was all happening. Here I thought I was just going to be told it was just a foot in my rib and be sent home, not be told I was in labor. I'm not very good with needles (I never have been) and man oh man when the nurse said the words "shot & in the hip" it really overwhelmed me and I almost felt like I started to panic. Thank goodness my husband was there holding my hand and talking to me during the shots. I remember being told before that I was going to have to get over the fear of needles once I get pregnant and I am trying very hard haha Just keep telling myself I am doing it all for her! After I was given the meds and fluids to stop the labor it seemed to be working. We had to stay over night to be monitored & make sure I wasn't continuing with labor. 

Over the weekend we stayed busy watching tv, playing card games, took my time showering and doing my make up and tried to sleep when we could. Sean would show me Lilly through the hospital window and I would sneak into the waiting area at night to see her. He also ran out lots to grab us food so I didn't have to eat hospital food thank goodness :)

I won by the way! I think that's twice I've beat him now!

I love that dog way too much.

A little make up always makes you feel better!

September 20th (33 weeks + 5 days) 

I was still having contractions and had multiple tests done to see where my cervix was at and the thickness measured less than what the doctor would have liked to see (2cm) as well as tested positive for a hormone that shows high possibility for early labor. Two things I was really hoping to hear better news back on from the doctor. We were told we would have to be flown to Prince George to be at a hospital with an NICU (Fort St John does not have the staff & level of care for premature babies) and stay in the hospital there. Honestly that was pretty tough to hear. I knew that we had to because it was best for the baby, but I felt in that moment as though I had no control and was just being told what I had to do. I didn't want to go to Prince George, I don't know Prince George, we have no family there and I didn't want to deliver my baby there! I don't want to sound selfish and again I wanted to do whatever was best for our baby BUT it made me feel pretty upset and took a bit to sink in. The doctor did explain to us that IF baby girl did not come while we were in Prince George in the next 2 weeks and I reach 36 weeks then we would could come back to Fort St John and be able to give birth to her here. So that was a positive thing. Again, I think it all was just happening so fast I couldn't wrap my mind around it all. Plus, on top of all this my sister had a flight booked for the next day to fly into Fort St John to come visit us! I felt pretty disappointed that now my sister wouldn't be able to come to FSJ, see our new house and help me set up the nursery. That really meant a lot to me. We switched her flight for her to fly into Prince George the next day instead. At least I was still able to see her and she could still come up and be with me! 

September 21st (33 weeks + 6 days)

Baby girl and I were flown to Prince George in a medical transport aircraft. I had to take an ambulance from the FSJ hospital to the airport, fly to Prince George and then take another ambulance to the Prince George hospital. I felt pretty overwhelmed and a bit sad to be honest. Sean was not able to fly with me so I was kind of scared to be without him while he drove the 5 hour drive to Prince George. The paramedics were very nice and talked to me during the whole trip. The flight was a short 45min flight and I must say that was the first flight I have ever been able to lay down on! I was having contractions 9 minutes apart during the whole trip and was starting to feel a little nervous about the fact of maybe going into full labor and Sean not being with me!

Once I arrived at the hospital I was hooked up to the monitor, had a few tests done and tried to relax until Sean arrived. Sean made it just in time to come to my ultrasound with me and that made me feel very relieved! As soon as I saw his face and he hugged me I lost it. I just felt so happy he was with me and that he made it. Baby girl was doing just fine. All of her measurements were showing her to measure closer to 35 weeks & 3 days. Which is great! She weighed approximately 5lbs 14 ounces. It was great to see her moving around in there and sucking on her little thumb! The doctor wanted to keep me hooked up to the monitor to keep an eye on her heartbeat (it had been a bit high) and my contractions. I'm still having contractions, but they are all over the place. We are just waiting to hear the more in depth results from the ultrasound. At this point the doctor said they won't be trying to stop me from going into labor, but hopefully baby girl will stay in there!

After all the tests were done and Sean and I could just relax all I could do was count down the minutes until my sister landed in Prince George!! Her trip definitely turned into a different kind of trip, but I am SO happy she was going to be here with me! Of course once she walked into the hospital room I hugged her and started crying. (yes, I was very emotional that day. I felt drained.) I couldn't believe she was in Prince George with Sean and I. To have my sister there for the support meant more than I could say.

September 22nd (34 weeks)

Hubby's 31st birthday! I'm sure it didn't feel like much of a birthday hanging out in a hospital, but I was glad my sister was there to go run some errands with him and go out for lunch while I took a nap! 

Sean's brother Pat & his fiancé had sent us a beautiful flower arrangement with a card to me & a happy birthday card to Sean! That was such a nice little surprise!

That night I was given a "pass" to be off bed rest and leave the hospital so we went out for some birthday dessert & was glad Sean could grab a beer!  

Yay off bed rest! Get me out of this room!

September 23rd (34 weeks + 1 day)

The doctor came to talk to us about the results from our ultrasound. She said the ultrasound showed a back up of urine in her left kidney and that I would be having another ultrasound done with a specialist the next day. I felt really nervous. No mother wants to hear the word "abnormal" from the doctor. She made it seem like it was not a huge emergency, explaining it's not like the baby needed to come out right away, but it did need to be looked at further. I was able to get another "pass" that night so we went out for dinner. Whenever we left the hospital I almost felt like I had a curfew and kept looking at the time to make sure I wasn't going back too late! haha

I took this picture just outside of the hospital for my 34 week belly picture. We thought it was pretty neat to see a rainbow that evening!

September 24th (34 weeks + 2 days)

We had our ultrasound with the specialist and it's always nice to see baby girl on the screen! The specialist said that baby girl had a "big belly" and "luscious lips" haha She was measuring around 6.5 pounds! He wasn't concerned about her hear rate which was great, but he did see the urine build up and explained that we would need to go to Children's Hospital in Vancouver for another ultrasound. I got a bit emotional at the end of the ultrasound because I just didn't want to think about something being wrong with her or her needing surgery to correct anything. I just all in all felt worried.

Just having some lunch!

September 25th (34 weeks + 3 days)

I was discharged from the Prince George hospital! The doctor said she was working on making an appointment for an ultrasound in Vancouver and that in the mean time we can head to Vancouver! She examined me before we left and I was dilated to 2.5cm and still having my off and on contractions. So my sister and I flew to Vancouver and Sean drove so that way we had our car. We weren't sure how long we would be in Vancouver for. I think the drive was about 7 hours for Sean.. poor guy was doing so much driving. Once we were all in Vancouver I felt like I could relax a bit and I was SO happy to be able to show my sister this beautiful city! We were very fortunate to be able to stay with Sean's uncle who lived very close to the hospital.  

Sean dropping us off at the Prince George airport

September 26th & 27th

Over the weekend we showed my sister the city. I was still told to be taking it easy and not do too much walking, but I was feeling okay. We took a lot of breaks and I knew if I needed to stop walking if contractions kicked in. We drove a lot as well to different beaches and areas. The weather was so nice that weekend! I even heard my sister say "Ok, I could live here." (YES! Please move to Canada haha!) We went to Granville Island, English Bay, False Creek, downtown Vancouver and a few other places. Over the weekend we were still waiting to hear from the doctor and I was having my irregular contractions.

Granville Island

Out for lunch... Lilly loves her aunt Did!

She's such a beach dog!

Okay my belly seriously grew so much between 34-36 weeks!! Baby girl did a lot of growing!

September 28th (34 weeks + 6 days)

Bringing my sister to the airport was hard. I seriously don't think it ever gets easier. Plus, this time she was going to take Lilly to Minnesota with her and I was so sad to be saying goodbye to my fur baby! We just didn't know how long we would be in Vancouver for and with everything up in the air we thought it would be best for her to go on a little vacay to Minnesota with my sister and see my mom. Just thinking how the next time I would see the both of them again would be after baby girl is born had me filled with a bunch of different emotions. My mom called me right as we were leaving the airport and that helped talking to her. Mommy's always make you feel better :)

September 29th (35 weeks)

We had our ultrasound at the BC Women's Hospital. Baby girl of course was moving around like crazy during it! I swear whenever there is an object touching my belly she likes to push back at it. Her head is so far down there the ultrasound tech had a difficult time getting measurements of her head. Definitely going to have a little cone head when she is born! After the ultrasound we went to the fetal medicine and met with a couple doctors to go over the results. LONG story short the doctors explained they had a team look over the results and they did not see evidence to believe baby girl is in immediate need of any sort to fix the backed up urine and they think it may be something that goes away once she is born. They said there is a 12% chance (not sure exactly how they came up with the 12%) something may need to be done to correct it, but we will not know until after she is born and we see how she is peeing. They requested to have an ultrasound done on baby girl when she is 1 week old and we will go from there. Plus, they were not concerned with her hear rate! Thank goodness. We were also told that once I reach 36 weeks we could head back to Fort St John!

Sean and I felt so relieved to hear this news! I felt so thankful with the results. Yes, there is a part of me that is still worried of course, but I don't want to think the worst. Also being told that we could head back to Fort St John and not have to stay in Vancouver to deliver was a huge relief! We felt as though finally all of our questions had been answered and now we knew what the plan was. 

September 30th - October 6th (36 weeks)

Well for the rest of the week in Vancouver we tried to enjoy ourselves and did the rest of our shopping that needed to be done before baby girl arrived! We sold our car, bought a new SUV (we had been wanting to do this for awhile now so it worked out perfect), bought some new furniture for the new house, saw some family members from the Murphy side and then we drove back to Fort St John as soon as I hit 36 weeks! 

The beaches are so pretty in Vancouver.. Really miss the smell of the ocean and seeing palm trees!

Love this Cactus Club in English bay that's right on the beach

Of course we had to satisfy our craving for Mexican! Tacofino is SO good.

We are pretty excited about the new car! We love it! 

So we maaaay have bought so much stuff that we needed to rent a little u-haul trailer to get it all back to FSJ! 

On the road back to our home, hands out the sunroof on a beautiful day and feeling so thankful!

Overall the whole journey turned out to be good in the end and for that we are so thankful. Yes, it was stressful and something I wish we wouldn't have had to go through, but I really believe that everything happens for a reason. This whole experience taught me a lot. Everything from having to let go and not have everything go as planned, being strong for my daughter, to be patient and to be grateful to be able to come back to Fort St John and be "home". No FSJ does not feel like home to me, but for the first time ever I wanted to get BACK to FSJ. I wanted to be back in our house, get the nursery ready, sleep in our bed and to deliver her in a city that Sean and I have made memories and built a life together in. It's our home for now and we get to start our own little family here. I am happy to have her be born here and to give her this place to call home.

xo Ashley