The following is my first post recapping Jess’ initial premature labor, her subsequent bedrest, John’s birth and his stay in the NICU.
“Something doesn’t feel right.”
I’m not sure those were her actual words. In fact they probably weren’t. The actual words weren’t all that important. What was important at that point was that it was clear to us that our first action should be to call the doctor. We were both quite convinced that it was probably nothing, but we seemed to have an unspoken agreement to not to follow our usual inclination (to see how it goes after a night’s sleep). Thankfully we took the course of action that we did.
It was 10:30 PM. The doctor wanted us to come down to the hospital. We wouldn’t get settled at the hospital till close to midnight. Strangely at this point it didn’t dawn on us what was about to transpire (Jess thought she would be playing tennis on her league the next day).
The trip to the hospital and more specifically my attempts to navigate the hospital campus did not go without incident. I was uncertain as to where we should enter the hospital. In my defense I expected to get a chance to get a lay of the land long before it would be “mission critical”. We had several classes scheduled and a Labor & Delivery Ward tour scheduled that would all be in that part of the hospital.
It wasn’t very long before the doctors/nurses let us know what was going on. Jess was in labor and was already dilated 3-4 cm. It was Wednesday night and the doctors were pretty certain that Jess would end up delivering by the end of the upcoming weekend. We were about to begin operation “Stay Pregnant”. Jessica was going to be in the hospital until she delivered (whether that would be that night or closer to her due date).
“March for Babies” Note from Mike: This is the final week leading up to the Hines Drive March for Babies. Jess and I both felt it important to walk in this year’s march and raise what we could for an organization that has become so very close to our hearts. Please help put us over the top in reaching our fundraising goals by making a donation or pledge on our personal fundraising pages on marchforbabies.org: