So, like I mentioned, we did a lot of short day trips around the area. The day before Hagen was born, we stopped at Chik-Fil-A for lunch. Jess had a chicken sandwich and within a few hours she wasn't feeling great. Hard to know if it was the sandwich or if she was really in the first stages of labor, but either way, she was miserably sick. The symptoms lasted all night.
Jen and I decided to take a longer trip to Valley Forge since it was a Sunday and Sid was home to be with Emmy.
We weren't thirty minutes down the road when we got a Marco Polo from Jess.
She said she was feeling a bit better.
Not too long after that we got a text from Jess saying she links she might actually be in labor.
Jen has me call her instead of reply with a text. Jess says she is having contractions, but not to worry. Jen said we would turn around and head back and then we hear Sid yelling from the background that we can't turn around or we will jinx her contractions. Ha ha! Totally possible, so we just kept going.
Jen and I decided not to go too much further in case we needed to turn around. We decided to go as far as the Susquehanna River which was only about 30 minutes away.
Randomly we drove past a fun looking bridge and a quick pull out spot, so we stopped.
It's a good thing we did, because it wasn't too much longer that Sid contacted us and told us to turn around things were moving along quickly.
This time Jess didn't think it was urgent, but Sid was insistent that she was progressing.
Jess was afraid she would get to the hospital and they would tell her nothing was happening and to go home.
Jess called the hospital and it wasn't a very long conversation by the time the doctor told her that just by the sound of her voice she knew she was in labor and to make her way to the hospital.
At this point, I had googled the distance from our location and to the Huot house vs. the hospital. It was about 10 minutes faster for Jen and I just to meet them at the hospital.
I am sure after all the time that has passed, I have missed some of the more exciting details, but things definitely got a bit intense. Jen even almost ran a red light cause she couldn't focus on driving.
My biggest fear was that Jess would have the baby on the side of the road and I WOULDN'T BE THERE!!!!! I joked every trip we took that no worries, I could just deliver the baby in the car. No one liked that idea except me!
We met up at the hospital and Jess was most definitely in active labor. She and Sid went in to the hospital and Jen and I parked vehicles, swapped out stuff and she took Emmy home.
Because of COVID, they were only letting one person be in the room during the birth.
UGH!!!! So frustrating to know that I was so close, but was going to miss the whole thing.
I waited in the lobby and got updates via text. Jess was admitted at a 9!!! Can you imagine what would have happened if they hadn't gone to the hospital when Sid insisted?
At some point, Sid came down and I went up to get a few photos. Apparently, Jess had been talking to the nurse about me being stuck downstairs and explaining how I was at the previous birth, was support, etc.
In one of those miracle moments, this nurse (named Cyd also) told me if anyone asked I was a doula and I was staying. YES!!!!!!!!!
Even though she checked in at a 9, things slowed way down after the epidural. We watched this screen and tracked her contractions. We also we able to watch other rooms on the same screen. LD13 checked in after Jess, but had the baby first. Ha ha! According to the nurses, all the rooms were busy and they were more than full with women ready to deliver.
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