Much has happened since I last wrote! After that first ultrasound, the rest of my pregnancy consisted of two echocardiograms, almost weekly ultrasounds and polyhdraminos, likely due to an intestinal blockage in Joshua. The polyhydraminos (too much amniotic fluid) left me feeling huge and extremely uncomfortable. At 36 weeks I had an amnioreduction and they removed two and a half liters of fluid! Two weeks later, my fluid was back up to high levels, which is likely what sent me into labor on March 22nd.

March 22nd I woke up early feeling contractions. I told my husband, I think this is it. I’ve had two other kids, I know what contractions feel like, and these were real contractions! So we dropped the kids off with the grandparents and made our way to Presbyterian St. Luke’s. They told me I indeed was having real contractions but my cervix was completely closed, so they sent me home with some sleep medicine so I would be able to sleep at night. Well, I continued to have regular and very uncomfortable contractions. That night I went to my preschool class’s Spring Program and tried to sit still through the concert. I took some sleeping pills and woke up in the middle of the night with regular, painful contractions. I toughed it out, because at this point I didn’t trust myself! I did my parent teacher conferences at preschool that morning and then went home. After a few hours the contractions were very painful and I told my husband to come home from work. I was trying to time them, but they still were not consistent and still remained fairly spaced out, however the pain level kept increasing. I asked my husband to call the nurse and she said to head in. We loaded up the kids in the car and by this time I’m grabbing my husbands arm and, how should I say…yeah… yelling through the pain! We practically threw the kids onto my in-laws front yard and sped off, to downtown Denver….in rush hour traffic.

Cue my husband’s stress levels being at an all time high, and he’s a police officer, so that’s saying something! It was literally bumper to bumper traffic and my contractions just got closer and closer together. We sat through three cycles of lights at Bannock St. I looked over at people in their cars as I was having these horrible contractions and everyone was just so oblivious haha. As we inched our way downtown, I told my husband I was starting to feel pressure. I was pleading with him that we had to make it to the hospital. Knowing Joshua had some health issues, I knew we couldn’t have him in the car. Thanks to God, and my husband’s great navigating skills, we made it to the hospital in what had to be record time.

The nurses checked me and said, “Oh, she’s in labor, labor.” All the doctor could feel was my bag of waters and his head. I said I wanted an epidural and the doctor said I might not have a choice. She said she could break my water and he would be there in minutes or I could try to wait an hour or more for an epidural. I said, “Let’s do this”. She broke my water and within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital, Joshua Toby Glader was born. They laid him on me for about 15 seconds and he was purple. They whisked him onto an isolet and about 10 or 15 doctors, nurses and specialists surrounded him. They had to give him oxygen and quickly took him to the highest level NICU. My husband followed him there and I was left, to recover, without my baby.