Halloween Surprises

This Halloween was sure an interesting one. My sister-in-law went into early labor. 10 1/2 weeks early. Talk about scary!

It all started with my mother-in-laws birthday. We had all planned a trip to the Mall of America to see the "Bodies" exhibit. We were all very excited to go. I have lived in this city for 10 years and have only gone to the MOA about 2 times. It's an experience. They have a roller coaster park in the middle of the mall, Lego land and all sorts of games. It's truly INSANE! The mall was packed, little kids all dressed up and ready to trick-or-treat. We ended up going to the exhibit, which was overpriced and definitely not as good as the exhibit in San Diego. we ate lunch and tried to get out the door before all the little kids started their trek around the mall. we almost made it!

When we got back to my in-laws, my sister-in-law, April, was still uncomfortable. She was rubbing her belly and breathing thru the "cramping" as she called it. I knew in my heart of hearts, this was not good. Over the next hour, I carefully wrote down the times of when they started and stopped. Things were not looking good. Some of the contractions were lasting approx. 1 min and about 5 min apart. At this point, mom and I just looked at each other and knew we had to get her to the hospital. Boy- did she fight us tooth and nail. She did not want to go to the hospital. "It's nothing." she would say.

Once we got there, the nurse hooked her up to all the machines and made an assessment that maybe April had a bladder infection because she was going to the bathroom like every 10 minutes. To our surprise, that was not the case. She was dilated to 4-5 and the contractions were not going away. This was terrible. We all looked at each other like WTF? now what? The nurse immediately transferred April upstairs where they were able to assess the situation better. Apparently, her regular OBGYN was on call this night and basically told April she had a few options. Ultimately, they were going to try to stop the contractions, but in the meantime, they had to giver her a shot that would help jump start the maturing of the baby's lungs. The doctor told April that she is in active labor and that she had 2 choices. The hospital that we were at was not capable of handling April's baby. She was only 29 1/2 weeks pregnant. Either she had to be transferred while she was still pregnant or if she delivered the baby, he would have to be transferred, which could lead to possible unnecessary bacteria for him. In the end, April opted to be transferred.

When we got to the U of M Children's hospital they decided to stop the magnesium was not stopping the contractions, so they gave her another option, a pill. WOW! It worked- her contractions stopped, for the most part. The bad news, 6 cm dilated at this point. The good news, she was still pregnant!

They needed her to stay pregnant long enough to give her the second shot of steroid for his lungs. believe it or not, Harlen Francis was born 4 hours after he 48 hours they wanted to keep him in there. She was 30 weeks pregnant. He is perfect, breathing on his own. I can't believe it.

I have been thru many things but have never witnessed strength so powerful as when I looked into my sister-in-laws eyes as the doctors were giving all this unexpected news to her. She is so unbelievably strong. She was so beautiful at that moment. I admire her and what she has been thru.

I'm not sure I would have handled it as well.