Monday the ninth I went to my 37 week (and two days) OB appointment. I had +2 protein in my urine, so she sent me downstairs (my OB's office is in a women's hospital) to do a NST. I sit there for 1.5 hours listening to baby's heartbeat and growing steadily more hungry, as I hadn't eaten that day, when my doctor comes in the room to talk to me. "I am very concerned that you are developing pre eclampsia. I want to admit you for a 24 hour urine collection. You may not leave this hospital without a baby." Me: wat. I call my husband immediately and tell him to head down with our hospital bag and the car seat. In the meantime, I get some delicious hospital food. No sarcasm, it really was tasty. So I get admitted and begin urine collection, which is surprisingly difficult. Every four hours they take my blood pressure, so I get no sleep. Tuesday the 10th is boring - waiting, peeing, napping, blood pressure, repeat. After the 24 hours is up, my OB calls. "We are inducing you in the morning, you definitely have pre e." Oh shit, I am having a baby. 6:30 am they start pitocin (pronounced pih-TOE-sin, not PIE-toe-sin like I always thought), a saline bag, and magnesium sulfate. I get a catheter place, and it hurt like a son of a bitch. Being a baby about pain, I get an epidural. My doc breaks my water around 9:30a. Felt super weird. Nothing happened for a while, except me developing a severe hatred of blood pressure cuffs. Soon they start having me lay on alternating sides, flipping like a pancake every thirty or so minutes. Apparently bubs was stuck facing a weird way in my pelvis, and this helped. His heart rate was dipping a bit with each contraction, so they turned of the pit for a while. Didn't help, though. Around 6:30p I began feeling the contractions really strongly in my cervix. I was 7 cm dilated then, at 8 by 7:00p, and ready to go by 7:30p. Waiting 10 min for my doctor to arrive and glove up was the hardest thing. I have ever done. Not pushing hurts so very bad. Pushing helps everything. Oh yes - at some point around 5 cm I began spiking a fever. I hit 102 degrees at one point, and was shaking uncontrollably. Ugh. I pushed for 25 minutes, and out came baby! He was purple and had the cord wrapped around his neck, poor lamb. He went immediately to the table to be worked over, with my husband in his heels. His apgar was 7 and 8, I think, I was pretty whacked out. I had 2 second degree tears, no episiotomy, and I don't think I pooped. Baby was 5 lbs 11 oz, 18.5 inches long, and was born at 37 weeks 4 days.