One of Jen's top 10 most embarrassing moments...

I have a real knack for getting myself into hideously embarrassing situations and Hazel's birth is no exception.  She was due on October 15th and scheduled  to be delivered by C section on September 25th at the U of U hospital in SLC.  I went to Utah Valley Hospital (UVRMC) on the 24th for an amnio and ultrasound to make sure everything was in order for the c section and my blood pressure was super high.  The doctor down here at UVRMC decided that the baby had to be born asap and they admitted me and were going to take me in an ambulance up to the U for the birth. 

After much stress, an IV full of meds and several hours they decided that I was too unstableto go in an ambulance and that I had to take a life flight helicopter up to SLC.  That isn't really something you can tell a pregnant woman and expect her blood pressure to go DOWN!

At this point they had be hooked up to 8 things: 2 IV's, a foley, 3 heart monitors, a pulse oximeter & a blood pressure cuff.  I am in my lovely hospital gown and I am much less than mobile.  When they came to get me my mom and Lowell had already left because they had to drive and wanted to get there close to when I did.  (The life flight only takes 17 minutes from Provo to SLC.)  Anyway, I was pretty hysterical, worried and now 'alone'!  

The team that came to get me consisted of 2 OB nurses, 2 EMT's, 2 security guards from UVRMC and the helicopter pilot. The conversation while they wheeled me out of the hospital and on to the heli pad was all about how they had to load me onto the helicopter while it was still running because it took to long to shut down and then start it up again.  So we head out and the blades are spinning, it is super loud and super windy.  So they all start to try and load me on to the gurney along with all my cords and wires.  The minute I got off the gurney my 'gown' took flight and I was exposed in all my pregnant glory to the audience of 7 and the entire town of Provo!  

Needless to say this was just another element of the day that didn't help my blood pressure go down.  The 17 minute ride to the hospital was loud, scary and hot.  Being a woman of great stature I was pressed right up against the window that wrapped around from top to bottom of the helicopter.  I could look down and see the ground.

I wish I could say that it ended there but the humiliation continued as they got me off the helicopter in SLC.  Again they were headed straight out to pick up another patient so they didn't want to power down the helicopter and had to unload me while it was running.  This time I pinned my gown between my legs before we got out but as I was hooked up to so many things it was still complicated.  As they move me out I realize that my catheter bag is stuck in the helicopter!  I start trying to tell them and they can't hear me over the blades so I end up screaming at the top of my lungs about my catheter!  Well, they figured it out and felt really bad about nearly ripping my bladder out.  

Well, that was the pre-show to the most traumatic experience of my life thus far:  Hazel's birth. But that is a tale for another day and another post....