Babies: Our First 4 Alarm Fire Drill From Camping

This last weekend we headed out to Memorial Park for our last camping trip for the season. Two other families joined us on this trip. along with Clem’s parents, who drove all the way down from Oregon. Last week we had to spend Tuesday and Wednesday night a hotel due to the remodel. So when Thursday arrived and I was able to get back into the house and pack for the trip. I took a moment to lay down on our bed and it his me like a brick wall. I don’t want to go today and instead we choose to leave Friday instead. 

That change in plan was certainly a sign of things to come. We land at the campsite by Friday afternoon, followed by our friends. There was parking drama but P. and all her school friends were having to much fun to even notice anything. Friday night and Saturday into the evening was a lot of fun but I just had this weird feeling I need to get to town for some reason. Fast forward to the kids in bed on Saturday night and the parents hovering around the camp fire. Through the evening we were noticing the ranger drive by several times and we had a fear the parking drama would arise yet again but they just kept driving. Then around 10:30pm the ranger went by again and stopped. To which I replied, “Ah crap, here we go again”.

The ranger walked into camp and asked if there was a BHK in the camp, to which I replied, “That’s Me”, it was to dark to tell who was talking so I raised my hand when asked which one of us BHK was. The ranger proceeded to  inform me that my brother C. called to tell me that our surrogate has gone into labor and contraction has started. Clem and I were speechless. I got up and our friends stepped right in and told us what we needed to do. It felt like Clem and I were lost and thankfully they were there to keep us focused. One friend offered to take care of Paley but the idea of not having her with us was not an option for both of us. We scrambled to find the necessities and our friends just started throwing everything into our car and said they would bring home the rest. 

While packing the car in less than 10 minutes, I began to get really cold. We were sitting around the fire and I really couldn’t feel any heat, I realized that my body temp was dropping because I was so frazzled. It wasn’t until later when I told my mother what I was feeling, she said I was in shock. Clem and I were both reacting  differently to the situation. I tend to be more internally emotional while he’s more outwardly. We grabbed Paley who was asleep and put her in the car seat covered by her sleeping bag. We darted out of camp and made it up to Half Moon Bay by 10:55pm. Along the way we got the update that she was experiencing contractions between 2-3 minutes but she was not dilated. The major problem was she was dehydrated and was already hooked up to IV with fluids. They did a test to verify if she was in pre-term labor but they were still awaiting results. We were not ready for this moment to happen. I hadn’t share contact information for our family because we were only 29 weeks. The twins room is still a guest room. The house is still a construction zone. Our lives were a mess. 

As we approached SF we got more information from the doctors, she was dehydrated from vomiting and their diagnosis was she fighting a flu bug or food poisoning. At no time while on the monitors were the twins in duress. So the docs were ready to let her go but our surrogate asked to spend the night. We decided that having us hovering over her bedside along with her husband would make a stressful situation so instead we headed home. She went home early on Sunday morning.

She bounced back but she started to have some pain in her back. On Monday she had a follow-up appointment with her OB and the doc found she  was dehydrated again. The stomach bug also plagued a friend and her son. After being admitted against her fluid levels went back to normal but the back pain was still present. After a ultra-sound of kidneys they determined she had kidney stones. So the prescribed remedy is plenty of water, lots of it. 

The camping trip was overall a success, the kids had amazing time and P. was a little bummed she woke up in her bed and not in her tent.

(photo: Ama & P. during S’mores time)