The Birth Story, Part 1

I went to bed as normal the night of Monday, July 9, but I just couldn't get comfortable. Being almost 40 weeks pregnant will do that to ya, so I didn't think that much of it. I got up and went upstairs to the guest bedroom as to not disturb the husband. I laid in bed and read Tell No One by Harlan Coben. After a few chapters, I was too uncomfortable to even read. That's when I knew I was in labor because I can read through just about anything!

By this time it is around 11:30 p.m. I went downstairs to tell Joseph that this was IT, but he was too sleepy to be alarmed. I knew that I had a ways to go, so I didn't get too bent out of shape. Finally, though, at about 2:45 a.m. on July 10, I felt that I needed to get to the hospital. The contractions were about 5 to 7 minutes apart and getting stronger. I woke up Sleeping Beauty and we slowly got ready for the 5-minute trek to the hospital.

About 3:45 a.m., we entered the ER doors and I was wheeled away to Labor & Delivery. I was checked, which revealed that I was only dilated to a 1. Heh. But, I was fully effaced. The baby's monitor showed her having some heart decelerations, so I got to stay while the nurses watched the baby's heart more closely. They did let me walk around in an attempt to dilate more.

The baby's heart turned out to be fine, so we were told to go home at about 9:00 a.m. I was still only dilated to a 1. I tried using my best puppy dog eyes and tears to get the doctor on call to break my water and let me stay, but he was having none of it! He did assure me, however, that I was in "real" labor and that I'd be back soon. (That did not stop my tears and I was still mad at him.) The doc asked me if I wanted any pain medication. Because I was mad at him, I said, "No! I'm fine." Yeah right. He replied that he was giving me some anyway. So one shot to the butt and I was outta there.

I had a regular doctor's appointment at 1:15 p.m., so Joseph woke me up and off we went. My hair was standing up and I was wearing a wrinkled t-shirt and dirty shorts. Classy gal. After being checked, it was determined that I was dilated to a 3. Yay! And that I could now go to the hospital whenever I wanted. Joseph and I discussed it, and we decided that we'd go home and stay as long as possible. It was nice just knowing that we I made it to the hospital they couldn't kick me out.

I made the required phone calls on the way home from the doctor's appointment since we knew that labor was indeed imminent. My mom was beside herself! It was such a phone call to make, although I don't remember much of it because I was high on pain medicine. It took my parents a couple of hours to get to our house.

My mom and dad made it to our house around 4:00 p.m. or so. I was sitting in the recliner having contractions. I'd have one every 5 or 7 minutes and they were still getting progressively stronger. I'm such a daddy's girl and my poor dad was sitting on the couch watching all this. He looked like his heart was being shattered with each contraction, so I eventually got up and hobbled, doubled over into our bedroom for each contraction. It was quite a sight, I'm sure!

After about an hour or so of my parents and husband watching me like a boiling pot, Joseph and I decided to make our SECOND trek to the hospital. When we got there at about 5:45 p.m., there was no room at the inn! I had to labor in the waiting room (with a room full of strangers who cheered for me...but still). Then, I got moved into the triage room - which was really the storage room that just happened to have a few hospital beds in it.

At some point, I got shot up with Stadol. I remember working very hard not to say anything stupid, but it was to no avail. I told the "epidural man" that I was on birth control pills during his informed consent speech.

I'll finish up with the more exciting part of this story later...The Actual Birth! Yay!