A Birth Story, Part 1

So I am finally getting around to writing up M's birth story. Im pretty longwinded so Ive broken it up into a couple of posts. 

On September 14^th, 2011, my due date, I spent the day running errands with my mom. On the way home from base I told her that I had a new “heavy” feeling. I wasnt having contractions, but I definitely felt different. Later that afternoon we sat at the dining room table, mom working on her charts, me working on a pregnancy photo book. At 4:30 my lower back began to hurt. This was nothing new as my back had been hurting for almost 10 months! At 4:54 though, I had a contraction. Just a tightening of my abdomen. It didn’t hurt, but it was noticeable. At 5:02, I had another. At 5:11, another. I told my mom that I was having contractions and sent Jason a text at work letting him know. I wasn’t sure if this was the real thing or not because I had been having Braxton Hicks for weeks, but I was really hoping so! I cooked dinner for us all and the contractions kept coming. They were 6 to 20 minutes apart. After dinner they stopped for about 20 minutes so Jason and I went on a walk. We wanted to keep them coming! We couldn’t believe that after 10 months of waiting, this might finally be the real thing. On our walk we saw a bright light- space material (a satellite, maybe?) shoot across the sky and break up into two pieces. It was a sign. By nine I was sure that this was real labor and that the big event would be soon. We attempted to go to bed around 9:30/10 because we knew we would not be getting much sleep soon, but as I lay there, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I was too excited! I decided to get up and shower. My contractions were about 4-6 minutes apart by this time. After my shower I went back into the bedroom and told Jason to get up and finish packing our bag. We would be going to the hospital soon, I was sure. He got up and we both got dressed and went downstairs to tell Mom.

The contractions were coming more regularly and were beginning to pick up in intensity. I had to breathe through them, but they werent too bad at this point. The best pain reliever was walking. As long as I was walking, the pain wasn’t bad. We called L&D at 11:00pm and told them that my contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart and increasing in intensity. They advised me to stay at home until they were 3-4 minutes apart and stronger. We were pretty disappointed because we were ready to go and get this show started, but we managed to stay at home for another hour. We called them again at midnight since my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and instead of asking if we could come in, we told them we were on our way. The pain was getting worse, but still very manageable and even mild if I could walk during the contraction.

When we arrived at the hospital and pulled up to the gate, the gate guard asked us to shut off the engine and step out of the car. They wanted to do a car search! A panicked look immediately crossed my face as I breathed through another contraction. Jason told the guard that I was in labor and that we couldn’t stop. The guard said, “Oh! Ok, go on then!” and told the other guards that I was in labor. As we drove by they yelled out  “Good Luck!” Jason dropped Mom and I off at the ER entrance while he went to park the car. 

We walked up to L & D and checked in. The nurse, Becky, led us to Room 3, aka, THE room. This was the room that we wanted. We were told it was the biggest and the best room during our tour of the unit several weeks earlier when we attended our childbirth class. Our friends had also just delivered their baby in that room exactly two weeks before and they confirmed its awesomeness. Turns out I was the only patient on the unit that night. 

I changed into a gown and got into bed at 1245. Becky checked my cervix for progress. They don’t normally admit a patient unless their cervix is dilated to a 4. I was a 2 at my last appointment a week before so I was hoping I was at least a 4 now. According to her, I was dilated to 3 and 80% effaced. I was a little disappointed and worried they would send me home. Becky asked me if I would like to go home for a while longer or stay and of course I said stay! I wasn’t giving up Room #3! =) 

Stay tuned for part two....