A Labor Story...

Here's my attempt to finally tell Jack's birth story.

So, here's part 1.....

November 1st 2pm:

I have my last OB appointment and she strips my membranes (OUCH!) My parents were in

town and we were all anxiously awaiting Baby B's arrival. We went on a million walks, bounced on the exercise ball and prayed this baby would come quickly!

November 3^rd 3pm:

I start feeling contractions at work. I pull away from my desk, grip my belly and breathe quietly so as to not draw attention to myself. Heck, I’ve never been in labor before and this may very

well just be practice contractions. For whatever reason the thought of having a false alarm embarrasses me so I sit back quietly and just breathe. So much for looking inconspicuous,

Alicia, walks by and immediately asks if I’m ok. I say, “I think so, I just don’t feel good.”

5pm:

I leave work. When I get home I take a long warm bath remembering at my breastfeeding class they said if you do this and still have regular contraction they probably aren’t Braxton-Hicks but they also mentioned that if you “think” you’re in labor….you probably aren’t, You’ll know when you’re in labor. My warm bath results in simply more contractions. Although, I did loose

my mucous plug, which is about as attractive as it sounds.

7pm:

I come out to the living room with my parents and Jason and we attempt to watch Modern Family and eat dinner. However, the only thing that sounds good to me is bouncing on my huge exercise ball. So I bounce and bounce, and bounce, change positions and roll around…and

bounce some more. I feel horrible. I head to the bathroom and have some bleeding and decide I’m heading to the hospital.

11pm:

We get to the hospital (funny side note, Jason packs for a small army of people. He brings 2 suitcases a backpack, a pillow and hang up clothes….I bring a small duffle). We get into the triage room where they tell me I’m dilated to a 1 (same as November 1) but they want to

monitor me for a couple of hours. I’m laying there mortified that I’m about to be one of “those” women who comes in and has to be sent home. They come back and check and sure enough, I’m sent home...mortified!

2:30am-ish:

As we’re walking out of the hospital I’m feeling worse both physically and mentally. Jason and my dad go to get the car and my mom and I make it back into the hospital in time for me to pee (will later find out that was the beginning of my water breaking s-l-o-w-l-y).

3am:

We get home and attempt to sleep. I am up ALL night being SO dramatic! I’m literally clawing at our headboard begging the Lord for mercy, breathing, confessing to the Lord how weak I am and begging Jason to take me back to the hospital. Jason keeps reminding me that I always said I wanted to labor as much as I could at home…I SO didn’t at the time. My contractions go from every 5 minutes down to every 2-4 minutes. This was one of the hardest nights of my life!

7am:

I tell Jason, “Have mercy on me and call my doctor and tell her to get this baby out of me.” He

finally calls my doctor and tells her that I’m begging for the baby to come out – she agrees this is a good sign that it’s time and that I should come in. This is the WORST time of day to try and get to the hospital. It’s rush hour! I continue being dramatic and later think if anyone saw me in the car they must have thought I was being kidnapped by the way I was behaving!

9am:

We get checked in triage and I’m at a 4! Progression!

11am:

I’m still progressing nicely and get an epidural. This was the best moment! At this point I’m questioning the sanity of all my friends who give birth without an epidural (KIDDING...You ladies are rockstars!) it was so heavenly!

12pm:

I feel great! I have my makeup on, my headband in and I'm ready to push this baby out in style! My lovely friend Alicia brings my family lunch and hangs for a bit while I’m wrapping up work and checking emails. Hey, I didn’t expect to have the baby that day so I had to tie up some loose ends! Then I was able to Skype with Mercedes and Noel and Micah and Kathleen. It was SO nice to talk with them even though they are so far away!

Then I check Facebook and I kid you not, I have like 6 messages from all sorts of people saying they dreamed about my baby last night and that it was a boy and then I get 2 text messages from people saying something similar. WEIRD!

I then find out that my doctor isn’t on call and that another doctor will be over soon. OK, I wanted a woman to deliver my baby. I’m just more comfortable that way. So I picked a practice that was all women and one very old male doctor who they promised me would be so close to retirement by the time I had my baby that there was no way he’d deliver my child….I got the old man! Good thing we knew our nurse and she was outstanding!

5pm:

It’s time to push! Everything looks so well that they think within 15-30minutes we’ll know if we were gonna have a son or daughter! We’re SO beyond thrilled! They start getting everything ready…It’s Go Time!

Click Here for Part 2