Wednesday night I got home around 830 and had felt great all day. I worked that day and had even less Braxton Hicks contractions than usual. We watched some episodes of Prison Break and headed to bed around 1030. I wasn't tired so I decided to soak in a bath. I came to bed around 1050 and had my first contraction at 11. It felt at first like a Braxton Hicks contraction (like a period cramp or gas cramp) not at all like what I had imagined a real contraction to feel like, but it lasted about 30 seconds and was more intense than the pain I had been having. My second contraction came 15 minutes later and my water broke with this one. I thought I had just peed my pants. I went to the restroom and changed my pants, came back to bed and had another one about 15 minutes later. I had read that your first few hours of labor are spent at home so I decided to get up and see if I could start some laundry or eat a snack or something to keep me occupied because sleeping was NOT an option. But, over the next hour the contractions got more intense and closer together. I was in denial that it was time to go to the hospital but I was in a lot of pain. I woke up Colin around 1230 and we decided to go to the hospital.
After we parked the car and started walking in, I had the most intense contraction. It was so bad that I threw up. My vomiting was so bad that I peed my pants. The contraction lasted so long that I couldn't walk. I sat on a bench while Colin went to get help, sort of freaking out at how much pain I was in. If this was only the beginning, I could not even imagine the amount of pain that I was in for as my labor progressed. He came with a wheelchair and pushed me into the Labor and Delivery. It was 1245 in the morning so people were scarce. Finally, we found a nurse who took us to an exam room. She checked me and I was already dilated to an 8!!! Colin's one job (besides the obvious of supporting me and comforting through delivery) was to make sure I got an epidural. At this point he told (not asked) the nurse to get me my epidural and FAST!!! Since we had not pre-registered, they had to ask me a million questions and get me admitted before they could give me the epidural. Basically, the nurse anesthetist was all ready to go and the second I was admitted, he asked me his questions, had me sign the form and stuck that sucker in!
I started feeling some relief a few minutes later, but could still feel the pressure of the contractions. My midwife and the midwife she was training arrived shortly before my epidural. They were wonderful (along with my hubby) at keeping me calm and focused through the contractions before the epidural. They let me labor naturally with the epidural to help start stretching things out before I started pushing for about a half hour. When I started pushing, I had only been in labor for a short 3 hours. I started pushing, the midwives had me try a few different positions to find the position that worked best. Eventually, we found that laying flat on my back worked best. Pushing was not that bad except for the last half hour. I could feel everything and was feeling a lot more pain. Colin stood by me the entire time and held my limp right leg (the epidural worked better on one side than the other). He was great at telling me how wonderful I was doing and making sure the midwives were telling me how I was progressing. The midwives were great about giving me words of encouragement, telling me what things to do to help push better, and when my contractions were coming (for a little bit, I couldn't tell when the contractions were). It was surprisingly positive and calm in the room.
At 4:17 on June 28, 2012, our sweet baby girl was born. They laid her on my chest and rubbed her dry. I couldn't believe I had actually done it and that she was actually here. They let her lay on me while they finished up with me. I couldn't get over how much she looked like Colin. She has blond hair, deep dark blue eyes, and the most perfect pink skin.
We were pretty exhausted by the morning, but couldn't have been more excited about our cute bundle of joy.
