As a mom, I LOVE hearing other moms' birth stories. There is something about the fact that every woman's story is so different, but all end with a beautiful baby is very intriguing and interesting. Each story is so special and so spiritual for each person and is truly life changing.
It also is kind of your rite of passage. It's like telling your own personal war story. Every story, no matter how easy the labor might have been, earns you some major street cred and it's inevitable that if you hang out with a group of moms long enough, the topic will come up and the stories will come out.
So, here's mine...
You may remember that we had just come home from a trip to a lake house in Michigan. It was a beautiful place and we were blessed with great company and great weather. I loved it, despite the 80 steep stairs I had to climb up and down to come and go from the beach. I truly thought they might induce labor, but being almost 35 weeks, I wasn't too worried. We returned home on Sunday and I spent the day on Monday relaxing, doing laundry and getting the house straightened (which sadly I didn't do that good of a job of). I remember being so excited because I only had to work Thursday and Friday of that week, so that left Rosie and me with three whole days of freedom together. I had big plans for us.
Tuesday was a day like any other. I got up and we went through our normal morning routine--breakfast, reading books, etc. We then went downstairs to fold some laundry and watch the morning news. You may remember that I had been having contractions for weeks, well really months, so I wasn't too concerned when they started up again. There didn't seem to be any reason to be alarmed.
I like to blame hormones, but I have to say I was pretty emotional at that time. Anything could make me cry and I found myself being overly sensitive. For one reason or another, my sensitivity came out and I remember getting kind of emotional about something. I started crying and I noticed that my contractions started to get worse, and worse, and worse and finally...worse. They were very close together, but I calmed myself down and they seemed to ease up. I called Mark and he decided to come home early. By the time he got home, I was doing much better. We decided to go by BestBuy to look at cameras and get a bite to eat (I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink all morning). As we were driving to Best Buy, my contractions started intensifying again and I started timing them. They were two minutes apart! I called the doctor and they said to go to the hospital. The thought of going to the hospital, my place of employment, sounded horrifying. What if this was a false alarm and EVERYONE would know. I begged them to just let me come to their office, but they insisted. I hung up the phone and started bawling (hormones, remember). Mark called my doctor and asked if he could just bring me there and he said that would be fine. They put me on the monitor and watched my contractions for about an hour. He didn't want to examine me until he knew my contractions were consistent. They were at 2 minutes apart. I was FAMISHED by this point and they ended up giving me a veggie sandwich from panera that they had left over from their staff meeting that day to see if the baby would respond and did she ever. She started kicking and moving all over the place. This was around 3:30ish. He took me in to do a quick exam and found that I was dilated to a 4 and was 75% effaced and he could feel her head. He did a quick ultrasound to check the weight of the baby and sent us over to the hospital. He warned me that there was still a chance this was false labor and that he would be by in a few hours to check on my cervical change.
Did I mention that Monroe was with us through all of this? Yes, she was and she was going STIR CRAZY! I felt so bad for her, but she stuck it out like a little trooper. We called Mike and Melissa and let them know what was happening and Mike planned to meet Mark at our house after he got me situated in the hospital.
My boss, Michelle, was waiting out front with a wheelchair by the time we arrived. She took me right up to my room and my nurses got me hooked up to everything. Michelle took Rosie while Mark worked on getting me registered. He then took Rosie to our house to meet Mike and to get some things packed up for our time in the hospital. I hadn't even thought about packing my bag yet! Michelle stayed with me while Mark was gone and kept me VERY entertained.
Mark finally got back and after a few more hours of laboring my doctor FINALLY got there to check me. I was at a 5/6 and he said he was definitely going to have me stay overnight, but he wasn't completely sure that I was in labor. He told us to rent some movies and have a fun night. Mark ran to redbox and got us a few movies and we got started on a long night.
To Be Continued...
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