Our Story

Thursday

4:30am - Woke up with contractions.  10 min. apart.

9:30am - Everything pretty much stopped

11am - Contractions start up again.  Anywhere between 10 and 18 minutes a part

*Spend the day trying to stay busy...and active=)  Taking walks, running errands, keeping up with the kids...  This is typical of all of my labors.  Very slow and inconsistent.  This goes on until about 5pm.

5pm - The contractions begin getting closer together and stronger.  I decided to get a shower and by the time I was done they were 5-6 minutes apart.

6:30pm - Josh is in the middle of dinner when contractions begin to be 2-3 min. apart.  I tell him I think it's time...right now!

7:30pm - Get to the hospital and am admitted right away.  They check me and I am ONLY 4 cm.  They feel my water sack though, which was causing tremendous pressure.  As soon as they lay me down and put the monitors on my contractions slow WAY down and the pain level decreases tremendously.  This is also typical of my other deliveries.  I have tons of painful contractions and get stuck in the dilation process and can't progress.

*After laying and being monitored for an hour with not much progression the nurse keeps telling me that this is just "early labor" and starts talking about sending me home.  I try to tell her that my other pregnancies were just like this and that this, in fact, IS THE DAY HE WILL BE BORN.  She wasn't convinced.

9pm - Begin walking the halls in hopes of picking things up a bit.  As soon as I get off the bed the contractions DEF. begin again and even stronger than before.

10pm - After an hour of walking the halls they check me again and I'm only 5-6cm along.  My contractions were beginning to get unbearable and they were STILL talking about sending me home, saying this was just "early labor".  After the nurse left me laying on the bed with the monitors again it began.  

10:30pm - The contractions were beginning to hurt so bad that I couldn't help but call out!  One contraction made me feel like I had to push.  I turned over and looked Josh in the eyes and said (okay, firmly commanded) him to "Call the nurses RIGHT NOW and tell them I HAVE TO PUSH!!!!!!!!!!"   Josh, thinking, "baby you can't push when you're only 6cm." reluctantly called the nurses in.  As if the screams weren't giving it away.  The nurses came in and couldn't figure out what was going on.  One of the nurses decided to check me during a contraction and I was 8cm DURING a contraction.  

11:00-11:55pm are a blur. 

I had a split second to decide if I wanted an epidural.  Here are my 2 reasons for choosing against the epidural this time:

1-The epidural slowed delivery down by HOURS with my other 2 and I WAS NOT GOING HOME!  This baby was coming out TONIGHT!

2-My contractions were so hard and so close together that I was afraid of the needle hitting my spine during contractions.  I was just plain scared!

*The Dr. came in to see what was going on and realized that my water sack wasn't breaking and that was the reason I wasn't dilating...because it was blocking the head from dropping to cause dilation.  So, he said "alright I'm gonna break your water".  Seconds later he says, okay, "you want to try to push?" 3 sets of contractions and pushing later and he was here!

So, that's the short of it.  He made it and he is healthy.  I had no tearing or ripping or stitches or anything!  God is so good.