*Disclaimer* - I do not plan to put every small detail of my labor/delivery in here, as I know there are some things one probably does not want me to share (reference: 'Up All Night': the Birth episode. If you haven't watched it, do. It's hilarious, especially if you have kids. Side note: that now includes me, and that's a weird thought.) However, I will put some details in, as discreetly as possible. I just wanted to prep anyone who may not do well with medical-type things before you read any further! Also, this is just my recollection of everything that happened. I can not claim that I was completely coherent all the time, as since his birth I have been told of things going on around me that I was totally clueless about!
We'll start with November 1st, my due date. I started my maternity leave on this date, not knowing if I'd have a baby yet or not. I'd had periodic contractions here and there, but just pre-labor type; nothing to write home about. I had a doctor's appt. that day and was only dilated to about 1, which is where I was the week prior. It was a bit discouraging, but I kept reminding myself that God had this planned before the beginning of time, so Graham would come exactly when he was supposed to. That was difficult though, as my mom was coming into town the next day, and I wanted her to have time with him as well. That night, since it was officially our last night just the two of us, we used a gift certificate generously given to us by small group, and went out to Mangia for a dinner date. The waiter seemed a bit surprised when he asked my due date and I said "today!", but thankfully, my water didn't break while there!
Mom came the next day, and, looking back, it was really nice to have a few days with her here just us-we were able to get things done around the house, spend time together shopping and talking and just being mom and daughter. We won't get that time back and it is precious to me. On Friday, November 4th, I felt a little different and seemed to have to pee every 2 minutes. I wasn't sure if this was possibly amniotic fluid leaking or if he was just getting more into position, so we stopped at the doctor's office and after an hour were able to see the nurse practitioner. I thankfully was not leaking any fluid, but also hadn't progressed much from earlier in the week. Sunday the 6th, after church we decided to go for a walk on Blackwater Creek Trail. I was having some more contractions and feeling a lot more pressure, which I took as a good sign. However, no labor yet.
We went to bed after "The Next Iron Chef" on Sunday night, and I slept very very well, better than I had in a while. I deem this providential, as I awoke Monday morning at 6 am with a contraction. At first, I didn't realize what was going on; I was in the middle of a dream and in the dream something had happened I was afraid I was in trouble for, so I thought that I was woken because of that. I then realized that it was slightly painful (not much) and started timing them. I laid in bed for the next hour timing the contractions, which were around 10 minutes apart on average. Around 7, I got out of bed, made some coffee and had a wonderful time spent reading my Bible and praying, excited and nervous for the day ahead! When mom and Jim got up, I let them know I was having contractions and we continued to time them using the app on my iPod. Jim made a big breakfast for us (bacon and eggs) and then we all got ready to run some errands.
-Oh-I forgot to note! this was the first day of Jim's 2 week leave from work as well-he had to start it on this day because of some trainings going on, so again, how providential that my labor would happen now!-
Anyway...back to Monday. Jim suggested maybe I should go to the chiropractor again to make sure everything was in line and ready to go for labor. I had already gone 2 other times in the past couple weeks, but decided if they could fit me in, why not? I called around 11:30 and they had an opening at noon, so we all got in the car and headed over. Following that appointment, we went to Target because I wanted to get a hooded towel for Graham (I was obsessed with these things, I don't really know why!) While there, I noticed my contractions getting a little stronger. This, combined with being hungry made me a bit grouchy, and Jim and I were a bit snippy with each other for a few minutes, til we realized we were being ridiculous. We all decided we needed food, so went to Moe's for lunch (me reluctantly at first-I'm a Chipotle girl). However, they have changed their menu and it wasn't that bad, I have to admit. While there, we were still timing contractions, and they were between 8-10 minutes apart. Following lunch, we dropped mom off to visit a friend and Jim and I ran to the mall. I was feeling tired, so stayed in the car while he ran in to purchase something. While in the car, I noted that they were getting closer together-around 7 minutes apart. Jim came back out and I let him know this; we went ahead and picked up mom, then had to stop at Kroger. In that amount of time, they progressed to around 5 minutes apart; when we left Kroger after 15 minutes or so, they were between 4-5 minutes apart.
We got home and I ate some toast to have something in my stomach, sat on the birthing ball to stretch my hips and kept timing...they remained at 4ish minutes for over an hour and were increasing in intensity, so we decided to go to the hospital. At this point I could still talk through the contractions, but had to stop and breathe a bit for each one before moving on; it was around 4:30 pm on November 7th.
No comments:
Post a Comment