Labor Day: Our Story - Part 1

This is the truth. Every labor story is different. But here is how ours went:

I started getting contractions on the evening of July 4^th at my parents cookout by the pool. We calmly left. Around 11:30 pm I was having contractions 5 minutes a part that lasted about a minute, lasting an hour. The whole 5-1-1 rule was in effect so I was good to go to the hospital, right?  We called the lady at the hospital line and they told us to come in. Once we were at the hospital, they checked my cervix.

What they don’t tell you is that there is no need for modesty. They get you in a gown and literally spread your legs to check your cervix. My poor husband was sitting in the small chair at the end of the bed and was totally thrown off guard by the nurse checking me. At least give us a heads up, lady! And then it seems like everyone and their brother comes in to check you. Seriously, we had like three different people. Well, I had only dilated 2 cm (sigh). So they had me start walking. They (and yes, it was multiple people) checked me again an hour later after I had been walking around the floor of the hospital trying to walk this kid out.

After they told us that I hadn't dilated any further, the nurse told us we could either keep walking for another hour or we could go home and wait it out. Well, I am not one for hospitals so we loaded back up to go home.

The plus side? I had my “bloody show.” The worst feeling ever? Being sent home, and then walking into the waiting room to tell your family that you were being sent home. However, they were SUPER supportive and agreed with me that it was stupid that I was being sent home just to have to be readmitted again tomorrow.

We finally got back home around 2:30 am. At this point, we thought that we had a ton of time and we wouldn't be going back to the hospital until my contractions started kicking up which would be sometime in the afternoon. Having that said, my husband’s throat had been bothering him so he decided to take some NyQuil. Not even an hour later, guess who started having contractions and thought they were dying?! ME ME ME! This puts it around 3:00 am and I woke up to what felt like I was being stabbed in the uterus with a butcher’s knife. I was in the fetal position crouched over my knees in the bed trying to breathe through these suckers. Seriously, there were times I thought I was dying. My husband? Fast.Asleep. The previous night I had downloaded a contraction app that would time my contractions, let me know how far apart they were, and kept record of all of them. While I am trying to get through said contractions alive, I am also trying to press the button on the app to time them. Meanwhile, my husband is in a coma oblivious to everything going on.

The contractions were getting so bad that I finally had to give the phone to Josh to help me press the buttons. This did not go very well. I would shout at him tell him to push the button but then he would fall back asleep only to be woken back up by me yelling at him to hit the button again. Bless his heart, I wanted to MURDER him. All the while, I’m telling myself that one day I WILL laugh about this.

This went on from around 4:30 am – 7:00 am. At 7:00 am, we moved into the den where Josh was trying to talk me into calling the hospital back. I was already sour with them for sending me home so I was determined to wait until my doctor’s office opened at 8:00 am (which is at the hospital) because they were NOT going to send me home again.

FINALLY, 8:00 am came around and I called into my doctor’s office. At this point, my contractions were now starting to be about 4 minutes apart last a little over a minute which had been going on for over an hour. By the time we got there my contractions were 3 minutes apart lasting for 2 minutes. I checked in and then waited in the waiting room thinking “what the he**, I’m having contractions, I will murder someone if I don’t go back soon.” I saw a nurse come out to get someone and look at me mid-contraction. Not even a minute later, this beautiful amazing angel nurse was my savior and called me back telling us that the other nurse said I looked like I was in pain and the doctor was going to see me first. SUCCESS IS MINE!!! The doctor checked me and said “looks like we’re having a baby today! You’re 4 cm dilated, let’s get you over to the labor unit.” At this point, I could kiss his face because if he had told me that I was being sent home, I would have gone off the deep end to a place I've never gone before and there would have been pain brought onto those around me.

Heading out Round 2