This past week we had some friends over and I found us telling our birth story. Tom and I put together the details fine but I thought I should write them out so I can remember better in the future. Now as this is a labour and delivery story I will be possibly talking about things that you may consider TMI so consider yourself warned. I have made it my policy during pregnancy, labour and delivery and post-partum to be open and honest with everything because so much isn't talked about.
I was due on the 14th March and at 6:30am that Wednesday morning I woke up to pee. This was no surprise as my nights were mostly sleepless at this point from being uncomfortable and needing to pee. As I went about my business I saw that I was bleeding, similar to the start of my period. It seemed like a lot to me so I called the triage of l&d and the nurse said better safe than sorry and to come in. I had already texted my mom freaking out and her, and my sister decided they would head down despite me having no contractions or anything. My dad also made a last minute decision to skip work and come down with them.
When we got to the hospital the nurse was great. I was hooked up to monitors and then checked out by a resident dr who said i was about 2-3 cm dilated. The bleeding was likely part of my bloody show - gross! They had me walk the halls to see if I dilated more or if contractions picked up(they were very sporadic at this point). After 4 hours I hasn't progressed anything further but had a regular ob appointment to go to so we left triage for the ob. While waiting 2 hours for the appointment (they were always late) I had contractions continuing and was very uncomfortable. I couldn't sit in the waiting room because of it so I paced. I never wanted to be the one to go to the hospital with false alarms so I was very disappointed even though I knew going in that morning it was not likely to be our day. My dr said I was indeed at 2 and she could stretch me to 3 so she performed a stretch and sweep of my membranes in hopes of getting things moving along.
Contractions continued for that night and throughout the early morning hours. They would become intense and close together and seem to be progressing and then slow down and disappear. On morning of the 15 I had painful contractions 3-4 minutes apart and lasting for a minute for 2 hours. I did not want to go in. I fought Tom and my mom and eventually gave in out of exhaustion and went in. My contractions continued in the van but as soon as we got into a room in triage they seemed to stop. My experience this day was terrible! The nurses were terrible and told me I was too happy to be in labour. I am not one to show I am in pain so that frustrated me. I was checked again and at about 3 cm and was sent to walk with checkins for monitoring the babies heart rate. After walking again for hours (I say 4 Tom says more) my contractions were pretty much done and I was only at 4cm. The jerk dr said that it was busy on the labour and delivery side and if it wasn't they could admit me so back home we went.
Friday was somehow my day of rest. I had moments of intense contractions and moments of nothing. I was so confused and disheartened by everything and thought I was crazy! Friday I also had the brilliant idea that doing summersaults would get the baby out. I was so sick of walking that I was up for it. So I attempted 4-5 summersaults that my sister K was entertained by. I wish we has videotaped it.
As the afternoon wore on my contractions began to intensify and were again 2-4 minutes apart last for about a minute and for about an hour and then they would space out again. This repeated so many times. Tom has downloaded an ap on his phone to time contractions and everyone was watching me for them. For some reason going to the bathroom brought them on and I had to pee a lot! Friday Tom and I went for a walk around the neighborhood in hopes of getting things to move faster. Contractions continued to come hard and heavy and then slow down for a bit and then hard and heavy again. I hadn't slept well in days!
Around midnight we decided to walk in our basement. I was having painful contractions again and just needed to move. We walked figure 8s for almost 2 hours before my contractions slowed enough for me to want to eat and sleep. I had a piece of toast with peanut butter at 1:30am on the 17th not knowing it would be my pre-game meal.
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