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Three Days of
"Labor"
Monday
I woke up early on Monday morning (July 6), feeling kind of
crampy. My mother-in-law, Ellen, was staying with us and I
told her about it. She said this could be it! She felt like
that right before she went into labor with her sons. I was
hoping she was right, because I was feeling pretty miserable
right around then. I was 38 weeks, but felt ready to go with
tons of pressure down low, achy menstrual cramp feelings,
and crazy heartburn.
Tuesday
Early Tuesday morning, I woke up with contractions. They weren't
too painful, but were definitely different than what I'd been
experiencing the previous day. I had them on and off for the
rest of the day, and actually started timing them with contractionmaster.com
(so cool) on Tuesday night because they were coming much closer
together, even though they weren't that painful. By Tuesday
night after dinner, they were five minutes apart and lasting
for about a minute, but I could easily talk through them.
I called my doula, Susan Day, and she advised me to go to
bed – this wasn't real labor yet! We watched a movie
instead and then followed her advice. I'm glad I listened,
because we got a good night's sleep on Tuesday night.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I had a few surges in the morning, but they
stopped completely in the afternoon, which was really frustrating.
I wanted the pain I was experiencing to mean something! As
soon as Matt got home from work, however, they picked back
up and were about five minutes apart again. They were definitely
more painful than they'd been on Tuesday, but I didn't want
to sit around and wait for something to happen, so we went
to dinner at Chili's! I wasn't too hungry, but it was a good
distraction.
When I got home, they continued through Brady's
bedtime routine (bath and stories) and I just followed my
typical routine, ignoring the contractions as best as I could.
Later that night, however, around 2:30, I woke up with very
painful contractions. They were about 3-5 five minutes apart,
lasting anywhere from 45 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds. We
thought that was it! I woke up Matt, and he finished packing
our gear for the hospital. I got up and got in the shower,
and once I did, the contractions stopped again. I had one
every fifteen minutes at the very most and the pain had dissipated
greatly. So, once again, we went to bed. I continued to have
them the rest of the night, but slept in between the contractions
and through many of them.
Thursday – Real Labor
Which was good, (again) because I woke up on Thursday morning
and lost my plug. Then, I knew something was really happening.
I still didn't want to go to the hospital, though, because
I wasn't in active labor. My contractions were coming fast,
but I was able to talk in between them and still wanted to
eat, laugh, talk to people, etc. I had a doctor's appointment
scheduled for Thursday at 11:00 AM anyway, so Matt and I just
loaded up the car with my hospital stuff and went to the appointment
instead of going to the hospital – Tampa General is
just across the street from my doctor's office, so I could
easily go across the street if needed.
Dr Lynch checked me and I was 4 cm dilated,
80% effaced and Kaden's head was at a +1 station, so she told
us to get over to the hospital. We took our time, ate some
lunch and then made it over to the hospital around 2:00, which
is when the real fun began.
I labored the rest of the day and into Friday
with "unusually slow progress" according to Dr.
Carol Cox, the woman who delivered Kaden. After 4 hours of
labor, I hadn't moved past 4 cm. When she checked me again,
I was only at 6. Near the end, it took me six hours to move
from 7 cm to 9 cm, and I hung out at 9 cm for two hours before
they broke my water. At that point, I was begging for an epidural,
even though I wanted a natural labor. Matt and my doula wouldn't
let me get one, though, which worked out great considering
that's what I wanted in the first place! My doctor's and nurses
were on their side, too, because I had expressly stated I
wanted to go natural, so they kind of ignored my pleading
at the end, too.
Friday
Once they broke my water, things progressed much faster, and
Kaden came along about an hour and a half later at 4:18 AM.
He took his sweet time to get here, but
we're so glad he did! He was a champ through a very long labor
and allowed me to have a natural vaginal birth after my previous
c-section (VBAC), which is just what I wanted to happen.
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