This labor and birth were pretty different from Emery's. I went in on Thursday October 17th, which was my due date, for my weekly checkup. I hadn't been checked up until that point because I didn't see any reason to. I had her check me at that appt though and she said I was a three. After I left I started feeling a little crampy but sometimes that just happens when they check you. We went about our day pretty normally. I got a haircut that night and then went to a girls' night to do our nails. Aaron came over when we were done (it was at the Rosenbaums) and we ended up staying till after midnight just talking. When we got home we went to bed and I got about a half hour of sleep before contractions started. Unlike Emery's that were really steady once they started, these ones were sporadic, sometimes 10 minutes apart, sometimes an hour and a half. But they kept me from sleeping so I got up, got a bag packed for me and for Emery, ate some cereal, cleaned, and kept trying to sleep. But every time I layed down they got more consistent so sleep did not come. Aaron stayed home from work even though I still wasn't sure I was in labor. I gave Emery a bath and we just took it easy. About 10:30 I decided to sit down and actually time my contractions because I hadn't really done that yet. They were coming every 10 mins by then and lasting about a minute long. So we packed up and headed out. We snapped these pictures first, my only belly pics of this pregnancy.
When I got there I was only at a 4, which surprised me since my contractions had sped up to 2 minutes apart. They wanted to monitor me for an hour in triage before giving me a room, but I wanted to get in the tub. They decided I was probably in labor and decided I could go into an actual room. I don't think very many people get in the tub because the nurse didn't know how to run it and so the water was 60 degrees when I got in. I stayed in for about 2 minutes because it didn't help at all with it being that cold. I was shivering and couldn't relax through the contractions so I opted for walking around. This picture is when I was at a 5.
From 3:00-5:45ish I didn't progress much, so my midwife suggested breaking my water. I said ok and she did. Then she walked out for a minute and with the next contraction I started to feel like I needed to push so I called her back in. She ran in and said "ALREADY??!!" She checked me and sure enough, with 1 contraction I went from a 5 to a 9. She hurried and got suited up and ready while I breathed through a few more contractions until I was all the way dilated. I had the same problem with my cervix not thinning out quite enough that I had with Emery though, so I had to hold off the pushing again for a few contractions. That is by far the hardest part of labor for me. Holding off pushing when your body is basically forcing you to push.
Baby's here!!!
