born July 10, 2009 at Tampa General Hospital, told
by Kelly:
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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