Anyways, all that just to take you back to this - the story of his birth. This is the last section that I have written so far, so it could be weeks before you get the end. No seriously, I'll try to have it done by Thursday. Which could actually happen if I have more nights like last night. Although I'm not getting my hopes up for that yet. He'll probably stay up all night tomorrow just to throw me off my game. Anyways...
The next day I awoke feeling the same as always, wondering if anything would change that day. Robert went to work as usual and came home for lunch to visit me. I decided to drive him back to work, and we agreed that we would go out on a date that night to get our mind off things. Later that afternoon my mom and Granny called and asked if I wanted to go out to the mall. We wound up going out and then picking Robert up from work to go eat together. Around nine o’clock, I started feeling contractions that were stronger than usual, and I noticed that they were coming rather consistently. I didn’t want to say anything to Mom and Granny, because I didn’t want them to speculate on whether or not this was the real thing. So I told Robert that anytime I mentioned the t.v. show Lost during dinner, it meant I was having a contraction. He would pull out his phone and check the time between contractions. By the time we left the restaurant, I was having contractions about every eight minutes and they were not subsiding as normal. When we got home, I laid down on the couch and tried to keep my mind off the contractions, still not wanting to get my hopes up that this could possibly be real labor. Around 11 Robert’s sister called and asked if we could come over and help them move a new television into their living room. We drove the mile to their house and Robert helped haul the t.v. in. The whole time we visited with them, I was acutely aware of each contraction and the fact that they seemed to be getting stronger, still not mentioning to anyone what I was feeling. Robert and I came home about an hour later and I laid back down on the couch and promptly fell asleep.
I was awakened shortly before 2 a.m. by a contraction stronger than any I had experienced previously. While my other contractions had felt like a tightening in the abdomen, this felt like a wave across my entire midsection. It started in my back and curled around to my abdomen, tightening my uterus with an intensity I had never felt before. I woke up Robert and told him I thought I was in the beginning stages of labor. We timed the contractions and realized they had progressed to every 4-5 minutes. Robert helped walk me to bed, and we agreed to let things continue to progress until we both felt it was time to go to the hospital. For the next two hours, I lay in bed listening to my husband sleep peacefully beside me, unaware of the waves of contractions overtaking my body. I remember thinking at the time that the contractions reminded me of thunder. They would start like a low rumble within my belly, and progress into a loud clap that would resonate for what felt like an eternity. As quickly as the pain came, it would start to reside, rolling away like the end of a storm. I lay on my side, trying to remember all the relaxation techniques Robert and I had studied and discussed, watching the clock and wondering how long I should wait before waking him. I knew what lay ahead of us, and as much as I wanted him to be with me, I felt it would be best for us both if he could get some rest for the work ahead. At one point I got up and went to the bathroom, trying to will my water to break as I sat there.
Finally, at four in the morning, I decided I had reached my breaking point. The contractions had become so intense I found myself instinctively moaning to relax during their wake, and I felt my rest periods in between becoming shorter. I woke up Robert and told him how things had progressed. The contractions were still about 3-4 minutes apart, but they were definitely stronger. After a few minutes discussion, we decided to head to the hospital and see how things were moving along. I called my doctor on the way, and as I described things to her I could tell she didn’t think I was that far along. She told me to get checked and that they would call her if things were moving. I remember feeling uncertain for the whole ride – knowing that the contractions I felt were strong and real and worrying that we would find out things were still moving slowly. When we got to the hospital, I couldn’t even make it to the door without stopping to breathe through another contraction. I had another while at the registration desk, and this time when we met the nurses at triage, I could tell by their faces that this was the real deal. The triage nurse checked me and determined that I was between 4 and 5 centimeters dilated. Relief rushed through my body, knowing that these contractions were working and we were finally on our way to meeting our son. They had us walk down the hall to a room, and in between contractions I called my mother and told her to head to the hospital. As I got settled in and hooked up to monitors and I.V.’s, the realization that this was it, that I was officially in labor and on the road to delivering our son finally sunk in. Fear swept over me. Doubt over whether or not I could handle the contractions as they became even more intense and worry about how I was going to handle the delivery consumed me. Robert recognized this and immediately started to coach me and calm me down, reminding me that we would just take things one moment at a time, and not allowing me to think too far into the future.
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