My Labor Story Part I

Today, on what marks the day that Liliana was supposed to be full term in my womb, I thought I would share my labor story.  I'm a long winded girl to begin with, so I naturally have lots and lots to say about this amazing day.  For that reason, I'll break up my story in two parts.

Last Wednesday, approximately one week ago, we had our 36 week appointment.  I posted here that I was pretty progressed and that the doctor had given us an "any day" schedule.  I was 100% effaced, 1.5 cm dilated, and + 2 station.  I was also starting to get puffy, so my doctor wanted me to come back on Friday for another blood pressure reading just to make sure I wasn't getting preeclamptic.

That evening, I had about 7 contractions and Evan even started timing them.  I told him that he was being ridiculous.  I mean, what were the chances I was going to go in to labor within a week of my Doctor's prognosis?  Isn't "any day" just a figure of speech?

On Thursday, I managed to do pretty well and was contraction free for the most part.  I called my parents and told them things were going perfectly and while I was on the phone with them....ooh no...the cramping and contractions started.  I managed to blow them off (again, I know) and Evan and I got in to bed at midnight.  Little did we know, we wouldn't be sleeping for quite some time.

I started having contraction after contraction.  Some were more painful than others.  Once it reached 1:30 a.m. Evan said "let's get out of bed ... we're not sleeping right now anyway."  He started acting a little panicked which made me act more panicked.  Evan's by far one of the calmed people I've ever met.  When he started acting like tonight might be the night, I knew there was a huge possibility.  After we got out of bed Evan started packing the last minute items that we couldn't put in the bag until it was "the time."  We really didn't want a false alarm and made sure my contractions were really 4 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, and for one hour...we did that for nearly two hours.

When we finally arrived at the hospital, I hadn't progressed any from my visit with Dr. Casanova.  They kept us there for an hour and of course, I hadn't had one single contraction while there.  I grew very frustrated with myself and started second guessing whether I was having any contractions in the first place!  Right as they were telling us that they were going to send us home, the doctor on call decided to check my progress.  It had only been an hour, so surely not much had happened right?  Well turns out my contractions at home were real and had done quite a lot of work.  As she checked me she said "ok, you're still 100% effaced, and you're...4 cm dilated...let's stay and have a baby!"  Evan and I looked at each other in complete and utter shock.

We quickly called our closest family members (yes, it was about 4:30 at this point).  Nearly every single person answered their phone, as if they had been waiting for the phone call.  Evan's Mom picked it up by saying "is this the call I've been waiting for?"

Evan and I were really shocked, quite terrified, and really excited for the hours that laid ahead.  We had no idea how perfect that day was going to be, but for a recap of the following 8 1/2 hours, you'll just have to read the second part of this story.