This weekend as I celebrated my son's first birthday, I couldn't help but look back on what I was doing a year ago at this time. Labor, delivery, and birth. Oh yea, that's what my weekend was full of! My husband can attest, it was a very long, exhausting weekend all the while it was one of the most amazing, bonding experiences we have shared together!
During my pregnancy, I found it very helpful to read and to hear about other women's birth stories. It was free education! Prior to taking a Bradley birthing class and doing my own research/reading, I was frightened at the idea of giving birth. This fear came because it was an unknown. Never before had I given birth to another human being nor get anywhere close to such thing! So I share my experience in hopes to help any soon-to-be mama calm a few fears... just remember, what God has put in you, He will help get out! :)
Friday
All the excitement slowly got started early Friday morning when I began waking up every 15-30 minutes with contractions. However, I kept myself from getting excited thinking they were just Braxton hicks contractions. So I got up and went to work that morning... thinking they may stop. However, by mid-morning, I headed home and Jimmy canceled his plans for the day. As the day unfolded, contractions continued every 10-20 minutes... not letting up.
Obeying our midwives' orders, we tried to get a good night's sleep. Great advice; however, with contractions happening every 10-15 minutes a good night sleep was not going to happen. The pain was strong enough to wake me up each contraction. This made for night #2 of limited sleep.
Saturday
Despite the lack of sleep, Jimmy and I were up at 7:30 and were determined to make progress. As Jimmy timed my contraction, I was moving around, walking laps, and spending many minutes on the exercise ball. Within an hour, my contractions did start to become closer- about 6-10 minutes a part. This was exciting, but I was already getting tired. Around 10:30 a.m., Jimmy called the midwife as I was taking a warm bath. Our midwife left the decision up to us but encouraged us to head to the hospital. I was hesitant to go because I wanted to labor as much as possible in the comfort of my own home. However, not knowing how far along I was in addition to the fatigue, Jimmy made the decision for us to start heading to St. John's in Maplewood.
We arrived at the hospital and to only receive a huge disappointment. I was only dilated to a 3. This was such an emotional set back for us because it seemed like I had worked so hard for the last 36 hours and progressed so little.
Immediately, I regretted going in to the hospital and felt foolish. I was set on going back home until I had progressed farther. I was just so discouraged, and so very tired.
However, our midwife was amazing. She was so encouraging, kind, and gentle with us the entire process. She encouraged me to take some muscle relaxers in addition with a shot of morphine in order to try to get some sleep. Knowing that I had wanted as natural of a labor as possible, she wanted me to have energy to do so. I was very opposed to taking anything... especially morphine! Despite my reluctancy, I did end up taking the muscle-relaxers. Jimmy crawled into bed with me and we tried to rest over the next few hours. However, a mixture between being in an admittance room of a hospital and still having multiple contractions, I didn't receive much rest. This makes me understand why many mamas I know have home births!
Around 4:30 Pm, I decided I'd rather just be home. However, when the nurse came in to discharge me and found I had progressed to a 4, she and our midwife encouraged us to stay. If we were closer in distance to St. John's I would have had no problem going home and continuing to labor there. However, the hour drive didn't sound appealing to me at the time.
Relieved to have finally made a decision to stay, I was now determined I was not leaving this hospital until the baby was in arms! Alright, here we go!!
Got settled into room 28, ordered supper and attempted to watch Wheel of Fortune through my contractions. Spent much of the evening moving from the exercise ball to the toilet to being on all fours on the bed. Took a bath around 9 pm which helped relax me and ease the severity and sharpness of the contractions.
In this midst of all this, my husband tried to rest as much as he could.
He, too, had been lacking good sleep for the past two nights. He was an
amazing partner, coach, and support. I wouldn't have been able to do it without him.
Both realizing the baby wouldn't be coming tonight, I headed to bed. However, anyone can attest, hospital beds are not comfortable... especially when you are in labor! So I spent the majority of the night on Jimmy's pullout couch as he took the bed. And Jimmy wanted me to add, "Kelsey insisted on sleeping on the couch, I did not make her do that!"
So this marked the beginning of night #3 of limited to no sleep.
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