On Sunday, December 16, 2012, I started feeling some contractions that were stronger than my normal braxton hicks contractions but were still easy to talk through, walk through and generally no big deal. They started around 7:45 or 8:00 p.m. I thought it was probably the same thing that happened with Joaquin - a night or two of those kind of contractions before the real deal. I remembered that the "real" contractions were miserable and I was only at 4cm when I got to the hospital with Joaquin after about 2 hours of those painful contractions. I was trying not to get my hopes up too!
So, while Jay read Joaquin bedtime stories I jumped in the bath. I kept my iPhone with me and timed the contractions just in case. I timed them in the tup until around 9:00. They were averaging 45-50 seconds and were about 5-6 minutes apart. The general rule is that you don't go to the hospital until contractions are 1 minute long and 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. I wasn't there yet.
But when I got out of the tub I felt a small pop. It was not dramatic like when my water broke with Joaquin but I thought it was a leak in the amniotic sack. So, I told Jay to let Gery and my Dad know and ask them to come over.
I jumped in the shower and Jay started packing up the rest of the stuff for the hospital bag. I got dressed, put on some makeup, and then debated blow drying my hair. Jay thought I was crazy and convinced me to just leave it wet so we could go. The contractions were pretty painful at this point and I stopped timing them. They were definitely coming quickly - probably ever 2 or 3 minutes.
Jay got the car all ready and our neighbors happened to be outside chatting. They offered to sit in our living room until Gery showed up. I thought it was sort of silly and didn't see the need to rush out when Gery was only 5-10 minutes away, but I let it go and we left.
Jay dropped me off at the front of the hospital and I walked up to check in while he parked the car. The nurses brought me to triage to do a preliminary check and ask the basic questions about my contractions, etc. They got me set up on a bed and one of the nurses checked to see how dilated I was (OUCH!). She got a very surprised look on her face and said to the other nurse "I think she's at 8.5 or 9 cm. Can you check to make sure I got that right?"
Um..... WHAT?!!?!
The other nurse confirmed (double OUCH) that I was at 9 cm. They immediately got me in a wheelchair and raced me to labor and delivery. This is when I started asking that they get the anesthesiologist in there pronto so I could get an epidural. I think I knew it was not going to happen but I was clinging to hope.
Once in delivery room, the nurses started getting me set up with an IV (for the antibiotics because I was GBS positive) and with the heart and contraction monitors. They called my OB and the anesthesiologist. By the time the anesthesiologist got in the room I could tell I was at 10 cm and ready to push. Now, for those of you who have not given birth, let me just tell you that when you are ready to push, there is no choice in the matter. You just do it. You can't stop it. Which is why when the nurses started to sort of panic and tell me not to push I wanted to rip their throats out (well, not quite, but sort of). The anesthesiologist gave me a sympathetic look and said "maybe next time."
This was when I looked at Jay in total panic. It was terrifying. But I had no choice. The hospital laborist rushed to get his gloves on and was barely even ready when Noemi's head started to come out. It was excruciating but the pain only lasted for a few minutes and then she was out! It was incredible. It took about an hour or two for the initial shock of the experience to wear off. In fact, I couldn't really sleep at all until about 6:00 am because of all of the adrenaline.
All in all, it was a great experience. I could have done without some of the pain but it was great to avoid numb legs, a catheter, tons of excess IV fluid, etc. I didn't even take a Motrin after!
We checked out of the hospital at around 7:30 pm the next day. So, from check in to check out was 21.5 hours. I sort of expect my health insurance company to send me a thank you note for how much money we just saved them :-)
Thanks for reading our story!
One last note: the L&D nurse suggested that we have 10 kids since it was clearly so easy for us. Hahah. Not likely. But maybe 1 more :-)
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