the birth story.....part 1

The week Everly was born I felt frantic. I was trying to wrap things up at work, trying to get her nursery & our home ready, and trying to wrap my mind around what was going to happen to my body & our life. I had been having contractions all week, but nothing real regular. I didn't know what labor was supposed to feel like so I was constantly on guard that this contraction might it! By the time I went in Monday morning (Sept 19th) I was dialated 5 cm & 90% effaced - my dr had been telling me for a week now that I would be going any day now which made me even more anxious that it was going to happen soon!

I spent that last week calling customers & trying to get organized for my 12 week hiatus from working. I am moving to a new position when I return from my maternity leave, so I had tons of work to get done in a very short period of time. On Thursday, Sept 22nd, I left work feeling completely done. I had contacted every customer to let them know of their new advertising rep & I had cleaned out my inbox & my To Do List. I even shutdown my computer as I left for the day (which I NEVER have done!). It's almost like my body was telling my mind, this is it, you won't be coming back tomorrow!!

That Thursday night I called JJ & asked him if we could go on a date that night. His parents were already planning to come to town that Friday night to spend the weekend here because they had a wedding in Omaha. And if I didn't have the baby before Monday, we had an appointment for me to get induced at 5:30am Monday morning so I knew this Thursday night was our last night "just the 2 of us" at home. So we went to El Portero, the Mexican restaurant in the Haymarket. I was having contractions, but they didn't hurt, they were just uncomfortable. I had already used up all the free contraction counters on my iPhone app, so I finally broke down & bought the app to time & count my contractions when we were at the restaurant (SO much easier than manually writing them out & doing the math). All night long my contractions were 15 min apart & lasted for about a minute & fifteen seconds. According to the doctor, we weren't supposed to go to labor & delivery until they were 5 min apart lasting about 60 seconds. I ended up falling asleep that night so when I woke up to pee around 2am I thought that I probably wasn't in labor because I always thought I wouldn't be able to sleep through contractions because they were too painful. I woke up a few more times that night, sometimes it would be because of a contraction, other times it was to pee (I was going to the bathroom an average of 5 or 6 times a night by now). I woke up at 4:45am & started timing my contractions again. They were about 8 minutes apart, still lasting for a little over a minute. JJ got up & went to work - luckily he was working at the Lincoln Airport that day (he's been working in Omaha since June so this was rare to have him in town). Around 6:30am I called my mom & told her how I was feeling. My main concern was that these contractions weren't painful. Everyone had told me that you'll know the contractions are "real" because you won't be able to talk or smile through them. My mom said her contractions weren't very painful either & these were feeling different from Braxton Hicks. I was feeling more of a cramp that went down my entire stomach; whereas, BH felt more like my whole stomach was tightening up. Around 7:30am I called my friend Steph who lives down in Memphis & it was her 28th birthday that day! She just had a baby girl in August so I knew she'd be up & was still on maternity leave. I asked Steph if she thought I should go in to work that day & she told me NO & asked how far apart my contractions were now.......5 to 6 minutes apart. It was 8:20am & she told me to call JJ & tell him to come home b/c I needed to go to the hospital. I still wasn't entirely sure that I was in labor, but I called JJ only b/c my contactions had been 5 min apart for a good 30 minutes. JJ asked me how sure I was that I was in labor, I said I don't know? He said he'd come home if I was 75% sure that I was in labor (his job wouldn't be happy with him missing work for a "false alarm"). I said I didn't know if I was 75% sure, I've never done this before. He decided to come home anyways so I jumped in the shower & finished packing my hospital bags. We were in the car, on the way to the hospital a little before 9am & got checked into the hospital at 9:11am.

First thing they do is send you to triage to take your vitals & see if you are actually in labor. The nurse left the room & JJ kindly told me that he thought we should just go home & if I was still feeling this way tomorrow, we could come back. That did not sit well with me, I told him NO WAY we are NOT leaving! The nurse came back in the room & told us that we were having a baby today!!! JJ looked at me & we both started laughing & he apologized for trying to tell me to go home & just "wait it out". I was dialated 6cm & my contractions were actually a minute & a half apart! They took us to our room (a.k.a suite) across the hall & got me all hooked up to my IV & the heartbeat/contraction counter machine.