Starting at the beginning

September 17th started with another restless night of heartburn, tossing and turning and a swig of diet coke at 3am to make sure that Isabel was still active (yes I was obsessing about her movement because GD can increase the risk of still born babies).

J had a huge work deadline but was hanging out with me and doing work in the morning just in case I went into labor. I got showered and changed but was so tired that by 8am I crawled back into bed and slept until noon. I woke up with my dogs snuggled up to me and it was very sweet. J came in and snuggled with us and then went to work.

I had been feeling kind of off all day (I never sleep that long especially in the morning). I got up ate lunch and sat on the couch feeling still tired. I had noticed some changes when I went to the bathroom. I will spare the details but it felt like I was peeing all the time. By 2:30 I took the dogs out and decided I should call the OB to see if the nurse could describe the difference between amniotic fluid and pee. That got an immediate call back from my OB. She was like 'tell me what you feel like' and I said 'Like I am gushing pee all the time even when I am sitting'. She told me to come right in do not pass Go and collect $200. I was shaking and nervous. I looked at the dogs and felt a bittersweet sadness.

Was this the day our sweet baby girl would arrive? Was I even ready? How would this change our lives (I knew it would).

So I called J, who had just gotten to work and said I was heading into the OB for a check. I collected my stuff changed and hopped into the car. My bags were packed and in the car already so I just kissed the pups and off I went.

I was probably in denial that I was in labor. I called a friend who's water broke without contractions and described my feelings and she was convinced that my water broke.

By the time I got to the hospital parking garage I had to waddle to keep from feeling like I was peeing with every step. It was the longest walk ever!

At the OB, the office had closed but my Dr was waiting for me and she checked me and said yes indeed my water was broken.

That was at 4:30. She sent me over to the Family Center aka labor and delivery. I had to be reminded of the directions of how to get through from my Dr.'s office, I was so nervous!

Off I walked to the Family Ctr. and when I got there they knew I was coming, I must have looked funny 9 months pregnant by myself, no bags, no husband and in a good mood. They put me in a room and I started making calls to J, my family, the friends who were going to bring Ladybug and Liam to boarding and so on. It still felt weird.

J arrived around 6:30, I told him to eat and take his time because I still wasn't having contractions. Around that time Dr. Browne came and checked me and I was 2.5cm dialated and 100% effaced so I didn't need to be induced. They decided to let me eat dinner and gave me a sleeping pill so I could rest.

So around 9:30 we tested my blood sugar and I tried to sleep. J was on the sleeper sofa and we just looked at each other kind of amazed we were there! It really felt like we were in a hotel room with extra medical stuff around. It was surreal.

I slept ok until about 4am. I started feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom, ya know like diarrhea cramps. I got up and tried and nothing. Then it dawned on me... these might be contractions. About 15 minutes later I was sure they were contractions, they were radiating all the way from my back to the front about every 5 minutes.

I woke up J and he helped me into the jacuzzi tub. I had my maternity bathing suit on and hung out in there for about 2 hrs. By 6am they were coming on fast and furious. I mean it was hard to catch my breath and it was in a word excruiating. J held my hand and I breathed through them, standing, sitting, walking around.

The nurses in all this are the heroes. Jamie, the nurse that had brought me to my room at 6:30 had handed me off to Katie who is about our age and lives in our town... awesome huh? She was pretty matter of fact about my labor pain. Annoying yes, but it kept me calm.

She had gone by 7am and by then Dr. Brown was back and so was my day nurse Carrie. They checked me and I was 4cm... go me :) Then I begged for the epidural.

At 8am the anesthesiologist came in. He was cocky and smelled, I mean reaked of cologne like he had been our clubbing all night. Later the nurses said he was recently divorced and so he was spiffing himself up. Whatever, the smell of cologne and perfume to a pregnant lady in labor = torture!!

After going over the risks of the epidural I went for it. J, held my hands and helped me breath while Carrie talked me through it with the anesthesiologist. I was shaking which is how I deal with pain. The whole procedure took about 10 minutes and in another 10 minutes the pain was subsiding and I was just shaking.

At this point I had a moment to get to know Carrie abit better. She was single, been an L&D nurse for a while was very thorough but loved to be organized to the point where she was zooming around the room here and there. It was alittle stressful at first!

I was getting regular monitoring of the baby and my contractions using NST and an internal monitor attached to her head.. yea weird right?!

Dr. Browne came into check me at 10am and I was 10cm... most women dilate 1cm an hr. and I did 6cm in 2hours! Go me!

But she was still high and so I had to wait to push. Dr. Browne gave me 1.5hrs to get her down, or I was going to have a c-section.

Oh those words stung, how could I have gotten so far just to have a c-section?! But if it was for the best I was going to do it.

So I spent that hour and a half trying to rest until the shakes set in so hard I could barely talk.
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