About 12 weeks ago, I was woken up by my son kicking me in my side, (I was still pregnant). I looked at the time and I vaguely remember it being around 4 in the morning. I was trying to get back to sleep and get comfortable again when my lower stomach area got tight. It was a little more intense than Braxton Hicks. But it wasn't too painful that I was worried it'd be the real thing. A little while later it happened again. I breathed and got through it once more. It wasn't until that it happened a few more times that I really started paying attention to how long the pain was lasting and the length of time between. It took over an hour to convince me that what I was going through, wasn't just some practice runs of Braxton Hicks. I was having contractions!
I was trying to think if I should wake Jason up and tell him what was going on. He and his father were supposed to go skiing that day and we had gone up to his parents house that weekend for that purpose. I knew Jason needed a vacation from work, school and me pretty badly so I let him continue to sleep. He woke up sometime later and I decided I needed to tell him, but that he should go about his plans for that day anyway. It was about 6 or so when I told him that we were going to have our baby soon. He didn't freak out or anything, but he wasn't really thinking he should go skiing if I was having contractions. I convinced him that he should go, as the first stage of labor can be pretty long and that we'd have plenty of time to get to the hospital after he came back. He tried to get some more sleep but just ended up staying awake with me while I endured the pain.
I was soon getting hungry and needed to eat something, also didn't want Jason to see me in pain so I left the bedroom to go snack on something. I poured myself some cereal and quickly ate it up. Relaxing on the couch, I was trying to breathe when Mike, Jason's dad came into the room. Surprised that I was awake that early he asked if I was ok and if Jason was awake and getting ready to go. I told him that Jason has been awake for a while and getting some more rest. Also that I have been awake for a few hours and been having contractions but they weren't too close to be worried about. Mike went and woke up Diane, my mother in-law, to have her talk to me to see if I was really having them or not. While I tried calling my mom. With no answer I left her a message telling her to call me back. Diane then came down and talked to me and I told her about the past few hours.
Jason left with his dad an hour later to go skiing. Diane had told Mike that this wasn't false labor and I had spoken to Jason. Telling him not to worry about me, to have fun and be careful. Especially when his baby was going to be on his way. I had eventually gotten through to my mom and repeated the story of that morning again. Still needing to get a few things for my baby boy, my mother and mother in law, as well as my sisters and brother went shopping with me, while I was having contractions. haha. I kept track of the time as the contractions seemed to be getting slightly more painful but not getting any closer. Jason also checked in with me once in a while.
After shopping and with Mike and Jason coming home early, my husband and I started our long 1 hour stretch home. Praying that traffic wouldn't be too bad and that the ride home would be as smooth as possible, because of how sensitive I had become over every tiny bump since that morning. We ended up leaving to go to the hospital around 8. The pain had gotten worse and the contractions were 4 minutes apart. We were almost off the freeway went our car started having major problems and completely died when we got off the exit. I started to panic, I was in labor and knew I couldn't walk to the hospital, even if it was a few blocks away. We tried figuring out what was wrong, but with no luck. We ended up calling Brandon, Jason's brother for help. Before he got to us, a stranger stopped and helped jump start our car, if only to get us to the hospital. By the time our car was running, Brandon had arrived. He and the stranger followed us to the hospital where our car once again died.
I was admitted but through the stress of the car, my contractions were not coming fast enough for me to stay and progress. I was only dilated to a 2. By this time my mother was also with me and we were trying to figure out what to do. One of my kind cousins lived by, one that I had not even met till then, Jennifer was kind enough to let us borrow her car, to get back home and to get around till our car was fixed. So we went back home about 10 in her car and my mom also drove back home. I had gotten a nasty shot to help me sleep, but several hours later, I found myself waking up once again and going to the hospital. We called and let my mom know, she came down again, found out I was at a 3 and we stayed at the hospital for two more hours trying to progress.
Once more we were sent home, this time my mom spent the rest of the night at our place. When Jason, my mom and I had woken up, we were getting through the day and discussing what we should do to speed up my contractions. As much pain as I was in, I was getting tired of having them. So we decided after lunch we would walk around the mall. I wasn't too hungry then and only had a few slices of an apple and was waiting for Jason and my mom to finish. It was around then that I had become aware that I was in so much pain and that the contractions were so close that I could only walk a few feet in between each stopping and starting time. I knew we had to get to the hospital, and I did NOT want to go to a mall and walk around. When we finally got to the hospital for the 3rd time. It took me a little more than 5 minutes to walk across a small parking lot. Once inside I got in a wheelchair. They quickly got me to a room. We later found out I was at an 8!!!
Sadly my doctor wasn't in town that day, so we had a standby doctor who ended up being awful and all business like. But the thing that made it worth it, was that an hour and a half or so later at 3:23 p.m. with the help of my husband, mom and kind nurses. My baby boy was born, without me needing an epidural and he was and still is as perfect as he can be.
:)
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