Eliza’s Birth: Early Labor

I have to wonder how birth stories get written in any reasonable length of time. I didn’t realize how challenging it would be to finish Eliza’s! But Christian’s nap on Saturday coincided with hers and then I had a little extra time while A.J. took him outside, so I was able to get it all down. I wrote a lot – it turned into a five-part story! I really didn’t want to forget anything.

Part 1

Since I didn’t go into labor with Christian until 41 weeks, I was trying not to get my hopes up for an early delivery with Eliza. I had my 40-week appointment on Thursday, September 29th at 40 weeks 2 days. I’d been having mildly painful contractions since 38 weeks.

I had made a little progress, but not anything that seemed to indicate imminent labor. The practice I go to recommends induction at 41 weeks, but we wanted to extend it for a couple more days, so instead I scheduled another appointment for Tuesday, for a non-stress test.

I wasn’t surprised that I hadn’t gone into labor yet. In fact, I was starting to think I would never go into labor before 41 weeks. I anticipated going to that 41-week appointment as if I would undoubtedly still be pregnant.

At 5:00 on Saturday morning I woke up suddenly to my first really painful contraction of the pregnancy, and it was quickly followed by more. They stayed 10 minutes apart for 2 hours, then they stopped completely.

I was so glad this happened on a Saturday morning so I could get some more sleep while A.J. watched Christian. I went to bed around 8 and slept until after 11. Little did I know that was the last time I would sleep for more than a few minutes until after Eliza was born.

It was a beautiful day and we took Christian to the park that afternoon. I was feeling “labor-y” all day but with no real contractions. We went to bed around 11 that night and I was still awake when my contractions started about 12:30.

I was in the living room by myself and I worked through each contraction using a friend’s exercise ball. After the contraction ended, I would get a drink of water and walk around. I remember being relaxed during early labor with Christian, but that was during the afternoon. For some reason I felt very antsy this time.

The main thing on my mind was whether I was going to make it to the morning without having to call our overnight babysitter. We had a kind church friend who was willing to come over and sleep on our couch while we went to the hospital so we wouldn’t have to wake Christian up, but I’d been hoping we could use our daytime plan instead because I really wanted Christian to wake up to his mama or daddy.

After a couple hours, my contractions moved to five minutes apart, and then I had a couple that were three minutes apart. About 4 am, I decided to wake A.J. up. I wasn’t sure if it was “time” or not, but I didn’t want to be alone and in pain anymore.

We decided to start getting things ready. I kept saying I was going to get in the shower to help with the pain, but it seemed like a huge effort and I never did. I finished packing my bag, then I called my doctor. My practice has one midwife. She was the one on call and she said to go ahead and come in.

[continued in part 2]