I love reading birth stories. I don't know why but I just do so I thought I'd publish my own. I woke up with contractions on June 16th but they turned out to be Braxton Hicks which I had for 2 days. I was excited that something was happening as Taylor's due date was June 15th. Then everything went away. At 5am on June 19th (Father's Day) I woke up again with contractions. They were annoying enough to keep me awake so I roughly timed them. They were only about 30-40 sec long and 7-9 min apart. They remained that way until 6pm when they started to get a little more painful but not really enough to bother me and they stayed at 7-9 min apart. I called the hospital around 10:30 pm just to give them a heads up and they told me to call back when anything changed. I was waiting for them to get more painful and closer together as they typically do. Around 11:30 they definitely started to get more painful but still 8-9 min apart unless I was walking then they came faster. I paced around and around and tried resting in between but the pain was almost paralysing. I called the hospital around 3 and told them they weren't closer together but definitely more painful so they told me to come in for a check. I knew my mom was awake so I told her to drive me to the hospital but before we left I told hubby that I was just going in for a check and I"d call him later and my mom would come back to be with my son and my hubby could join me at the hospital.
We arrived there around 3:40 and I had to wait through a couple more terrible contractions before getting in around 4. The nurse checked me and I was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced so she told me they'd get a room ready. I lay there about 45 min having more very very painful contractions (I'm swearing and asking for an epidural by now) that were still not that close together but the doc said they were very powerful. Finally at about 4:45 a nurse that I know came to walk me to my room. I got up and said I can't walk but she said I needed to as it would help with the labour. I again said I wanted an epidural and she told me I would get it in my room. We took it slow and I held onto walls and swore as needed then all of a sudden about 15 feet from my room I felt the bearing down pain and my water broke all over the hallway! Nurse checked me and baby's head was right there! She tells me you have to get to your bed now or give birth in the hallway. I ran that 15 feet and jumped on the bed. Nothing was ready and doc wasn't around so everyone started scrambling and found the doc (she was just about to do a c-section) and my daughter was born at 5:06am weighing 8 lbs and 20.75 inches long and of course I didn't get any drugs!
It was a much different experience than with my son and even with the pain I'd have to say I enjoyed this experience more. It's different being aware of everything that's going on and feeling everything that your body is doing and the relief you feel when it's all over. She's 5 days old now and doing great! Really laid back and hardly cries (unless hungry). I just wish I'd get a little more sleep!
