I had a mixture of emotions going into this pregnancy. After giving birth to my daughter Avery in 2015 via C-section, I had an unsuccessful second pregnancy that ended in the second trimester.
My dream was to have a healthy, full-term pregnancy that ended with a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section). But, I knew better than to get my hopes up. Pregnancy is unpredictable, and child birth is a scary, amazing miracle. Anything can happen.
My last day at work before maternity leave was Tuesday, December 12. On Wednesday, I was feeling pretty good, and spent the majority of the day cleaning up. Early Thursday morning - around 5:30 a.m. - I woke up with painful cramps. I was able to go back to sleep and woke up again at around 6:30. As I was getting my daughter ready for daycare, I slowly realized that the cramps weren't actually cramps. They were contractions!
I told Milton what was going on and he offered to stay home from work. I waved him off. "They're probably just Braxton Hicks" My maternity leave just started, and I was looking forward to having a few days to nest and relax - I wasn't ready to go into labor yet.
Well, despite what I was or wasn't ready for, by 9:30, I was having contractions every few minutes. I called my doctor and after one of the nurses loudly wondered why I was still at home, I was in the car and on the way to the hospital. Apparently, I was in full-blown labor.
Or... maybe not. I got to the hospital, got hooked up to the machines and was told that my labor was not progressed far enough to get admitted. By that afternoon, I was walking around Costco with Milt, recording my contractions on my iPhone. The hospital's discharge instructions were loud and clear. Come back when your contractions are less than five minutes apart for at least an hour straight.
Walking around Costco in labor was no joke. I literally went from looking at toddler pajamas, to gripping the freezer in the seafood aisle in the middle of mind-numbing contractions. After about an hour and a half, I had enough. I demanded to be taken back to the hospital. Either they were going to admit me, or I was going to lay down on the lobby floor in protest.
Luckily, they admitted me. Everything went smoothly from there. Terrible, painful labor. Epidural. The doctor broke my water and not long after I felt intense pressure. I knew that it was time to push.
The nurses asked me to do a practice push, and then immediately asked me to stop. The baby was coming out now, and they weren't ready! They yelled for the doctor to come in the room, and he didn't have time to break the bed down. He leaned over the railing and two pushes later, he basically caught the baby like a football. Quickest delivery ever.
Daddy, Mommy, and baby were all happy and healthy.
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