The Birth-Part 1

This may be very detailed, so I'll break it up into multiple parts. I should note that before bed on Sunday Chris told me he really didn't want to go to work the next day and Linda said she'd see us around 2 a.m., so the pressure was on.

Around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday I started having regular contractions. They were about 7-8 minutes apart. I didn't think too much of them because they weren't painful yet, so I tried to sleep. Sleep wouldn't come and after awhile I realized they were regular and closer together.

I walked around and drank some water to see if they'd go away and they just kept coming, so around 12:30 I woke Chris to help me time them. They were about 2-3 minutes apart and 45 seconds to a minute in duration. I didn't know whether or not to call Melanie because although they were more intense, they still weren't painful and I was walking and talking easily through them.

A little after 1:00 a.m. I decided to call her and make sure. I just really didn't want to wait too long since they had been consistent and gotten closer together over several hours and I was dilated to at least a 5. She told me to take a shower and see if they went away and then call her back. Chris said he wanted to take a 10 minute nap while I showered. I guess that should've been my first clue he wasn't feeling well.

They were still coming 2 minutes apart so she told us to come on in. We got Linda and Clara up and threw our last minute stuff in the car and were off. Wouldn't you know it, my contractions eased up just a bit and were closer to 3 minutes apart on the drive there. Here's Clara on our way to the birth center.



Melanie got there a few minutes before us and was getting the room ready when we arrived. She took me over to the exam room to check me out first. I was 5-6 cm. and 80% effaced, so she asked me if I wanted her to break my water. I was pretty much done with the waiting game, so I said yes.