It was a Wednesday, not my favorite day of the school week, but not a bad one either. I remember being in my morning class teaching 6th graders. I just remember having some really strong contractions. Strong enough where I had to sit down. I didn't really think that much of it because they went away. I kept working and just felt a little strange all day. Starting around 5pm that night, I was having contractions about every 5- 6 minutes. They weren't horrible and weren't really getting all that closer together. Well, they kept going. They still weren't really getting any more closer and intense. We watched tv and passed the time. Around bed time they still were about the same as they were before. So I told Matt to go to bed and I was going to sleep (haha) on the couch. I passed the night away attempting to sleep and giving up and turning on the tv and try ing to sleep some more. I think around 3 or 4 am we finally decided to go to the hospital. We go to the ER and walk up to the maternity ward. They check me and I'm only a 1. Great.
I didn't want to be induced, so we decided to go home. Matt needed to go into work and just take care of a few things before he would be gone for a few days. I went to Bob & Kristi's because it was only a 15 minute drive into town as opposed to 25 from our house. I stayed there over the morning and got into their giant bathtub. Don't forget that my contractions have continued to be 5-6 minutes apart this entire time. I want to say around 1pm we decided to go into my doctors office to get check and see if I had dilated any more. The answer was not really. I was not at a 3. We decided just to stay because eventually this baby was going to come out.
We hung out in the hospital room and my mom brought Matt Arby's, while I was completely annoyed by the stupid heart rate monitor that was digging into my stomach. It was the most uncomfortable thing ever. It was bothering me more than my contractions. In retrospect, I wish I would have been walking around a lot more. At this point I was really tired because I did not sleep the night before. I really think that would have helped my labor progress more quickly. Anyway, my doctor had been in and out of the room around 8pm she was ready to go. At that time I think I was dilated to a 5 or so. I was still dead set on not having any drugs. She broke my water and that really sped things up. In 2 hours I went to a 10 and finally felt the urge to push. The only problem was that Kane was not facing the right way. Mid contraction, Dr. Weaver flipped him the proper way. I think 3 or 4 pushed and about 10 minutes later Kane was finally here. Matt was quite the trooper through the entire experience. I think he ended up being more involved than he had intended. He lived to tell the story.
I was dead set on not having drugs, and even after Kane was born the nurses kept trying to get me to take tylenol or something. I just don't get it. My body felt like someone had hit me with a truck the next day, but it wasn't unmanageable. It is hard to describe how tiring and physically exhausting the birth process is. Maybe I just have a higher pain tolerance that most or maybe I'm just that stubborn. If anything I was more exhausted than anything. Hopefully next time the process will be a little faster.
