The Story...

*This is the long version. You can find the abbreviated version below.*

I had two due dates for Ava: March 12th and March 17th. As I said in an earlier post, I was fully expecting her to come late for many reasons. First, my mom’s babies were late. Second, I had not felt any braxton hicks contractions. Third, I was not progressing.

On Tuesday, March 2nd, the week of Ava’s birth, I went to the doctor and was only 20% effaced and had not started dilating. On Friday, March 5th 2:40am. I woke up with back pain. I went to the bathroom and then tried to fall back asleep. The pain didn’t go away. I got a heating pad and sat on the couch. The pain spread to my lower abdomen. I was sure at this time that I was experiencing my first set of braxton hicks. I figured I’d wait it out and they’d be gone in maybe an hour or so. The contractions were coming about 6-7 minutes apart but were not always a full minute long. I didn’t think it was labor because I was told real contractions involve your entire stomach, your stomach is very hard, and contractions should last a full minute or longer.

After an hour of this, I woke Justin up because I was very uncomfortable and had started shaking. The contractions were coming every 4-6 minutes. After seeing me go through two contractions, Justin was convinced that I needed to call the doctor and head to the hospital. I argued with him about it saying that first time labors are long, I wasn’t in labor, and I didn’t want to wake the doctor up and have him to tell me I was dilated to a 2 and would have the baby next week.

The pain persisted and Justin decided to call the doctor. The doctor said yes, we needed to go to the hospital. Because I was planning on her coming late, we didn’t have any bags packed. Looking back on it, it was comical. I was sitting there going through contractions telling Justin to grab some of these, pack that etc.

We arrived at the hospital at 5am, about 2 ½ hours after it all began. The nurse didn’t seem concerned after we told her it was my first baby and that I wasn’t dilated two days before. The nurse checked me, and then in shock said, “You are at a SEVEN!” She immediately called another nurse to get things moving faster.

I had to wait for my doctor to arrive before they would give me an epidural. I was terrified that I would have to go through the whole thing without it if my doctor didn’t get there soon!

About 45 minutes after arriving at the hospital, I got my epidural! I remember telling the anesthesiologist that I loved her. :) Just as I was getting the epidural my water broke. The drugs started to kick in, and for the next hour or so, Justin and I watched the contractions on the monitor and chatted. The epidural worked wonders!

Now it was time to push. I pushed for about 45 minutes to an hour. It wasn’t bad at all, the epidural was beautiful. I could feel the baby coming, but couldn’t feel any pain. At the end, they gave me the tiniest bit of pitocin to finish the job.

Ava was born at 8:05am, approximately 5 ½ hours after I woke up!

Crazy first baby labor story don’t you think? We were rather surprised and couldn’t believe we were holding our baby. The doctor said that for baby number two, we better come as soon as I feel the first contraction or Justin might have to deliver the baby!