Aaron came to stay with us and graciously canceled one thing after the next when the baby didn't arrive on it's due date...or the day after that...or the day after that..........ultimately it was decided that it was less stressful if he was here and we knew someone was with the kids, just in case this labor happened to be super fast. One can dream right? 😉
I usually turn on Casting Crowns during labor but this time decided maybe I would just put together a list of songs that were soothing to me and play that. Have you ever googled playlists for labor and delivery? I hadn't until this time. And some of the songs that came up made me laugh out loud!
March 8th dawned, bright, sunny and a "warm" 50* predicted as the high! Jarrod was supposed to go on a business trip on the 12th and we decided that if the baby wasn't born by the end of the day on the 8th, that he would cancel the trip. He called around 9am to see if anything was going on because he was about to have a conference call with the guys from Germany, and if there wasn't any labor activity going on, he would tell them he wasn't going to be able to make it on the 12th. Nope-nothing going on.
I started making a 4 layer lemon pie. The day was calling for something sweet and springy, the sunshine was making it seem like spring! At 11am on the 8th I realized that I had been having contractions that felt just like the Braxton Hicks I had been having...but maybe with a twinge more of something in there. Every 5 minutes for the past 30 minutes. I texted Jarrod the update and included that it might be something or it could just be more labor prep. I went outside and walked in the yard for awhile. It was super windy but still the 50* and sunny weather made it SO nice to be outside walking! At 2:00 we all laid down for naps just like every other day. I wasn't able to fall asleep but the resting was good. 4:00 I texted Jarrod and told him that the contractions were still every 4-5 minutes, not painful but being that the contractions hadn't went away regardless of what I was doing, I would say I was in labor but still very early labor. I grabbed something to eat because I knew I soon wouldn't eat anything because I get very nauseous when active labor kicks in if I've eaten anything.
Dinner for everyone else, kids in bed, and we sat and watched TV. Still nothing beyond persistent contractions with a bit of something else there. Still couldn't label it as painful though. At this point I wondered if I'd rather it just kicked in and we got it over with or if I wanted to try to sleep and then it could kick in!
9:30 rolled around and I told the guys I was going to bed. I doubted this labor would be the exception to labor kicking in in the middle of the night! I fell asleep quickly but didn't sleep for long. And so began a sleepless night. About every 15 minutes I would wake up, uncomfortable, not having to focus on contractions but aware that they were there, and I just wasn't sleeping well. Which also frustrated me because I knew that wouldn't make for a very good labor.
2:30 hit and so did the first contraction I had to breathe through. "Okay. I'll just work with these and get this labor over with!" And that's what I did. I laid there until 3, contractions coming every 7-8 minutes and was able to calmly breathe through them. I was having back pain with them and decided at 3 to get up and see if sitting on the pregnancy ball would help relieve some of that pain. As I sat up in bed another contraction hit and Jarrod woke up.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yes, active labor has started. I'm just going to go downstairs."
It took him a minute to process but then he got up and after watching me through another contraction, he decided to shower and eat something in case this labor was fast.
I sat on the pregnancy ball and worked through contraction after contraction. They were coming every 5-6 minutes now but the ball was helping with the back pain. I would drink some water, walk around or sway on the ball while having Family Feud on in the background! Around 4:15 I texted Megan to let her know that labor had kicked in and she could head here whenever she wanted to. The contractions were getting more intense and back pain was getting worse. I was already tired and tried to stay focused on working through the contractions and not fighting them. Jarrod got things in the car and gently tried to remind me to keep moving around as that has helped the other labors. So I'd walk from one end of the house to the other, work through a contraction, sit on the ball, walk to the couch, work through a contraction while half squatting. In my head I was still telling myself, "Okay baby. Let's do this and get it over with! I'll do my part and you do yours!"
Jarrod kept watching me through contractions and commented like they seemed pretty intense. Should we head to the hospital? I didn't think so. There wasn't any additional pressure and I really didn't want to feel confined to a bed so they could get a strip on the baby's heartrate. I wanted to be able to move and squat as needed. 6:15am and I decided that we should head to the hospital. I was still working through intense contractions but they weren't going anywhere. 5-6 minutes apart and while they had plenty of back pain and intensity, there wasn't additional pressure yet. But I knew the kids would be waking up soon and it would be easier to leave before they woke up and Jarrod seemed to think we should head to the hospital. So off we went....snow flakes were gently falling to the ground and the world was slowly waking up......
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