*This is going to be a very LONG post, so I’m breaking it up into two parts. I want to make sure that I record every detail, every name, every minute of the labor that brought me my sweet Gracie girl. This post is as much for her as it is for me.* 

My due date was Monday, May 5. After a pretty uneventful but physically tiring weekend, I was beyond ready to not be pregnant anymore!

I booked an acupuncture session for 4pm that day. It was half massage-half acupuncture, focusing on the pressure points that are said to help move your body into labor. I was reluctant about how much this would actually work, but I figured that an hour and a half of relaxation wouldn’t be the worst thing! I left the office at 5:30 and my acupuncturist told me that in about 6 hours I should start to see some progress.

By 10:30 that night I started having contractions. Nothing too strong, or too close together but definitely noticeable. Noticeable enough that I didn’t sleep all night. Every 20-30 min a contraction would wake me up.

I woke up Tuesday morning and told Keith he better stay home that day.  My contractions were getting closer and stronger, and I figured we should be ready just in case! I called the birth center around 9:30 and they told me to come in and get checked. We got to the birth center at 11:15 and met with Lisa, one of the midwives. She checked me and much to my disappointment she told me that I was only 1cm dilated! I had been 1cm for the last two weeks! I was tired, I was frustrated and I was in pain. Lisa gave me two Ambien and told me to go home and sleep. One of two things would happen — I would sleep and the contractions would stop, OR I would sleep and while I rested my body would progress on its own. That afternoon, I slept 4 blissful hours and then got up around dinner time and we went for a walk.

Still having contractions, but enjoying our (last) walk!

I tried to go to bed early, but it was another difficult night of sleep. I woke up around 4am on Wednesday morning experiencing the worst pain I had ever felt. I literally felt like someone was ripping me from the inside out. These contractions continued every 20 minutes, and were so painful all I could do was rock back and forth, silently crying and feeling like I was dying inside. I finally woke Keith up around 7am during a particularly painful contraction and told him what was going on.

Silly me decided to send him to work. Every other time he had stayed home because we thought this was “it”, it turned out to be a false alarm. I told him I would be fine, and since he only worked 20 minutes away, he left for work. By 8am, the contractions were 13 minutes apart, by 10am they were 9 minutes apart. My friend Jen called me around this time and after hearing me having a contraction, said she was on her way over. She arrived around 11am and we went for a long walk. By 12:30, the contractions were 5-6 minutes apart. Jen told me I needed to call my midwife, but I was still hesitating, STILL in denial that this was IT! She left to go pick up her kids from school and I reluctantly called … apologizing to Reina, the midwife on call, for bothering her yet again. She heard me having a contraction and listened to me crying and working my way through it and told me to call Keith, tell him to come home and get ready to come in. She thought this was it!

Keith left work at 2pm, hit an insane amount of traffic (of course) and made it home by 2:45. We rushed around, packing up our last minute things and making phone calls. We all piled into the car (Gunner too!) at 3pm and were on our way!

My mom met us at the birth center and took Gunner, and I cried saying goodbye to him! I was a tired, emotional mess …. saying goodbye to my first baby hit me so hard! Darn pregnancy hormones!

We walked into the birth center and got set up in the birthing room. This was really happening! Reina came in and examined me, and to my disappointment (again) she told me I was between 2-3cm dilated, and 90% effaced. She told me that was good news, I was in labor and we were having our baby! I tried to stay positive, but after 36 hours of laboring, it was hard to hear I was only 2-3cm. I had to get to 10!

Working my way through a contraction with Gracie’s elephant hat as my visualization

She told us to go take a walk, keep things moving and get something to eat to keep my strength up. So at 5pm, we set off in search of food and hoping moving around would keep me progressing.

Around 7, my birth doula Katie showed up. She was awesome at calming me down through contractions, reminding me to breathe and focus. It made a really big difference in how I handled the pain. The midwives switch shifts at 7pm, so Karen took over for Reina.

Karen monitored me and noticed my contractions were now further apart. Almost 10 minutes. No! I was going backwards! She examined me at 8pm, since it had been four hours since I got checked in and monitored.

I had not made ANY progress. Even worse, she told me I was only 2cm – not close to 3! I cried and cried.

I was in SO much pain. I was SO tired. I had been in labor for almost 48 hours!!! Why was my body failing me? Why was this happening?

Karen was so nice and honest with me. She told me I had two options. One: I could go home with more ambien and try the same thing that I did on Tuesday. OR, I could transfer to the hospital across the street and get a nice concoction of morphine, ambien and some other sleep inducing drug. She thought what my body needed was some serious rest. I couldn’t continue to labor effectively as exhausted as I was.

It took me an hour to make my decision. I was tired, and frustrated and in pain. (Did I mention that part yet? lol) Finally, after another ridiculous contraction I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get any rest if I went home. So around 10pm we packed up and moved across the street.

Our room at the hospital

Getting settled for a night’s rest!

It took a couple of hours to get settled, and to get me the shot. The whole time, my contractions were worse and stronger and I just wanted relief. At 1:30am on Thursday morning, they gave me the shot and I drifted off into a deep, blissful sleep …….

Or so I thought.

Stay tuned for Part Two!!