Before, During and After

At 1:00 a.m., May 27th, I woke up having mild contractions.  I had a watch by the side of the bed and started timing.  I was having consistent contractions every  4 or 5 minutes.  They weren't really painful, but not anything I could sleep through really.  At 2:15 I woke Matt up to let him know that I thought I was in labor and needed to go to the hospital to make sure (I had tested positive for Group B Strep and needed to be on antibiotics at least 4 hours before delivery, so I was being extra cautious).  I went to the hospital and they monitored me for an hour before determining that I was in actual labor because I was progressing.  At 7 a.m. my doctor came in and checked me -- I was at a 4.  She wasn't sending me home, so we decided to break my water.  My contractions pretty much stopped.  I was only having one every 15 minutes instead of every 5 (picture 1).  I was worried they were going to put me on pitocin and I did NOT want that.

The nurse checked me again at 9 -- I was at a 5.  She checked me again at 11 -- I was at a 6.  I was still slowly progressing and not having too much pain.  Not to bad so far.

At 11:45 I started having harder contractions, 5 minutes apart.  By 1:00 p.m. I was exhausted and was having even harder contractions.  I was dilated to a 7.  They let me up to walk the room and I walked the room for a while.  Matt was great.  He rubbed my back and talked me through the contractions.  By 2:00 p.m. I was crying -- too tired to really concentrate on breathing right and in A LOT of pain.  I wanted something to take the edge off.  They gave me some IV meds and I climbed into bed to be checked.  2:10 p.m. -- dilated to a 9 (picture 2).  They got things prepped for birth, I started pushing at 2:25, pushed through 3 contractions and TADAH! presto, I was the mother of a BOY (picture 3).

Would I do it again?  Heck yeah!  Was it worth it?  Heck yeah!  Do I love my boy?  HECK YEAH!!