Labor- Part One

On Sunday, July 17th at 5am I awoke to some pressure down below and figured I should get up and go to the bathroom and in my half awake state, I thought that it felt like my water could break at any moment because of how intense the pressure was.  I went to the bathroom and peed, when I was walking back to bed I felt what I thought was just a cramp.  I tried to go back to sleep, but every 15 minutes I kept waking up to those same "cramps".  At 6am, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom again (this time to do #2) and decided to go use the other bathroom upstairs to not wake T.  I got into the bathroom and started to have more pain, and didn't actually have to go after all.  Back to bed I went, and the thoughts of "could this be the start of contractions?" started to process in my mind.  I decided to start looking at the clock when I felt the pains, and sure enough they were 7 minutes apart.  I kept myself distracted by going on Facebook on my iphone, and browsing the Internet.  I started to keep a log of when the pains started.  At 7:10am T woke up and I told him what was going on.  He was so sweet and all concerned that I hadn't woken him. To be honest, the pains weren't that bad, and I wanted him to have a good night's sleep.

We discussed what we'd do if this were in fact the "real deal".  Originally we had plans to go to the beach, but obviously we figured that wasn't the smartest idea.  We decided we'd finish up some last minute projects and do a quick clean of the house, and then if all was going well we'd head to the pool.  T ran out to Perfectos to get our "usual" breakfast and coffee (a french toast bagel with light cream cheese and an everything bagel with egg and cheese, in case you were wondering) while I through in a load of laundry.  T came back and we ate, he packed his bag for the hospital, I added a few items to my already packed bag, then we vacuumed and hung the paper lanterns in the nursery.  Contractions were still 7-10 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds each.

At about 11am I went to the bathroom and noticed I was spotting a little and decided to call the doctor on call to get the okay to go to the pool.  I remembered at my appointments them saying that if the blood is bright red, it would be cause for concern, and since mine wasn't I was pretty sure we'd be okay.  Sure enough the midwife, Nancy, called back and asked me a few questions before saying it was okay to stay home as long as I could and to go in the pool.  The rule for calling them back is contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each, for an hour.

Off to the pool we went.  Contractions slowed down and spaced out 12 minutes apart.  I decided to get into the pool and walk laps.  This worked getting them to being more regular. T started to get concerned about our staying at the pool too long and suggested that we go home, take showers, eat something, and then call the doctor to touch base and see when we should head in. Funny side story: An older woman at the pool that has seen me a bunch over the past few weeks approached T while I was in the bathroom.  She asked him what he was timing in the pool... apparently she caught on to T looking his watch each time i had a contraction. Haha! T lied and said we had someplace to go.

When we got home we showered, got ready and T picked up burgers from Sylvan Street.  By the time I finished eating I was in a lot of pain.  So much so that when I was on the phone with a midwife from our practice I started to cry and had to pass the phone to T.  Since my contractions were 5 minutes apart at that point, we were told to come in and get checked.  At 5:30pm we left for the hospital.

Here are the last pictures of me pregnant right before we left for the hospital!