I never would have guessed that my countdown would actually end five days earlier but I'm EXTREMELY grateful!
I've spent the past few weeks feeling rather miserable. Monday and Tuesday of last week were particularly bad. My body hurt all over--so much I couldn't sleep, I was having tons of random contractions and I pretty much wanted to cry all the time.
I got up at three in the morning on Wednesday to use the bathroom (yet again!) and lo and behold my water broke. At first I wasn't sure what had really happened, I was in the bathroom after all, but it was soon clear that this was not a bladder control issue! I crept back to bed and gently kissed my husband and told him he had to get up. I had no idea how much time we had. My last two kids were induced so I hadn't gone into labor on my own since my first baby over nine years ago. I honestly had no idea what to expect.
We had to get all the kids up and load them in the car. They were a little delirious but very excited. Fortunately I had packed their suitcase the night before just to have it ready. We got to my mom's house a little before four and called her from the driveway to come unlock the door. By then I was having strong and consistent contractions.
I was admitted to the hospital around 4:30 and got the epidural by about 5:15. My doctor showed up thirty minutes later. I was dilated to a six but he could tell things were progressing rather quickly and said he would come check me again in about twenty minutes. Five minutes later I had one really strong contraction that the nurse saw on the monitor from the nurses station. She came back in and said, "that was a big one I bet you're ready." I totally did not believe her! But sure enough that was all it took. The doctor came back and after about three sets of pushes little Henry James made his debut into the world. I guess he was just very anxious to get here!
