Julia's Birth Story: Part 1 (at home)

Apparently I was in labor all day Monday, December 8 ... didn't realize it for sure until quite late that evening. I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for weeks and on Monday, the contractions seemed a little different, stronger, slightly more intense, but not anything I associated with labor "pains." They were uncomfortable, but not frequent, not lasting long, not what I expected. I'm at work, going about my daily routine, I think I might have seen a few students which I hope I didn't because would you want to talk with your school counselor while she's in labor? : ) Actually I joked with Niki that I wondered what if they were real labor contractions and I was in the bathroom and had the baby. You know like in a cheesy after school special or those random stories you hear about 'teenager has baby at prom.' I call out "hello, anyone there? " while I hold a slimy, newly born baby in the middle school's girl's bathroom. How possibly true this story could be you will learn as I tell the rest of this story.

So after work I decide to go to Target, I don't know why, just wanted to get a few items, nothing that crucial. However, I had a To Do list and wanted to cross these items off of it. So I'm walking to the check-out and I have the most intense back ache thing and thought I would pass out. Still I pay for my stuff, walk to my car, get in, drive home, still having the same kind of contractions (not like the one in Target) and I'm keeping track of the frequency (it hadn't been more than 3 in an hour and they were 15-20 minutes apart). However, now I'm wondering if these might be something real. I get home, decide not to go to water aerobics even though it's Monday which is my routine, head to the couch for my TV fix and knit (I have a hat I'm trying to finish before Dec. 20), still keeping track of frequency. Jai gets home around 6pm and I say "hey, don't want to worry you, not sure what's going on, but I'm having these contractions that seem different." Jai handled this info quite well, said something like "OK, so what do we do?" I said I don't know, just see what happens. He goes and gets one of our many pregnancy books : ) and reads some details and we decide to keep a true record, not just in my head, so I start noting the time and length of the contractions.

Again they were still 12-20 minutes apart and less than 40 seconds ... so we ate dinner, watched TV, I kept knitting. Around 9pm I couldn't take the stress anymore and went to take my evening shower. When I got into bed close to 10pm, I'm hoping to rest. I don't get a chance because an intense contraction happens and they continue to every 6-7 minutes. Now I'm thinking this is real, oh, my goodness, this is real. I tell Jai "hey, I need you to do some laundry, there's some stuff in the basement to wash, also clean my bathroom (he hadn't had a chance to do it on Sunday), make sure the dishes are done in the kitchen. You know all of those nesting activities people talk about, but I'm not able to do though I'm constantly getting up to go to the bathroom since I cannot relax. I also tell Jai he might want to come to bed so one of gets some sleep because this is REAL.

At about midnight Jai comes to bed and rubs my back which felt like heaven. Around 12:30am (Dec. 9) I feel this gush of fluid and I roll out of bed SO QUICK and fast walk to the bathroom where I discover that indeed that is my water breaking. I tell Jai and jump in the shower to wash off this slime while enduring another contraction. Jai calls our midwifery center and discovers that Soheyl is the midwife on call. YEAH!

I get out of shower, go to the bathroom again and discover more nastiness - green/brown version - which Jai reports to Soheyl who says that is meconium and she asks how far are we from the hospital (no more than 20 minutes) and instructs us to head there now. That's what I thought we were planning to do anyway, but I couldn't remember what the deal is with meconium (possibly some kind of distress for the baby). Luckily my hospital bag is packed (you know me, packed for weeks) so we get dressed, Jai puts Johnders in back yard (who knows what he's thinking, he never goes to the yard at 1am!), starts the car and puts our bags in the back while I make my way as fast as possible out the door.

We drive to the hospital which is strange because there are hardly any cars on the streets. Every bump in the road is annoying and the contractions are happening, but I have no idea of the frequency anymore. I forgot to track them. Jai says I barely grimaced or moaned, but they sucked!

TO BE CONTINUED ... "Julia's Birth Story: Part 1 (at the hospital)"