Tuesday, March 6, was just another normal day. I wasn't feeling any labor signs and I was still taking it very easy by resting. I remember being pretty exhausted and didn't feel like doing anything.
When it got closer to dinner time, I had a huge craving for IHOP. No idea why, because I haven't had that in years! So, Matt being the sweet husband he is, took us to IHOP. I really enjoyed that meal!
That night I started feeling weird. I can't really describe the feeling other than just being weird. My sister called me around 8:30 asking if I've felt anything yet. I said no and told her I'm really nervous that I'm not going to know that I'm in labor because I've never experienced period cramps. She reassured me that I will definitely know because there will be a rhythm to them. We had a good talk and towards the end she told me "I don't know why I did this, but I made sub notes today before leaving school just in case something happens tonight." I laughed and then got nervous all the sudden as I looked around at our dirty kitchen.
Once we got off the phone I told Matt we have to clean the kitchen and take all the trash out because I don't want to come home to smelly trash. He thought I was crazy, even got a little ticked that I was asking him to take the trash out at 10:30 at night (the dumpster is on the opposite end of the complex). While he was taking the trash out, I was cleaning the dishes.
After everything was cleaned, I went to bed around 11:30. It took me a while to fall asleep because I was SO uncomfortable. Around 2am I woke up needing to pee. As I got out of bed I felt this weird bruised feeling on the right side of my belly. The mild pain was making it almost hard to walk. I went to the restroom and went back to bed.
At 3:30am I woke up needing to pee again. I remember thinking "already?! I just went!" As I was rolling and pushing myself out of bed I felt a little leak, like I had a bladder spasm. I made it to the bathroom door and as I was shutting the door the leak got worse. I rushed over to the toilet and as soon as I sat down the "gush" happened. I sat for about 2-3 minutes and let it just pour out. During that time I remember thinking "ok, my doctor said if your water breaks, you go to the hospital ASAP. But I have to shower....and put my makeup on..." So shallow, I know!
I quickly dismissed those thoughts and woke Matt up by saying "Matt, my water just broke!" He sat up and said "are you sure?" I laughed and said "ooooh yes! Hurry, I need to finish packing the hospital bag." I put on a pad to catch the still leaking water and got all my toiletries ready. In about a 5 minute time span, I soaked up an entire pad.
We got everything ready in less than 10 minutes and we were on our way to the hospital! Once in the car I called my parents and sister to let them know it's time! My poor mom asked "what day is it?" and said she had only been asleep for 2 hours! But since they were driving up from Houston, they needed to know ASAP to make it in time.
We made it to the hospital in about 10 minutes and made our way over to L&D. I can't believe I'm posting this picture, but I want to remember what I looked like before giving birth. I look pretty terrible with bed head and no make up on at 3:50am!
I quickly was put into a room and hooked up to monitors. Matt took a picture of the room while I was getting changed into my gown. Pretty nice huh?
And here I am with all the monitors before anything really happened. The top pink one monitored my contractions and the bottom blue one was monitoring his heart rate.
The nurse then checked me to see how far dilated I was. I was thinking I was around 4cm, because I had been having some weird pressure feelings a few days before. I was totally shocked when she said I was already at 5.5cm, almost to 6cm!!! She looked at the monitor and said "you're having a pretty good contraction, do you feel that?" I said I didn't feel a thing. I told her how I've never had period cramps and I'm beyond scared to feel anything, so I wanted to go ahead and get the epidural.
She put the order in for the epidural around 4:30am, and at 7am I was given the epidural. I was extremely nervous about getting it because I still wasn't feeling any contractions to "numb" the pain of the procedure. Well to my surprise, they numb the area before putting it in. So the only thing I felt was a normal shot that didn't hurt at all. In about 30 minutes I was completely numb.
At this point I was feeling guilty for having such an easy labor, like I was cheating my way through the whole thing. Little did I know what was right around the corner...
Man Holly! Leave us hanging! :) Can't wait to hear the rest!
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