Two years ago tonight, I was in the hos­pi­tal. I was try­ing to decide if I was in labor or not. Look­ing back, I would guess it’s safe to say that I was.

Two years ago, on Novem­ber 2nd, I had an appoint­ment with the cer­ti­fied nurse prac­ti­tioner. I was 36 weeks preg­nant, and the prior week, I had been dilated to 3. I wasn’t hav­ing any major con­trac­tions, and it was my first baby so I assumed that I would still have a while. K wasn’t due until Novem­ber 29th, so I didn’t even have my bag for the hos­pi­tal packed or any nurs­ing bras! At my appoint­ment, the NP told me that I was dilated to a “good 5 cm.” I was shocked to say the least. I had been think­ing I would go late, and I had even told my mom, who was com­ing to stay with me after the birth, not to worry about tak­ing any time off until at least Thanksgiving.

That after­noon, I decided to run some errands. I picked up a pair of paja­mas for after the baby was born. I also bought myself a cou­ple nurs­ing bras. I may have even stopped for ice cream or cof­fee. To me, it was just a reg­u­lar day like any other day.

That night, my hus­band, Jason, who was work­ing on his master’s inde­pen­dent study, was meet­ing with his advi­sor. While he was at his meet­ing, I real­ized I was hav­ing some­what reg­u­lar con­trac­tions. I decided to start tim­ing them, although they didn’t hurt and I couldn’t feel them at all. I drank a lot of water and laid down on the couch. After tim­ing for about 30 or 40 min­utes, I called him and I told him I was hav­ing con­trac­tions, but he did not need to come home. Well, ten min­utes later, he walked in the door. His advi­sor had sent him home. Thanks, Dr. O!

We waited and timed and waited. Finally, around 8, we called the hos­pi­tal. I didn’t want to go, but know­ing I had been dilated to 5 ear­lier in the day, I wasn’t sure what to do. I kept telling the nurse that I didn’t feel the con­trac­tions yet, and she said that I should still come in and get eval­u­ated. We got to the hos­pi­tal at about 8:30. I was 5 1/2 cm. They wanted us to walk for a while and see what hap­pened. We walked, they checked. We walked some more. By the time we were checked the last time, I was about 6 cm, and I was stay­ing overnight in the hospital.

The next morn­ing at 7:30, my doc­tor came into the room with a res­i­dent and said, “Scoot down, let’s break your water.” Know­ing I wanted a nat­ural birth, prior to com­ing to the hos­pi­tal, I was sure I did not want my water to be bro­ken. How­ever, for some rea­son, I said noth­ing and just did what she said. She broke my water, and she said she’d check on me later that day. Jason and I decided to watch tv and relax. I did pretty well for about 2 1/2 hours. Then, sud­denly around 10, the con­trac­tions started in and were very intense.

Around 10:45, I asked if the nurse would check me. I was start­ing to get over­whelmed by the con­trac­tions, and I needed to know if I was mak­ing progress. Look­ing back, I prob­a­bly should have changed posi­tion, laid on my side, closed my eyes, breathed, or any num­ber of other things. I didn’t though. I just sat in my bed and tensed up wait­ing for each con­trac­tion. The nurse checked me and I was 8 1/2 cm dilated. About 5 min­utes later, I started say­ing, “I have to push! I have to push!” Sure enough, I was ready.

I pushed and drank ice water for about 45 min­utes and K was born! He had the cord wrapped around his neck, but as soon as that was taken care of, he was just fine. He was born at 36 1/2 weeks and was 18 inches long and 6 pounds 12 ounces. Not a huge baby, but he was def­i­nitely big for being 3 1/2 weeks early.

Look for pic­tures tomorrow.