She was born at the same hospital as our son, which is a bit rare when your in the military. It was a case of perfect timing. I really wanted to go into labor on my own and not need Pitocin like I did with Joe. I'm not completely into natural birth (bring on the epidural!) although I have many friends who are and think they are women warriors, but I wanted spontaneous labor and to be able to actually dilate on my own.
My labor was textbook! I started to notice more "real" contractions about a week before she was born, starting in about the 4 per hour range. The gradually got stronger, and then closer! About 3 days before she was born I started to notice that in the evenings I would have a few hours where contractions were anywhere between 8 and 6 minutes apart. Then one morning I woke up and the contractions were still 6-8 minutes apart. This is when I realized I was getting close. That afternoon during my sons nap I decided to take Sirius (our GSD) for a walk and see if I could move things along. My Dr. had told me to go ahead and wait until I was about 4 minutes apart before coming in since we live a bit away from our hospital and she didn't want me to get sent home only to come back. I loved my Dr., and she is the best OB/GYN I've ever seen, so I trusted that advice. Rightly so :-) My husbands re enlistment was that night anyway, and I wanted to witness the oath, so why not wait! At the re enlistment his Lt. and another Petty Officer both commented about how I could go anytime. They had no idea how right that was, that night active labor began!
I took a bath, breathed through a few difficult contractions, and went to bed. I told my husband I needed an early bed time because at this rate I was going to need the rest. At about 1am I woke him up and told him I was at about 4-6 minutes apart and we should head to the hospital! When we got there I wasn't quite dilated enough, and the beds on the labor deck were full! They still considered sending me home, but I knew it was time! So I told them I felt a trickle that might have been my water starting to break *wink*. It sounds shady but I knew how things in this hospital ran, especially on a busy night. It took them two hours of me sitting in triage to get someone to come do the exam to check, and by then they couldn't do it, because I was two minutes apart and couldn't hold still for them. They HAD to admit me at that point, and I saved an extra two hours of driving and lowered my risk of giving birth in a tunnel.
I started in a bed elsewhere in the hospital so I could get my precious epidural, even thought the labor deck was still full. I love epidurals, and even though my anesthesiologist was a "new guy" and had to try 3 sites and take 20 minutes getting it in, I was grateful! I got about 3 hours of sleep before the show started.
For those of you that aren't familiar with the drill (no pun intended), in a military hospital it is rare your Doctor is the one who actually gets to deliver your baby. It's just the nature of the beast, with duty shifts and other military responsibilities it's just not always possible. I had a great and funny midwife there to catch my baby though. Her bedside manner was unlike any I've experienced. We had two conversations, the first went like this.
"Ok, I'm going to check and see where you're at. You say you feel some slight pressure?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Ok, you're at a 10!"
Me: "Seriously" (I didn't feel the same pressure I did at a 10 with my son so I was a bit surprised)
Her: "Of course! I wouldn't joke about that! *grabs instrument with fancy name that is really just a giant crochet hook* Ready for me to break your water?"
Me: "Ok"
Her: "Oh! Nevermind!"
Me: "Ummmmm..."
She then left to call my Dr. in a last ditch effort to see if she would be able to catch my baby. Sadly she could not. So then my laid back and funny midwife came back.
Her: "So Dr. Love won't be able to be here"
Me: "That's fine"
Her: *Deafening silence*
Me: "Sooooo, should I push?"
Her: "Do you want to push?"
Me: "Ummmm, kind of?"
Her: "Ok then push"
Not exactly the 5 nurses running in a room with two doctors yelling push at me that I had with my son! It was great, she let me go at my own pace and Evelyn came 4 contractions later, with me determining when to push every time. My Dr. came running into the room 45 minutes later, bless her heart, and was surprised and proud my labor went so smoothly and quickly, but like she said, this wasn't "my first rodeo" Besides.... look at the reward :-)
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