Confession #2: Childbirth wasn't so bad...

As I alluded to before, the birth of our first child was like a made for TV movie. There was drama, suspense, action and a happy ending. All within about an hour. And thank-gawd, b/c if it had lasted any longer I would have rather gouged my eyeballs out. Ok, maybe not :)

I think one of the blessings of Audrey's birth was my naivety. Through the whole process I remember that the dominant thought in my head was "I don't want embarrass myself and be the person who is told to go home b/c I wasn't far enough along." When my water broke, I "had to be sure" and re-read my books and looked stuff up on the internet (FYI, if you've never been pregnant, waters don't break like they do on TV. There was no big gush, no panic, no definitive moment. I've been told that everyone is different; mine was a "pop" trickle trickle, easily mistaken for pregnancy incontinence) -- my husband thought I was crazy, and a girl friend I called told me to get my ?!#@ to the hospital but I wasn't feeling any sort of contraction so in my mind I was going to get induced in 24 hrs.

My husband dropped me off at the hospital on the way to night shift (at my insistence, not his) and I assured him that even if I went into labor in the middle of the night I'd probably labor for 16 hours so he would have more than enough time to come home in the AM and catch the ending. My midwife confirmed that it was my waters that broke; however, I had not dilated anymore than I had been for the past 3 weeks. The plan was to induce in the AM if things hadn't started throughout the night. So, I walked out to the main drag, did some errands and met a friend for dinner.

Looking back, I was having mild contractions during this time but didn't pay attention b/c they were not painful nor did I feel them to be consistent or for any length of time. I remember being uncomfortable towards the end of dinner but as soon as I got home and layed on the couch everything felt normal again. I made some phone calls to tell friends that I would be induced in the morning and then got ready for bed.

I will spare you more details, but let you know that by about 8:45pm a good friend of mine convinced me to call my husband and get him to come home. Good thing b/c by 9:00pm the "big one" hit. BUT instead of having a contraction and waiting 10 mins for the next one, they just kept coming one after the other after the other. I started to hear these awful noises like a moaning cow; and then I realized it was me?!! Unreal. We live 2 1/2 blocks from the hospital. Husband made it home shortly after 9, it took me 1/2 an hour to crawl to the door, by some miracle the contractions paused for about 15 seconds when I ran to the car...we made it to the hospital by 9:45pm.

And you know what? This whole time all I could think about was "I CANNOT DO THIS FOR 16 HOURS; I NEED DRUGS!!!" so you can imagine my surprise when I got to the hospital and my midwife stated "OK, you are fully dilated and I see some hair, so with your next contraction you need to push..." SERIOUSLY?! WHAT ABOUT MY DRUGS?!! And the (very nice) nurse stated "this is even better than drugs, you're going to have a baby!" OMG, I couldn't have slapped her -- she ACTUALLY said that to me.

Audrey was born at 10:03pm. 2 hrs short of 38 weeks.

And then the chaos stopped. There was silence. And we got our happy ending.

Confession #2: Childbirth wasn't so bad. An hour of hard labor? I can do that again...LOL.

It's because of this that I am a bit nervous about the birth of this child. I am 37 1/2 weeks. Everyone expects labor will be about the same, possibly faster (I can't even imagine how that would be possible) but what if it isn't? and I'm gouging my eyeballs out? Or, what if it is and I miss the signs and end up giving birth on the sidewalk? I have a feeling that this baby will be arriving very soon and I am paranoid about being more than 10kms for the hospital...good times!