I woke up Sunday morning feeling fine, but a little cranky! I had my first night of real uncomfortable sleep during my pregnancy and was getting tired of trying to lug around that big belly of mine!

About 7:30 AM, shortly after getting out of bed and moving around, I noticed my back was aching a bit. I just kind of shrugged it off; thought it was because I was getting so big.

My DH decided he wanted to laze around and watch a movie that morning, so we decided on watching “Cheaper by the Dozen”. As we were watching it, I noticed that my back would really ache for a little bit and then go away. And then I noticed that they were bothering me enough that I couldn’t sit still through them....no position was comfortable! I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can time them?” So I went online to the contraction master thing someone had posted about awhile ago ( Contraction Master : Your free contraction timing assistant) and started timing them. They were ranging from 4-12 minutes apart, but I still wasn’t exactly sure if they were contractions, braxton hicks, or just an achy preggo back!

So around 8:30 AM, we decided to go for a walk around our subdivision to see what would happen. OMG, it was the LONGEST walk of my life! It’s only about ½ mile around our subdivision, but I was so uncomfortable that we had to walk really slow. It probably took us about an hour to make it all the way around!

Once we got home, I got back onto the contraction master website and timed my off/on achiness for another hour. For the most part, they were roughly about 5-7 minutes apart. But like I said before, I still wasn’t sure if they were contractions! LOL

My DH decided to go out in the backyard and trim trees, while I sat inside on the couch, staring at the clock, timing my back aches. My DH kept coming in to check on me, asking if I was having contractions or not, and wanting to know how often they were coming. I kept telling him that I didn’t think they were contractions and not to worry.

I finally realized they were contractions when I had to concentrate on my breathing to get through some of them. By now, they were coming about every 5 minutes....sometimes I’d get them at the 3 minute mark. But silly me, I still wasn’t sure if I was in true labor or not......here was my reasoning at the time. Some of them really hurt and I had to concentrate to get through them, but then others were very mild.

My DH put my hospital bag in the car and kept asking me, “Do we need to go to the hospital???” And my stubborn self, kept telling him no, because I didn’t want to drive an hour to the hospital in pain only to be sent home. Plus, I wasn’t really 100% sure I was in labor!

So DH goes back outside and starts dinking around with branches or something. Whatever. As long as he wasn’t bugging me! While he was outside, he decided to call my mom to let her know what was going on. He told her that I might be having contractions, that they were about 3-5 minutes apart, and that I refused to go to the hospital. I’m sitting inside, my cell phone rings, and it’s my mom! Here’s basically what she said to me, “You need to get your butt to the hospital! Your contractions are 3-5 minutes apart??? Your husband is outside, nervous, and doesn’t know what to do because you refuse to go to the hospital. Stop being stubborn. Go to the hospital.”
By now it was about 1:30 PM, and I finally decided that I better go to the hospital. The car ride there wasn’t too bad and I timed my contractions the whole way there. They were coming at exactly 3 minutes apart!

We got to the hospital around 2:30 PM, I was admitted, and when my midwife checked me, I was told that it was “baby day”. I was dilated to 4 cm and 90% effaced!

At 4:00 PM, I was 5 cm dilated and had my water broken. The contractions up to that point weren’t too horrible, but as soon as they broke my water, they were HORRIBLE! I thought I wanted to have a natural birth until I felt those babies! Ouch! I suffered through about 10 painful contractions before I pushed the nurse call button and asked to be signed up for the epidural.

So at 4:30 PM, I got my epidural and I don’t regret it at all! I hadn’t felt that relaxed in a LONG time!

I was checked again at 5:00 PM and I was 6 cm dilated and 100% effaced. We watched tv for awhile and around 6:30, I was checked again. I was 9.5 cm dilated! They decided to sit me upright in bed and once they did that, the baby’s heart rate dipped down to about 80 bpm and wouldn’t go back up. They started panicing, bringing the isolette in and preparing for the birth. I could tell by the look on my midwife’s face that he was a little worried.....which of course, had me worried! They had me lay back down and turn on my left side. The heart rate still wouldn’t go back up. So they inserted a fetal scalp probe to get a more accurate reading of her heartbeat. And finally, her heartbeat went back up. Thank heavens!

At 7:20 PM, I started pushing and I couldn’t feel a thing! They had to tell me when I was having a contraction so I could push! At 8:03 PM, Adelaide was born! I got to hold her right after she came out, before they cut the cord, and she was still all slimy. But it was the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world. I knew I loved my little girl as she was growing in my belly, but I didn’t realize how much until that moment.