Birth Story, part 2 - labor at home and en route to hospital

**Scroll down to begin the story and read posts in order, with most recent being at the top.**

Saturday, February 13 1:30 a.m.
Yay! I was awakened and sat upright with strong contractions. I went to the restroom, tried to go back to sleep, thinking this might be the real thing starting. James got up with Elijah, who came down the hall crying, and he went to get him back to sleep. I dozed off.
At 2:00 I woke to a “SLAM” in my pelvis, and thought I actually heard my water break. I jumped out of bed, and ran to the bathroom. Yep, lots of clear, amniotic fluid! James came back to the room about the same time, and I told him that the day was finally here! I first texted, then called Rachel (our doula), and Autumn (my friend who was going to help with the kids) after they responded, and called Alli, our friend who was going to photograph the labor. Abigail had begged for weeks to be awakened whenever Owen was actually coming, so though I hesitated with the late hour, James encouraged me to go ahead, and said she’d never forgive us if she didn’t get to be part of things. So, we woke her up, and she was so happy. She quickly got dressed, brushed her teeth, and waited with me. Alli was first to arrive and began to take photos. Rachel had talked on the phone with me, and we timed a couple of contractions, which were 3-4 minutes apart and lasting around a minute each. She got a quick shower, then came over close to 3:00. Autumn came closely thereafter. James called the Shelby County Sheriff’s Dept., to check on road conditions, because we knew with the snow and freezing temperature, that they had advised folks to stay off of the roads. They said that there had been 60+ wrecks already in Birmingham and that they recommended people stay home. James explained we couldn’t since we were having a baby. They cautioned him to drive carefully on the interstate around Valleydale Rd., but didn’t know of any specific issues beyond that. We also called our parents to let them know today would be Owen's birthday. I had great plans to email friends and post facebook updates periodically, but none of that happened. When things really started, I was unable to really think of anything but focusing on contractions and that held true till Owen was delivered.

I’d thought things would begin slowly and painlessly so that I could do last minute preparations, and would be chatty and up for fun pictures and all, but I was already having to concentrate some on the contractions, so wasn’t very chatty or useful. I guess the days and days of prodromal labor I’d had were my time to do that stuff. I had our bags packed for weeks, but we realized we had no clothes ready for the kids to wear right then, though everything was packed for while they would stay at Mom and Dad’s. All those weeks of time to prepare, and we really weren’t completely ready when it finally came down to it. James and Abigail got things together, while I tried to direct from the bedroom, and Rachel tried to keep me relaxed and comfortable. The contractions were quickly progressing, and I was moaning a good bit through them. Rachel had to remind me to moan low, in an “ooohhhh” sound, and not an “oowww” like I tended to do. Deep breathing and lying on the bed with her massaging and applying counter pressure with tennis balls on my lower back really helped. I also sat on the ball beside the bed, leaning over on it, for support. Both positions helped at different times.

I lost more amniotic fluid at one point too, and that caused things to increase another notch in discomfort and pressure. Rachel encouraged me that I was doing well, but I felt like I was close to panicking occasionally. It just seemed to be moving so quickly, and I remember saying, “I don’t like this!” James was sweet to encourage and talked calmly to me, rubbing my forehead and arms, and just being close by. Abigail was precious too, though she was a little concerned that I was already hurting some. Rachel called Dr. McKenzie to let him know we were coming in, and we left around 4:10 a.m. Our goal was to get there before transition, and not knowing if travel would be difficult we didn’t want to cut it too close, and felt we were staying home as long as we should. I was really dreading the car ride, and nervous, thinking it was going to be horrific. I was surprised at how much my lower back hurt, and was also fighting some nausea. Rachel was honest, and said, “It’ll be intense, but we’ll do all we can to get you comfortable.”

It was bitterly cold and we were a sight, loading up into the van. James had to struggle to get some doors open because they were frozen, and couldn’t even open all of them to load our bags. Alli got in the front, Abi climbed to the back seat, and Rachel and I took the captain’s chairs in the middle. I kneeled in the floor, leaned over the birthing ball which was in the chair in front of me. It wasn’t a fun ride, but thankfully, wasn’t too long. Contractions were hard, and I felt unstable, leaning from side to side on curves. James drove carefully, and one thing I will never forget is the slushy noise from the salt on the roads and how really loud it was. At one point, I was loudly moaning and thinking how great a home birth would have been, and James brought up that maybe we should play a song on my iPod that I’d half-jokingly added that week to be used for a tough moment in labor. Alli laughed because I’d told her about it too, and we all got a chuckle out of Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” blasting through the van in those crazy circumstances. I needed the distraction, and to remember that the pain and discomfort were truly only temporary feelings, and the goal was so great and worth working toward. As silly as it sounds, it really was a great tension breaker.

We arrived to the hospital with no problems, within 30 minutes. We had to time my getting out of the car because of contractions coming really close together and hustled inside quickly at 4:45. As we approached the nurses’ station, Rachel let them know who we were and that we’d be doing a natural childbirth, so would appreciate a nurse who was agreeable to that. We were taken to a room on a quiet hall, and I was able to change with help and get the fetal monitor hooked up. I was checked and found to be progressed to between 7-8 cm, 100% effaced, and Owen had dropped to -1 station! I was so excited. I had thought if things were pretty intense and had seemed to move quickly but I was told I had only made it one more centimeter, I’d have been very discouraged. That was such an encouraging moment, and I never wavered after that. I just knew we’d done some great work, and that transition couldn’t be too far away. I was so ready to meet our sweet boy!