Twas the Night Before Labor

It's time! January 28th, 2011, 8:15 pm. After a few days of experimenting with labor inducing tactics, it happened. My water broke! It started on Wednesday when we went to Wing Stop to eat Spicy foods. Our friend Marty believes that spicy hotwings will induce labor, seeing as two of her friends went in to labor shortly after eating them! Well, I didn't fit the bill and ended up with a severe case of heartburn. Thursday I had an appointment with my OB to see if anything had changed. Well, it hadn't. I was still a mere 1 cm dilated, but pretty effaced, my OB set up my induction for Wednesday, February 2nd @ 5:00am. I was a bit disappointed, but what could I do? On Thursday night, Brent and I went to El Fenix and had some Mexican food, again something spicy! Randi and I decided that on Friday after she got off work that we'd go get a pedicure. Not only did I feel that I deserved it, but I hadn't touched my toes since the beginning of November! Oh, and, again, many people had told me that a pedicure could induce labor! Friday morning came and I awoke feeling awesome. I felt so great that I even shaved my legs---and for those of you who have been there and done that, know that shaving is quite a feat with a big ol' belly! I put on my favorite maternity dress and wondered why I was feeling so good! My mom shared with me that she felt super great right before she went in to labor, so I hoped this was it for me, as well!  

Around 2:00, Randi and I went to get a pedicure. I thoroughly enjoyed the massage chair. As I sat there, I started to have more contractions. They weren't painful, they weren't regular, but I had about 6 within the hour! I shrugged them off, since I'd been having those Braxton Hicks for the past few weeks anyhow. Randi came home with me and stayed the afternoon, just in case these babies should decide they were ready to come out! When Brent got home, we decided to go for a nice, long walk. So, in my cute dress and tennis shoes, we went. I just about over-did it! My hips and lower back started aching pretty badly and I got a cramp in my thigh just as we walked into our drive way. I spent the next few hours resting and surprised about how out of whack I was feeling! Brent and Randi decided that Subway sandwiches sounded good to eat for supper, so they went and picked some up. I took a short nap while they were out. We sat and watched Kitchen Nightmares while we ate of wiches. I scarfed down all of mine, which was also unusual at that point! Randi decided that she'd better get home, it was getting late. She jokingly said, "See you tomorrow, unless those babies decided to come tonight!" Little did she know, she was correct! It wasn't 5 minutes after she left that I felt a gush of fluid. I seriously contemplated whether or not I had peed myself! When the same thing happened a few minutes later, I knew something was up! I paged my OB. Brent started rummaging around the house, getting everything ready for our hospital stay. I called Randi, who turned around and headed back to our house. Brent made the bed, cleaned the kitchen, swept the floor and packed his bag all within 15 minutes! Dr. Dias called back within 20 minutes and said I should head to the hospital, that more than likely my water had broke! I remember telling Brent that this is not at all what I had expected. He, too, said that he never imagined it going down like this! By 9:00 we had arrived at the hospital. I couldn't believe it. It was time. My life was changing. Changing for the best. This is when the Holy Spirit took over and a feeling of calm came over me.

I was still only about 1-2 cm dilated, so and IV was started and I was pumped full of Pitocin. I was also being shot up with Antibiotics since I'm a carrier of Strep B. Here is a video that was taken at 3:00am that night. My progression was very slow, but that gave all of our out of town family time to get to Arlington. The most painful part of this stage, for me, was the contraction monitor. It hurt far worse than the contractions themselves! The contractions started to get worse, so I opted for and Epidural. The anesthesiologist had to stab my back with his needle to insert the catheter 6 times before he hit the right spot. Ouch! 12 hours had passed and finally, it was time. At 10:00 am, January 29th, I was being wheeled down to the OR!

My heart was racing. I was nervous, scared, excited, impatient.....a feeling I really can't put into words.