I went into labor on a Tuesday morning. I was at work at the time, and basically unaware that I was in labor since I was over a week early. I kept complaining to friends that my back really hurt. I remember calling my good friend Mike L. and saying, "This stupid chair is really straining my back!" About 11am I started to realize that the pains were somewhat rhythmic, so I called my mother (grandma) to ask her advice. Well, her advice was “The worst thing you can do is show up at the hospital and be in false labor so they send you home.” With this thought in mind, I decided I would wait until I had something more definite then back pains before I went to the hospital.

I mentioned to my friends that perhaps I was in labor, but maybe not. To celebrate they took me out to eat across the street. Halfway through my meal I just wasn’t hungry anymore, and everyone agreed that for me not to eat pizza I MUST be in labor. So I went back to my office and called the doctor who advised (not knowing I was about 45 minutes away!) to wait a bit longer since the pains weren’t that close together. They wanted them to be something like 2 minutes apart.

So I waited and timed, and waited and timed, (and frantically tried to wrap up all that work stuff that I thought I had another week to do) and the pains never did get to be 2 minutes apart. Meanwhile I'm still waiting for the stroke from God to definitively say I was in labor -- but my water didn't break, nothing. Finally I went to the bathroom and saw the barest stain of blood on my pants....Yes! I'm not crazy and really in true (not false) labor.

About this time I was unable to stand when the pains struck, and two friends decided that I wasn’t in false labor, that the hospital would not send me home, and that it was high time I left the office. We went and got my car and they drove me to your father’s office so that we could go to the hospital. This was rather amusing as I was well past being able to drive, so Mike had to drive my new car, with Karen in the back seat for support.

So Mike hands the driving over to Dad, and we head home. I still had these visions of a 14-hour labor in my mind. At this point it was only about 2pm, so I didn’t want to go to the hospital and then be forced to walk halls for hours. I even debated taking a shower to waste some time, but decided standing in a slippery tub when a contraction hit would not be a good thing. So I called pap-pap to tell him I was heading to the hospital, and while talking a contraction hit causing me to grunt. So he started SCREAMING at me over the phone to go to the hospital, and how stupid were we! Pap-pap was much more freaked out about the situation then us. It was really cute. So I told him I’d call him again at midnight to tell him how things were going. At this point I'm a little concerned about the pain, but still in good spirits.

By the time we hit the hospital I’m in some serious pain, and starting to panic thinking – I’ve got another 10 hours of this? So right away, before we've even fully 'checked in', I mention I want some medication. And this silly nurse is like, “Oh, is this your first child? You’ve got plenty of time. Try your breathing.” (Which is a huge joke) This did not help me calm my fears in any way, and I have to say I felt, well, panic is still a very good description. Anyway, we get back to the birthing room and they put these monitors on me to see what my contractions are like. I am rather unhappy as this hurts, and I think I’ve got HOURS more of this and now I'm downright frightened about what labor is really going to entail. Dear lord - if this is what it feels like after 4 hours, what must if feel like after 18? Suddenly the nurses come back and basically say, holy cow you’re over half done, how about some serious pain medication right now.

Of course the evening I went into labor there was a full moon or something, so everyone from the Lamaze class is also there giving birth. (Which was funny, your father kept running into the other fathers getting ice chips or buying flowers and such) Anyway, the nurse mentioned that it might take an hour for the epideral lady to get to me, and a bit longer after that for the medication to take effect. Well, this was NOT at ALL going according to my birth plan, which had the barest minimum of pain. So I opted to take a drug called Stadol, which was fabulous. I would guess this was now a bit after 4pm.

So, once fully medicated I had a WONDERFUL labor experience. I can't overstate what actually enjoyable experience it was. I was aware (somewhat) of the pain, but was happily loopy and didn't care.

From 6pm to your birth are very hard to describe. It was like I was sleeping between contractions - which still were random, if very hard. I could see my tummy convulsing with each contraction. I remember looking up at the clock every time a contraction woke me up and being amazed that only a few minutes had passed. I didn't like being touched, so all the learning how to do backrubs were for nothing.

When it came time to push - yet another feeling that is impossible to describe. Nature takes over and suddenly you hear yourself say "I have to push now." And come hell or high water that is what you are going to do. Now this is the silly part. So I've got to push and the room revs into high gear - and it's like they are yelling at you to push. Excuse me, shouldn't I be telling you when I'm ready to push? So I was alert but confused. It was a mute point as the pushing took all of 4 minutes at most. I think I pushed twice and you were out. (A side note, I think they started to cut me and you came out too fast - so I just ripped like an old t-shirt. OUCH! So I had nasty-bad stiches and couldn't walk for several days. Driving a car nearly a week later caused me to start to bleed again, and going to the bathroom was awful! I think I'd like more time pushing next time!) The placenta came out Immediately afterward with the barest of efforts on my part.

So right after you are born they placed you on my stomach and you got to nurse. This was also amusing as, since no one wiped you down or anyting, you are a screaming, hungry, goey mess. God bless you, I was delighted to to have you, but. . .oh well, I suppose birth is just a messy process. You lached on right away and began to nurse. After a bit, the nurses took you away to weigh you and such - and your poor father didn't know what to do, so he stood in the center of the room between me (who was being stiched up) and you (on the heated table screaming your head off.)

I entered the hospital around 3, and you were born at 7:19pm. So I was only in the hospital 4 hours before you were born. As a matter of fact, after you were born the first words out of my mouth were “That wasn’t so bad.” And then, because it was still early, they fed me dinner – so I didn’t even miss a meal the day you were born!!

The only negative (well, besides ripping, which is a HUGE negative) is that after the birth, I got wheeled into a different room and you got taken to the nursery for tests. And then it seemed like forever before I saw you again. Of course I'm wide awake and very excited - but it's just me and dad in the hospital room (watching playoff hockey on TV, of all things). So finally I sent dad off to find just what the hell was going on. I shouldn't have worried since you decided to nurse every 2 hours that night, and the nurses faithfully woke me up every time you wanted nurishment.

The other funny thing is that about 8pm Dad and I went to call relatives to say the baby had arrived - but no one is expecting me to be done! Pap-pap and Nana Terri, also believing that I would be hours and hours went out to eat. So I left a cryptic message announcing they had a grandchild, but that was all I was saying. The minute they got home Terri had to figure out what hospital I was in, and what was the number etc. etc. in order to get the details. So we received happy phone calls from relatives all night long.

All in all it was a pleasant experience. But I must say the worst thing to do is not worrying about false labor, it would be to not make it to the hospital on time!!

First birth.
Hours in labor: 8ish
Time pushing: about 5 minutes
Weight: 8 lbs 11 oz
Medicated. (Stadol)
Recovery time: About 1 full week