I was delighted that everything worked out well!
My labor started in the evening around dinner time. Having been pregnant before, I knew right away that these were no longer Braxton Hicks and they were the real deal. The contractions came at intervals around every 15 minutes and the evening wasn't so bad. By the kids bedtime, the intervals had gone down to 10 minutes. I assumed I would be waking my husband up around midnight like my last pregnancy. However, I was so wrong. Contractions slowed down to about every 30 minutes overnight, but we getting more painful. I did my best to try to get rest but waking up constantly to being in pain made a good nights sleep impossible. I remembered the importance of getting as much sleep as possible from my last delivery where I delivered on only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before.
By morning the contractions picked back up. They stayed right around 10 minutes for a long part of the morning. My husband and I decided to try to speed things up by walking around the neighborhood. Our doctor had told us not to come in until contractions were 5 minutes apart for a half hour. We walked circles around our street and the one next to us, talking to neighbors who were amused that I was home during labor. I was hot from the heat and wanted to go inside to take a break. As soon as I sat down on the sofa to close my eyes, I had a VERY STRONG and LONG contraction. It lasted for just over 2 minutes. All of a sudden I rushed upstairs to use the restroom. I told my husband my mucus plug had come out and by the time I was done telling him....another contraction. And then another while I was walking down the stairs.
And just like that....contractions went from being round 8-10 minutes.....to 2 minutes apart! We immediately left for the hospital.
We got to the hospital and I was 5cm. By the time they checked me in, put in my IV and got my to a room, I was 8cm. They told me it could still be 2 hours until delivery so I opted for an epidural. The anesthesiologist came right in and got me hooked up. My doctor arrived right after to do an exam. He looked at me and said, "Um, theres a head right here. I'm going to go change into my scrubs. You're going to be holding your baby in 5 minutes." I couldn't believe it.
When he came back, I pushed 5 times in just about 5 minutes and I was holding my chunky baby boy. He weighed in at 8lb 4oz and looks just like his daddy. It was the easiest, fastest labor that I could have imagined. (However, my labor was not lacking curse words or snippy remarks to my husband trying to comfort me....but all is forgiven now!)
So while my fears did not come true...I still think my labor was fast enough for my liking after it rapidly picked up. Thank gosh it was a weekend and my husband was home. Had we waited any longer to leave for the hospital I am not sure we would have made it!
