It Finally Happened

By S&T.G

I was taken off work April 17, 2001 due to preterm contractions. I was due June 16, 2001. About a month before my due date, I had started to dilate. My mucous plug had come out about this time as well. Considering it had been 10 years since I had given birth, I thought that maybe the time to meet my daughter was near by two or three weeks.

I started to have contractions more and more. They were intense at times and sometimes they were not. I would always go to sleep every time the contractions would start and told everyone that if the contractions woke me up, then this was it, but if they didn't, then it was just not the time.

Finally, on June 26, 2001 about midnight, I started to feel a little different and the contractions were much more intense. It felt like I was starting my period. As I lay in bed,0 I tossed and turned for about an hour and finally I told my significant other, it was time I think. I got up and went to the bathroom to see if maybe sitting on the toilet would help (it didn't). I went into the living room and walked around our coffee table, which seemed like forever. Then I went into the kitchen and washed dishes. I found that moving my pelvis area helped with the contractions. Finally, I got dressed, woke up our son and said it was now time.

When we called the labor and delivery nurse I was contracting seven to ten minutes apart, which she felt was not good enough to come in. I had to remind her that we lived about 30-40 minutes away from the hospital and I was not risking it. We went to the gas station by this time and I was contracting irregularly four to five minutes apart and then seven to ten minutes apart, but they were getting pretty hard. We jumped on the freeway and 15 minutes later, I was contracting every two minutes like clockwork.

By the time we got to the hospital, I had dilated to just 4 centimeters and they said the magic words, You are having this baby today. All I could think about was an epidural. It seemed forever before someone came in to give it to me. By the time someone did arrive, I was 6 centimeters, which was 40 minutes after I had arrived. I had to sit on the edge of the bed with my partner and the help of the nurse. I had to arch my back, which was truly uncomfortable when you are contracting as fast as I was. It seemed forever for the doctor to get the needle into my back.

By this time, I could not help but to push. I told them I had to, but all they could do was tell me not to. Whatever. When you have to push, you're going to push. So they stopped to check me. As I lay back onto the bed, my baby's head was already there bulging. There was no time for an epidural and I was very scared. To think I had to have this baby without an epidural made me want to jump up and run down the hallway. I pushed about five times and there she came. We spent only a total of two hours at the hospital.

It was the scariest thing in my life. But the most beautiful thing I know I have ever done and will do was giving birth to my son 10 years ago (where I had the epidural and didn't feel a thing) and giving birth without anything! She was very healthy and ready to eat.

June 26, 2001, 5:24 a.m.
Apgar 8 then 9
8 pounds, 9 ounces
21 inches long

Mother and child are fine.