So I woke up in the middle of the night/early morning with cramping, which had basically been happening over the last 4 weeks so it wasn't anything too special. Not painful, just annoying. I eventually got up and out of bed and came downstairs to watch TV on the couch. It just so happened that my kids were at my parents' house for a sleepover, so we were kid free! At some point I decided to see if there was any pattern to the cramping, and there sort of was, but nothing super regular or special.
We started watching the Stanford women's soccer team play in the NCAA championship on TV, and at this point when I remembered to time cramping it seemed like maybe they were 4-ish minutes apart? But so hard to tell because it was so mild and not a very clear start/stop, so who knows. But I was under strict instructions to get to the hospital ASAP when in labor so I was conflicted. Didn't feel in labor at all, but also didn't want an unplanned home birth. So around 11am we decided maaaaybe we should get ready to go.
We got in the car and headed out to get sandwiches for lunch. Then we stopped at Starbucks for coffee for Mark. We drove to the hospital and.... sat in the parking lot. I couldn't bring myself to actually go inside! So we ate sandwiches in the parking lot at 11:30-ish, then decided this was silly, so we got out and walked around around the hospital. As we walked down and back up a hill, I realized (1) contractions were actually 2.5 minutes apart and (2) I had one that was actually kind of painful and (3) I was feeling more pressure in my pelvis. NOW we were ready to go in.
So just before 12 we strolled into the hospital to get checked in. The nurses didn't seem to believe that I would actually be admitted, since I was very calm, not in pain, and didn't LOOK like I was in labor. So I went to triage and got checked, and was 5-6cm. Woohoo, baby time! So we headed over to our room right around 12, where I got hooked up to an IV in attempts to get antibiotics for being GBS + (I knew there wouldn't be time, but.... protocol). I then had to be on the monitors for 30 minutes to check baby's heartrate, which meant laying in bed, which was not ideal at all, but fine. After the 30 minutes was up I asked to get unhooked so I could use the bathroom. I had finished one round of the antibiotics so I was allowed to unhook from the IV and use the bathroom. Well, as soon as I stood up I knew there was not long to go- and as soon as I made it to the bathroom I REALLY knew.
Once I came out of the bathroom and back to the bed, my nurse told me she was going to leave us alone and to call her if I needed her. Well about 30 seconds later I pushed the call button to tell her I felt a lot of pressure, so she came right back in and sure enough- 10cm and ready to go. She got the doctor, who happened to be right outside the room. The doctor came in and said just to let her know if I felt the need to push, and she'd come back in. Well I told her that need was NOW, so she got all ready to go. And then one push and she was here, at exactly 1:00pm on Sunday December 3rd!
Below: Me right before I pushed her out, and me about 3 hours later!
