Cole Henry Bartlett was born on Thursday September 4th at 9:28pm. Right on his due date!
That morning was just like every other morning. Woke up with the usual mild cramps that I had been having for over 4 weeks. I had to get the kids off to preschool, and then I had 3 hours all to myself! I actually really did NOT want to go into labor during the day because Mark had an interview that afternoon at 1:15, so I pretty much just laid low and hung out on the couch all morning. Luckily in that time I had no cramping, no contractions, nothing! I had a tiny bit of bleeding in the morning, but that was it.
Once the kids were home from school we all had lunch and took naps, and still at 4ish when everyone was awake I had no signs of labor. Mark picked up a Chipotle burrito on his way home from work, and we ate dinner while watching the big kids play in the backyard around 7ish I think. Riley really wanted to go in the hot tub, so I told her we could go in for a little bit. I was getting some mild cramps, but no different than the ones I had been getting for the past month. At some point I felt like I wanted to get out of the hot tub and go take a shower. We all got out, and around 8:00 I had my first contraction. Not painful, just barely uncomfortable. Immediately they were about 2 minutes apart, although still not painful.
At 8:05 I sent Corinne (birth photographer) a text to say something might be happening. I called the midwife and told her the same thing. We decided I would meet her at her office and call her when I was leaving my house. I took a shower, and when I got out of the shower and used the toilet, there was quite a bit of bleeding... which I knew meant baby was close. So we hurried up and left for the hospital around 8:45pm.
Once in the car the contractions were very painful, and still 2 minutes apart lasting about a minute. I was timing them with my phone but quickly abandoned that because it was obvious this was the real deal. The car ride was about half an hour, but no traffic and a fairly smooth ride, all things considered. We got to the hospital and Mark asked if I wanted to be dropped off, but to be honest I was worried about getting up to l&d by myself and Mark not being able to find me before baby was born! So we went in the parking garage and found a spot on the third floor.
As soon as we got out of the car (not sure of the exact time) I could tell baby was RIGHT there. As in, I felt incredible pressure and the urge to start pushing! All I could think was how fast could I walk to get to the hospital between contractions!! We booked it across the street and up to the third floor of the hospital to l&d, and my midwife was there waiting for me. The nurses wanted me to get all checked in (paperwork? now?) and I told them I needed to use the bathroom/felt like pushing, so we fast tracked it to the room to get all set up.