Late in the evening of May 4th, I started noticing I was having some semi frequent contractions and stomach pains. Since about 35 weeks I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions off and on randomly so I didn't think much about the contractions at first as they still weren't very painful. At about midnight I started noticing they were becoming more frequent so I started timing them out of curiosity. The contractions were about 10 mins apart for 3 hours, then they went down to about 6-7 mins apart. At 4am on May 5th the contractions began getting more random being anywhere from 2-6 mins apart for an hour and getting stronger. At 5am they went down again to being 8 mins apart but were getting more painful. I wasn't able to sleep all night cuz I'd doze off and then wake up to the contraction. They weren't horrible pain wise but definitely noticeable and I continued to have them whether I was sitting, standing or laying down. Robbie got up to go to work and I told him I'd been having contractions all night but that they had slowed down again. My midwife told me to go to the hospital when they were 5 mins apart and because they weren't that painful and inconsistent I decided to wait longer and keep timing them because I didn't want to be sent home. I told Robbie to go ahead in to work and I'd call him if we needed to go to the hospital.
At about 7am Robbie called to say he was coming home to shower/change after PT before going back to work. I told him I wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out as at that point my contractions had been 4-5 mins apart for the past hour. Robbie had some buddies meet us at the house to meet the puppies (they would be taking care of them while we were in the hospital and hadn't met them yet). They were planning to come over that afternoon but Baby had another plan lol. While Robbie showed his buddies around and we got the puppies familiar with the new people a branch hit the side of our house, there was heavy wind and rain...it was a tornado warning. Go figure! We weren't going to be able to go to the hospital when I wanted. We waited it out a little bit and when the weather cleared we headed to the hospital. My contractions were now about 7-8 mins apart yet again.
At about 9am we got checked in and went to labor and delivery to be monitored. I was afraid they were going to send me home because I still hadn't started dilating yet. We walked the halls of the mother/baby unit for 45 mins and then they hooked me back up to be monitored again. Walking around really helped me with the pain during my contractions and it also seemed to help progress the contractions because as we were being monitored after they began getting significantly more painful. After awhile the Dr on call came in to check my progress again--I still hadn't dilated but I was 80% effaced so Dr said he wanted to admit me. He also said it was still going to be quite awhile before Baby arrived though. They gave us the option of leaving to get food if we wanted, going to my midwife appointment that was scheduled for the afternoon and then coming back if it got worse but at that point I didn't want to leave because the contractions were getting worse and actually painful for me. So at noon they officially admitted me.
Once we got settled into a labor and delivery room I began walking around and using the yoga ball to try and help labor progress faster. Robbie left for a few hours to get more dog food, check on the pups and get food. He also brought back some french fries for me (all I wanted and I had an awesome nurse who said she'd let me eat them since it was still going to be awhile). At 3:30pm I was having steady contractions about 3ish mins apart. I was trying to rest in between as I was starting to get very tired after being up all night but I couldn't get any rest with the pain. At 5pm I got checked again and was mostly all thinned out but was only at 1cm dilated. Dr said since I wasn't progressing much that I could possibly be in false labor and we had a couple options; 1) they could give me some pain meds to help me relax and sleep to see if that helps progress things along, if so it would mean real labor but if the contractions stopped then it meant I was in false labor; 2) we could go home and come back to the hospital when the contractions get really bad; or 3) they could induce labor but it would pose a high c-section possibility. I didn't want to go home because the contraction pain was pretty bad and I didn't want to induce yet because of the c-section risk (the Dr also highly recommended against inducing while under 3-4cm) so I opted for some pain meds at about 6pm.
They gave me a shot of morphine (which I didn't know they could give you if you were pregnant lol) and it knocked me out for a little bit but it started wearing off after about an hour or two and I still felt every contraction. My contractions continued through the medicine which meant I was just in early labor (what the Dr predicted). Dr said its very common with first births to take a long time to progress. At about 11pm the Dr checked me again and I was at 3cm dilated so she decided to keep me admitted without inducing since I had started progressing more. I still tried to rest (which was hard) and they started me on some IV fluids. The pain started getting really bad and I debated getting an epidural but didn't want one while I was still so early in the dilation process because I know epidurals often slow things down more and it was already taking so long I didn't want to stall things longer. After monitoring me and Baby for awhile to make sure we were both OK after the morphine, they were finally able to give me some IV meds to help with the pain. It helped WAY more then the morphine did! I was able to rest quite a bit and didn't feel the contractions.
At about 3am on May 6th, after the IV meds wore off they checked me again and I was at 8 (almost 9) cm dilated. The nurse was so shocked I was that far along already and said my bag of water was right there about to go. I again debated on getting an epidural as my original plan was to try and do it without. I knew I was close to the end and thought I could probably get through the rest but in the end I opted to get the epidural (and I was so glad I did!). I was able to sleep thanks to the epidural and also didn't feel the contractions anymore. At 7am my water still hadn't broken on its own so the Dr broke it for me. They had me try to push but Baby wasn't down far enough yet. Dr told me to call them back once I felt the urge to push. Once we got to that point the Dr and nurses came back in and we began pushing again. It didn't take long until Baby arrived.
Lacey Belle Alicia arrived at 8:30am, on Saturday, May 6, 2017. She weighed in at 7lb 5oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. She is absolutely perfect and we are so blessed to call her ours! I am so thankful for an overall easy labor, no complications, a healthy little girl, an amazing team of nurses and the best doctor who all helped make my first labor and delivery experience better then I ever thought it would be!
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