My Birth Story...Part 1

Some of you may not want to read this, because I will go into a bit of detail, so you can stop here, and that is fine...tomorrow or on Saturday will be a post about Amelia being 4 weeks old (or I might wait to do that on Sunday when she'll be a whole month old! My how time flies!).

So, here goes...my birth story.

It starts out as any other birth story does, contractions. Mine started at around 6:30 am on September 17. They really weren't bad, and I was able to sleep between them...plus, they were pretty far apart, around 10 minutes or so. The thing that was freaking me out was that Markus was in Frankfurt. He was at the IAA, the largest car show in the world (he was there for work...and well, a bit of pleasure! Think kid in a candy store with all those new cars to look at!). I gave him the green light to go, since I thought I wasn't going to actually go into labor on my actual due date, but I did.

I had a doctor's appointment at 9:30 that morning, so mom and I were tracking the contractions with this nifty web-site called the Contraction Master. Holy crap, they were about 5 minutes apart! That's about when I was getting a bit nervous and sent Markus a text saying, "I am having some weird cramping, so be prepared to hop in the car and come home." I didn't want to make him nervous, so I phrased it in such a way that A) he wouldn't freak out and B) he'd get the picture. Well, he did, and he jumped in the car to come home.

At the doctor's, the contractions were getting steadily worse...there were some women in the waiting room and I felt kind of bad for them...you know, with me breathing deeply and the slight look of pain on my face...plus, there was another pregnant lady there, so she was getting a little look into the future.

At the doctor's...hooked up to the monitor...obviously, between contractions :)

The doctor examined me and told me I was a good 1, maybe 2 cm. dilated. What? Are you kidding me? That's what I was 4 days ago! So, what could mom and I do...nothing but go home. So that is what we did. Mom rocked driving standard...she hasn't driven one of those in many many years...and she didn't stall it until we got home...I was quite impressed.

At home, we continued with the contraction monitor, and attempted to watch some TV to try to distract me from the pain. It worked for a while. I remember it was the Top Chef episode in which the French guy got kicked off...what the actual challenge was, I don't really remember.

Sometime during Top Chef, mom made me some pasta, which I devoured, and Markus came home (phew! sigh of relief!). This was around 12:30. I decided we could wait a bit so that Markus could eat something and plus, I wasn't really ready to go to the hospital quite yet. Then around 1:30, I decided, what the hell. We can go, and the worst thing they can do is say, "Hey, you're not far enough along. Go labor some more at home." Which is basically what they said.

Leaving for the hospital...take 1...
They hooked me up to baby monitors and contraction monitors. After about 45 minutes of that, they gave me a quick exam. I was still only 1-2 cm. dilated. "Shit." I thought, "This is going to take forever." So, with that (and a couple suppositories to help out with the pain), they sent us home. Ok, fine. I kind of expected that...but I had hoped that I was further along.

Hooked up to the monitors at the hospital...
We came home and I decided that I wanted to try to labor it out some in the bath. Which exactly what I did...for 3 hours. I felt kind of bad for the neighbors. They had to hear all my moans and groans. Either they thought Markus and I were having a sex marathon or that I was in labor...I'm hoping that they knew it was the latter!

After my 3 hour bath, and a couple refills of the hot water, I decided I wanted to get out since I was feeling a bit like a prune. Markus had to help me since I was in just a bit of pain...he was truly wonderful throughout this whole thing...I just can't say that enough! So, I moved on to bed and decided that it would be absolutely awesome if Markus were to basically put his entire weight on my lower back (while I was bending over) during the contractions. This helped to an extent...so, then I thought I would try out our exercise ball. Hey, they've got it in the hospital, so why not give it a go! I was only on that thing for about 3 contractions before I decided it was really time to go to the hospital. We waited until another contraction passed, hopped into the car and drove at a decent speed to the hospital. We live only 3 minutes away, so I didn't want to risk getting in a wreck on the way there...getting there 30 seconds earlier or later didn't matter (I say this now, but probably at the time I was wondering why we were driving so slow).

We get to the hospital, just in time for another contraction to kick in...man, these things suck. No seriously, they really suck. We go in after the contraction passed, and get to the elevator (which, by the way, is just about the slowest elevator on the planet) and it is full. Damn, we'll have to wait. Of course, by the time it comes again, another contraction is coming on, so there is no way in hell I'm moving right then. So we wait for the next one, which miraculously was there after the contraction was over.

We get up to the maternity ward and head into the Kreisssaal, literally screaming room, and they hook me up to the monitors again. Yup, still in labor. Baby is doing good. This time, after only 10 minutes or so, they take me in to be examined. Now they tell me that I'm 3 cm, but when a contraction is there, I'm 4. Great. This will never end...