The Birth Story Part 2

Kelly woke up from her nap on Sunday, February 22 at 2:30 PM, after having fairly regular contractions through the entire nap.

The contractions were strong, causing her to pause in her talking. She could still talk through them, but they were very uncomfortable. She described the pain as an intense burning - similar to a very, very strong period cramp.

They were coming every 10-15 minutes. Occasionally, there would be a longer pause, but that was rare. Every hour or so, we would time three or four of them to see exactly how far apart they were, but they never reached the point that we felt we needed to measure them all. I should also point out that all of these contractions were accompanied by lots and lots of bloody show. Of course, we had been having bloody show all week, so this didn't really excite us. For the most part, we just hung out and tried to ignore what was happening. Both of us were kind of wary and refused to believe that we were actually in labor. We had been so disappointed the entire week and didn't want to have that happen again.

Bailey stuck pretty close to Kelly all day on Sunday. Sunday evening, though, a very different thing happened. Bailey clung to Kelly's side, wanting to be near here constantly. She sat right beside her, snuggled under a blanket and read books. She wanted long hugs and lots of Kelly's attention. This is odd because quite the opposite was happening for the few months before then. Bailey has been kind of stand-offish toward Kelly.

That was the point that all three of us - Mom, Kelly and I - began to wonder if this was real. Kids have an intuitive way of knowing what is happening.

Still, the progression of the contractions did not change, and Kelly and I went to bed. Around 10:00 PM, Kelly kicked me out of bed. She was having the same contractions she had been having all day. Painful, full contractions every 10 minutes. She would have one and then fall asleep waiting for the next one. She was curled up around her pillow, working through each one. I was exhausted and was sleeping hard...and snoring. She couldn't take it - she needed to be able to sleep in between the contractions. So she woke me up and sent me downstairs to sleep on the couch. I wasn't happy, but know enough not to mess with a pregnant woman...and I suspected she was in labor. This was the first time that she had laid down and the contractions had not gone away. But they did not increase in frequency. We were not sure what was happening, but with the contractions every 10-12 minutes apart, we felt sure that we were not in labor enough to need to call or go to the hospital. I took my phone and told her to call me if anything changed and went down to sleep on the couch.

I slept fitfully, listening for the creek on the floor that would indicate that was walking around upstairs. It was hard for me to know that she was in pain upstairs, but I also knew that she needed to be able to rest between the contractions and that my snoring was preventing that. The best way for me to support her through what I suspected was early labor was to let her go through it alone.

At 1:00 AM, Kelly finally called me and I went upstairs. She was having very strong contactions - she was unable to talk through them - and they were lasting about a minute each. They had a distinct starting point, peak and then went away. They were like waves. But they were still only coming every 10 minutes. Her bloody show had changed, though, becoming bright red. We decided to call the birthing center and find out what they thought. I made the call and the nurse on duty indicated that she thought we should come in. She put us through to the doctor on call (not our doctor!!!). He thought it sounded like we should come in as well and at least be checked to see what was going on.

Kelly got up and took a long shower. She needed to feel clean, just in case. I used the time to get our stuff together and I woke my mom up. She took the baby monitor and made me a strong cup of coffee. Kelly was trying to be stoic about the whole thing and kept saying that we would probably be sent home. At this point, I knew better. After being on her feet for 15 minutes, Kelly's contractions started coming rapidly. As in, every 2-3 minutes. And they were strong and painful. They didn't stop and she couldn't talk through them. She really needed to breath through them and focus her concentration. I think she probably knew that this was it, although she wouldn't say that.

We hustled a bit faster once the contractions increased in frequency so quickly. I commented at one point that I wasn't interested in delivering a baby, so we needed to get to the hospital.

It was a surreal trip to the hospital for me. I remember thinking that we were very possibly going in to have our son and that I was about to coach my wife through childbirth. I had lots of thoughts, broken by Kelly's ragged breathing and my own concentration as I brought her safely in to the hospital. It seemed that I was wide awake, but I could feel the exhaustion already. I remember being worried about the exhaustion - we were going into labor very, very tired.

(more to come!)