if you care, 2 weeks late, Edy's birth story

Prodromal labor - ever heard of it? Me either, until I started to experience *it*. False labor, early labor, prodromal labor started for me at 34 weeks. We were in the boonies, up in northern Minnesota, 3 hours away from my hospital or heck, a hospital that I would consider giving birth at.

I was in bed, counting the contractions as they got closer and closer together. I finally fell asleep, exhausted and woke up to contractions that we much less frequent. All was good.

'Contractions at 34 weeks, oh no!'

The second episode was at 36 weeks, the contractions were 3 minutes apart. That morning, I found out I was 1 cm dilated, so my mindset was 'this could be it'. I called my midwife who told me to take a bath, try to sleep, see what happens. That's exactly what I did, but I was completely prepared to go into the hospital. We even had my husband's brother come and get the kids to sleep over there.

But eventually, the contractions slowed down.

By 37 weeks I was 2 cm dilated. The contractions were strong, 3-7 minutes apart. We went into the hospital on Friday night. 4 hours later, we were sent home. We went to the hospital again on Sunday night, 3 hours later, once again we were sent home.

Contractions continued on, but I decided to wait for either my water to break or to give birth in my kitchen, because I was *not* getting to the hospital to yet again, get turned away. This week was one of the most frustrating things I've ever experienced.

'These contractions are really starting to piss Mommy off'

By Friday, I had enough. I called my midwife and told her I will not go into the hospital, just please, let me get into the clinic and check me. Which she did and by then I was 3 cm dilated.

She must have been a saint. She told me she'd strip my membranes, see what happened and lastly, if I was still having contractions through the night and made any progress over the night I would be admitted to the hospital.

Saturday morning, we walked into the hospital. I was 4 cm... I made progress... I was ready to be admitted but... my contractions were far apart, my midwife from yesterday (the saint) had just gone home. Everyone was ready to send me home too.

The midwife on call told me to walk around (the darn hospital hallways, I'm was so sick of them by this point). Before reaching the first turn, the midwife chased me and my husband down and whispered 'we'll get you in, don't worry about it'. She knew what I had been through.

And then the skies opened up - sing it: hallelujah!

It's easier if I just give you a time line from this point:

12 pm - finally got admitted into the birthing suite (I was in Heaven).
1pm - the midwife broke my water.
3 or 4 pm - she checked me again, I was still at 4cm.
4:30 pm - pitocin and my BFF epidural arrived
5:00 pm - husband and I settled in for a show, we were watching 'I Shouldn't Be Alive'. The show was about a couple hiking in the Amazon rain forest(we both agreed that they had to have been high to get off the path because of they were 'watching the birds' and wouldn't you know it, they left the map in their room... anyhow).
5:30ish pm - the nurse and the midwife come running into the room, throwing stuff around, getting changed - 'Did I feel something?' 'Do I feel any different?'. I was like 'no... we were just watching some idiots on t.v.'. My midwife said 'let's check you', pulls back the sheet and says 'yep - you're 10cm'. I had no idea.
5:47 pm - 5 contractions, 11 minutes later Edy was born.

That was the fastest I've ever delivered (minus of course, the 2 weeks or so of false labor!).

'Glad that's over!'

She's already such a drama queen.