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what a day
By heather | September 1, 2008
I originally started this post right after EmilyKate was born, but never finished it and then it just seemed like old news to publish on a random day. So in honor of everyone else’s Labor Day, here’s mine.
July 15th, 2008
3am – 5am – Up in the middle of the night for no reason at all. Delurk on some blogs that I’ve never commented on before. Eat.
5am -6am – Attempt to go back to sleep, so that I will be marginally functional at work.
6am – No dice. Give up, shower, dress, eat again.
7am – Wake Alex. Feed him, head to daycare, and contemplate getting a muffin from Dunkin Donuts.
8:45am – Work. Bored. Cranky and large and round. Hungry. Force self to pack up desk and con someone into lugging box to car. Assure everyone that it is not my last day, I’m just being prepared.
3pm – Doctor for 37 week checkup. 6.5 cm. Doctor asks, “How are you still walking around? You’re really not having any contractions?” Writes 5 cm in chart.
4:30 – 5:30pm – New business conference call. Drop subtle hints to boss that I may not make it to due date without divulging the secrets of my cervix.
5:30pm – Dinner.
6pm – Decide to go for family walk. Stand up from dinner table and am hit with hard contraction. For some reason, I laugh through it.
Contractions are 3-4 minutes apart and are strong enough that I’m either laughing or breathless.
7pm – Contractions stop. Stomp around all kinds of pissed off. Call doctor and explain. He tells us to go to the hospital.
7:15pm – Annoyed at having to go to hospital because I don’t want to be one of those women who gets sent home, I stomp around packing hospital bag with nothing I need and leaving everything I don’t behind.
7:45pm – Arrive at hospital. This being second child, and thus no preparation has taken place, we can’t remember what entrance to use. Go to ER, where the packed waiting room stares at me as if waiting for me to start screaming or at the very least for my water to break, JUST LIKE ON TV. After searching our bags, the security guard looks me over and recommends we drive to the correct entrance.
8:15pm – Check in. Hook up to fetal monitor shows a disappointing lack of contraction action.
9:30pm – Doctor arrives refreshed from steak dinner at nice restaurant. Determines I’m now 7.5 cm and that it would be asking for trouble if I were to go home. With some prompting by me, decides to break my water.
9:40pm – Tell the nurse that I want an epidural and that someone better get the anesthesiologist before they break my water because otherwise there might not be time.
9:45pm – Doctor breaks water.
9:47pm – Brett comes back from making phone calls to find me writhing in pain. Asks what’s wrong. Seriously. (To his credit, he didn’t realize that he missed the water breaking ceremony.)
10:15pm – Doctor asks if I want to push or wait a little. Being lazy, I decide to save the effort and wait.
1o:28pm – There will be no more waiting.
10:43pm – Hello baby.
It really was that fast. And since I know about 10 people who are pregnant right now and want my good vibes I will offer the opportunity to rub my arm to guarantee an extra speedy labor and delivery in exchange for a night of babysitting.
Topics: baby firsts | 2 Comments »
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September 1st, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I love birth stories!
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Well that was simple. Seeming.
Miss’s last blog post..A Choice