Waiting...

So I took this picture early Friday morning thinking at some point I would wake Anthony, call my neighbor to come watch Aidan, and head to the hospital.  But like Tuesday, Owen was only preparing for birth, and he wasn’t ready to make his debut yet.

Keeping track of CX on Tuesday

Flash back to Tuesday, I woke up with mild contractions spaced 30 minutes to 45 minutes apart.  In addition, my back was sore and I know I woke up a lot throughout the night. While I knew the contractions had to get closer together and more intense, I also had pelvic pressure much like I did with Aidan the day before I gave birth to him.  As the day went on, the contractions did get closer together, but then they tapered off.  However, the contractions did DO something – I dilated 1 to 2 cm from the last week I was checked, which put me at 2 to 3 cm.

Wednesday was a quiet day, and if the doctor had not told me that my cervix had progressed, I would have thought I was the crazy pregnant lady reading into every little thing when I knew Braxton Hick contractions and prodomal labor could occur and give false hope.

Then Thursday morning started out like Tuesday – sporadic, mild contractions throughout the morning.  But unlike Tuesday, some of the contractions were sharp and time between them was definitely growing shorter.  Around 3 PM, I had a meeting with coworkers to provide turnover on my work just in case I had Owen before Monday.  The last few weeks, I had provided my boss a just in case email, but this week took a more serious turn because my due date was only 4 days away.  My boss also found out that I was having contractions insert freak out here by him, but again, they could be false like Tuesday or never get close enough to mean anything.  However, that was not the case on Thursday afternoon.  When the meeting appeared to take longer than I could withstand, I finally said it’s probably a good idea that I leave work since my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart and just under a minute in length. Insert more freakouts by male coworkers.  Guys, I’m not going to have the baby right here, but I need to get home in order to be able to get to the hospital if this is real.  Well, they were concerned, and sent another coworker to follow me home just in case I couldn’t drive through the contractions. I could, again, very manageable at this point.

I called AJ and told him about the contractions.  He left where he was at to pick up Aidan so I could head straight home.  I made it home with no issues, as I expected, and waved good bye to my coworker.  Aidan greeted me at the door, put his hand on my stomach and said “baby coming”.  He had me tear up.  

AJ jumped in the shower while Aidan and I played in his room.  I continued to track my contractions, and all signs pointed to this being the real deal.  However, I wasn’t at the 4 1 1 stage yet.  Contractions less than 4 minutes apart, lasting at least 1 minutes, for 1 hour.  So I took my bath and gave Aidan one, too, because I didn’t know when I would be able to give him one again (assuming I would give birth).  Then we went out to eat at a restaurant near the hospital just in case.  I had pizza, wings and a Diet Pepsi, seemed like a fitting meal.  The contractions actually picked up intensity and were near the 4 minute spacing, however, I still felt I wasn’t there yet.  We finished dinner, then headed home where I figured I would continue to manage the contractions.

Snuggling before bedtime

I put Aidan to sleep.  Normally, we read to him, give him hugs and kisses, and finally tuck him in and leave the room.  Not tonight, I felt like it was our last night as a family of three, so I rocked him to sleep and cried while do so.  It was an emotional moment, but I was glad I had the opportunity to do it.  Our world was about to change, and I wanted to savor the last few moments.

AJ went to bed while I stayed up.  I watched a little bit of the TCU game before closing my eyes to try and rest.  I slept on and off for maybe 5 hours. I slept on the couch because my back was hurting, and I was moving around a lot, so I was trying to allow AJ to sleep.  Though I swear Bo rolled his eyes at me each time he felt he needed to get up and move because I did.  I would occasionally have a stronger contraction that would wake me, and then I would be up for another 15 to 20 minutes to time the contractions.  At 4am, I could no longer sleep, therefore, I decided to fold laundry while bouncing on a yoga ball, clean the kitchen, and make sure the nursery was ready.  Contractions were about 10 minutes apart, but by 6am, they were virtually nonexistent.  When AJ and Aidan woke up around 7:30 am, the contractions were gone. Even the back pain was gone.

So we were back to waiting…

Owen's Birth Story: Part II