Sofia's birth was nothing like I had imagined. Not like I imagined it very much because it was all very surreal and a little bit scary to think about. I didn't have a birth plan. But I did plan to hold off on the epidural as long as possible. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)
On Wednesday, October 15 I went to bed having some cramping. As the night went on, I realized these must be contractions! Imagine that! And around 4:30am I decided to download an app that would track how far apart they were. They got to be 6 minutes apart and then around 8am they stopped. Completely. I had my 39 week doctor appointment scheduled for 10am that day, so I decided to wait it out until then. Erik and I went on a walk and I bounced on my yoga ball trying to get the contractions to start again, but no such luck.
So 10am rolls around and Erik & I go to the doctor where we find out I am 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. This was a 1cm progression from the week prior. The doctor asked if I wanted my membranes stripped. I asked if it hurt. She said yes and I said yes. It's worth noting it did not hurt as much as it was uncomfortable and did not hurt nearly as much as the contractions it surely caused.
Because nothing really seemed to be happening, Erik decided to go into work for the rest of the day and I headed home. But by the time I got back home (which is less than 10 minutes from the doctor) my contractions had started again. Nothing too cray cray but I started tracking them on my trusty app. I also went to Tarjay because I really wanted to make some banana bread. Spoiler alert: the banana bread never happened.
Around 2pm my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart and I called Erik and told him he should probably come home. We got to the hospital a little before 3, and lo and behold I was still 2cm. Around 3:30, the nurse suggested I try walking for an hour. At this point my contractions were so close together and so painful, walking was nearly impossible. As Erik and I walked the halls of the hospital I told him maybe one kid is enough?! Tonight during dinner I said 3 kids sounded great! Back to the "walking." It was painful and seemed impossible. I gave up in less than an hour.
The nurse checked me again at 4:30 and I was still only 2cm but my cervix was thinning out she said. I became one of those ladies that screamed through my contractions and I told Erik over and over "I can't do this." I have quite the high pain tolerance (I thought) but contractions are a different beast. It seemed like the pain was never going to end and I was forgetting about the greatest gift that was about to come. However, at some point I came to my senses and told Erik, maybe I should start saying, "I can do this!" You know, put some positive vibes out in the universe. I also told the nurse, "I'm usually much more friendly than this."
At 5:30 the nurse came back and said she could give me some morphine. This would help with the pain and also put me to sleep. Neither of which happened. But about an hour later, she came back and said the doctor on-call said I could be admitted (I'd been in triage) and would be induced in 2 hours if I didn't dilate more on my own or I could go home and wait it out there. After talking to Erik and my mom, I decided to stay. It was baby time!!
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