It was barely Thursday, August 9, just after midnight. Vince had come to bed not long before; I had just gotten up to use the restroom--nothing new at exactly 35 weeks pregnant. As I returned to bed, eager to snuggle in with an empty bladder, I felt a huge rush of fluid leave my body and soak my pajama pants. For a moment I dismissed it-- maybe I hadn't fully emptied my bladder like I thought? You hear stories about incontinence in the latter days of pregnancy; maybe my up til now picture perfect pregnancy was about to encounter some of the less lovely details? But I felt water all the way down my leg. Turning on my bedside light, I saw a puddle of liquid on our hardwood floor. My water had broken.
"Vince, I think my water just broke."
"Okay." Sounds of sleep.
Now, my husband is a sleeper once he's asleep, but clearly he was more deeply sleeping than I ever expected, given that the words "My water just broke" did not rouse him. I realized later that Vince's nightly quarter pill dosage of Ambien was freshly running through his blood.
So this was how I came to call the doctor's answering service myself. My midwife, Olga called me back within minutes to say she'd meet us at the hospital. Her voice was calming and reassuring as she explained to me in her familiar Russian accent that at 35 weeks my baby would be okay, but she might spend a couple days in the NICU. I realized we were having this baby in the next 24 hours. Our little Benbo had decided it was time to come.
I felt calm and in control as I packed a beach bag with the most haphazard of items: my glasses with one arm missing (getting them fixed had been on my "to do" list), 2 CDs (yes, I still listen to CDs--Vince had planned on putting all my music on an iPod for me before labor), the book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth (I had already read the book- did I really think I'd be re-reading other people's labor stories from a hippie farm in Tennessee while in my own labor?), sweet, savory & tart granola bars from Trader Joe's, the camera, Vince's laptop and pink posey lip gloss.
And so it was that I ended up driving myself to the hospital with an Ambien laden husband and a beach bag of random goodies.
Driving to the hospital
When we arrived in Labor & Delivery, my nurse (whose name I have completely forgotten) greeted us and showed us to Labor Room Number 7. I had started to feel mild cramp-like contractions on the drive over, but mostly I was starting to feel excited. We were having our baby! There was no turning back now -- in less than 24 hours, Vince and I would meet our little girl.
The nurse hooked me up to an IV for fluids after I got changed into the lovely hospital gown. Olga, our amazing midwife, checked on me and got me settled in, with instructions to be called when my labor got more active. I got into bed and set about emailing my parents who were vacationing in Mexico to let them know their granddaughter was on her way. Vince and I chatted lightly, we took a picture of ourselves and I asked him to take one more picture of my pregnant belly. I ate some runny cherry Jell-o and drank some cranberry juice on ice.
When contractions started to get more intense, I moved to the rocking chair. By this time Vince had put The Weepies on for me. Their Say I Am You album is one of my favorites, but it's short. Vince had to keep replaying it on Yahoo! music, otherwise The Breeders started playing and I just wasn't in the mood for that. Vince was trying (rather unsuccessfully) to sleep off his Ambien on the fold out chair bed. I was going deeper and farther into myself as the contractions took over with increasing intensity.
The brilliant thing about contractions is that they're finite. There is a beginning, a middle and an end. The space in between contractions is a respite. If I stayed in the moment, these little rests were blissful. If I started worrying about the pain of the next contraction, or wondered if this baby was ever going to come out, nature's way of giving me a rest was wasted with anxiety.
Continued here...
4 comments:
Great story so far, I look forward to reading the rest. I wrote up my son's birth story and posted it to MDC. I was really active on there right after he was born -- they gave me a lot of good breastfeeding advice, help and encouragement. I've never written up my daughter's story, or posted either to my blog. Guess I should do that!
Email me at "kath at youell dot com" to chat about ToF. You don't have your "email me" box checked in your profile so I can't email you. :-D
pink posey lip gloss is my favorite part! can't wait for part 2
So far this makes labor sound downright pleasant. It is incredibly reassuring to know you were able to relax between contractions. Can't wait to read the rest
Just to clarify, for this reason alone I was planning to stop taking Ambien about 2 weeks before benbo's due date. Oh well, now that she's here I'll just get another 12 month supply lined up. We'll both need it.
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