Even though the morning sickness was terrible and I lost 30lbs in the first 3 months, I loved being pregnant
with my first child. I enjoyed every part of it including strangers in the grocery store line wanting to touch my growing
belly.
On Sunday, December 20th, I woke up having mild contractions. I called the doctor and she told me to wait
until they were 5 minutes apart for 30 minutes. So I layed down on the couch and tried to nap knowing I was going to need
my rest.
By 9 o'clock that evening, the contractions hadn't really become regular so I called my doctor and she wanted
me to go in and have the baby checked to make sure he wasn't in distress.
We got to the hospital and I was at 1cm. They told me I was dehydrated, to drink this piture of water and
walk around. So we did and an hour later there was no change. They sent us home and said "Maybe we'll see you in the next
week."
On the way home we noticed it had started snowing. We got home, crawled back into bed (by this time it was
about midnight) and no sooner than Ryan fell asleep, I started having REALLY bad contractions.
I layed there for a while agonizing in pain and I finally woke Ryan up. He said "We just got home from the
hospital, there's nothing going on 'down there'!"
Finally, about 2 am, I started screaming that I felt like I needed to push and with that Ryan darted out
of bed, I put on my robe, we called the hospital and we were off.....
Snow and ice covered streets is what we found waiting for us. But we made it to the hospital, left the truck
in the valet parking and ran upstairs (or waddled). They thought I was ready to deliver, said "No time for epidural" I was
at a 10!
That's when they realized that my water hadn't broken yet. My bag of water had fallen against my cervix
and made it appear as though I was at 10cm. After they broke my water, they realized I was only at a 7. I got my epidural
and thing slowed down after that. Ryan and I actually got to take a nap until about 9 am. That's when my mom came in. I knew
she couldn't stay away!
At 10:00 am, I had stalled at 9cm so they started a Pitocin drip and my doctor told me if I didn't make
it to a 10 in the next hour, they were going to do a C-section. I didn't like that idea at all, but no worries. When the doctor
came back at 11:00am, I was at a 10 and ready to push. Twenty minutes later, Joshua Ryan came into the world.
