2 days to go- Sunday, 3rd October
The day dawned overcast and my husband was excited about grand final day. I was less than thrilled with my team being knocked out at the final :(. We headed to the hospital for our appointment at 11am. Tanya was on again and hooked me up to the CTG. Bub's was still doing swimmingly and there didn't seem to be any concern. Luckily a Registrar just signed it off quickly. Now for a second membrane sweep. This time I was well prepared and asked Tanya not to talk to me so that I could go to another place. A happier place. One that didn't involve a membrane sweep.
After Tanya finished the sweep, she took her gloves off with a huge smile and said 'was that as good for you as it was for me?'. I was like 'um, no, can't say it was'. She cracked me up though. Tanya reported that I was still 2cm's dilated, my cervix had shortened (a good thing!), it was soft (another good thing!), but it was still posterior (not a good thing). Tanya said she had a good feeling about this one. My husband suggested that we take the stairs down out of the hospital to try and get things moving. It was 12.20pm.
As we were walking down, I felt a period like heaviness in my lower abdomen. I didn't think too much of it as I had felt it after the last sweep too. We stopped off at the shops on the way home to pick up some groceries for our gathering that afternoon. These cramps were getting kind of regular. I made a note in my head, but didn't mention anything to Mum or my husband yet as I was still thinking it was similar to last time.
We got home around 1.30pm and I just picked up my iPhone to time a couple of these cramps. Hmmmm....... they were pretty regular. I wonder if this was labour? Nothing hurt yet, I could still do everything and talk. Maybe not. I pulled my husband aside and said 'I'm not sure, but I think I might be going into labour'. His eyes brightened and he started to get excited. I was like 'hey, even if this is it, we have a long way to go, so don't get too excited just yet!!' We had downloaded this app on my iPhone to help us log contractions and it gave you stats about how far apart they were, how long they were going for and you could even export the stats and email them to your midwife (this fed my virgoan obsessive compulsiveness!). My husband logged a few and sure enough, they were about 6 minutes apart, lasting for about 40 seconds each. It was 2.30pm.
My best mate, his fiance and their 6 month old daughter arrived. We decided to go for a walk with their daughter in the pram. We walked up over the hill and down by the golf course, meanwhile chatting and talking. They still weren't hurting at this point and I could walk without slowing down and talk just fine. We still weren't sure if this was really it. Only time would tell.
On with the walk and up this ridiculously steep hill. Right, I had to slow my walking down during one of the 'cramps' now and just let the conversation continue without me. Back down the ridiculously steep hill and back passed the golf course. Ok, things were definitely getting a wriggle on. I had to stop during each cramp and pause in my sentences. It started to drizzle. We slowly made our way back up over the hill and to our house. Awesome. The in laws had arrived with a friend. It was about 4pm and my contractions were about 4 minutes apart.
I said hello to everyone and my best mate put his daughter in the jolly jumper with the noisy mat. The television went on with the pre-game amble. Noise noise noise. I need some quiet. Some space. We went into our room. Put the oil burner on with my beautiful labour oil, started the iPod with my labour music (soft gentle music), dragged the exercise ball in and just chatted. At this stage my husband, Mum and best friend were in with me. I was starting to lose track of time. I was easily able to have a conversation between contractions and could even talk through them with a little bit of effort. At some point my husband called our midwife to let her know that I had gone in to labour. I spoke with her and gave her an update to how I was feeling. Pretty good really, coping fine, things weren't too painful, all hunky dory.
My best friend decided it was time to go when I couldn't talk much any more during a contraction and packed up he and the family giving me a huge hug good bye and saying excitedly 'next time we see you, you're going to have a baby!' After they left things really got moving.
My husband occasionally left to get a score update, but for the most part stayed with me and was a wonderful support. My Mum stayed with me the whole time. I started to get some bad lower back pain so my husband heated up our heat pack and put it on my back, applying pressure at the same time . He and Mum took turns at putting quite hard pressure on my back. I went between sitting on the exercise ball, kneeling on the ground and leaning on the exercise ball and standing whilst leaning my arms and head against the wall.
At some point the game was over and my in laws left. My husband wasn't even particularly gutted that his team had lost as something more amazing was on the way!! At one point I tried lying down to rest, but immediately felt a rush of endorphins flood through my body and an urge to vomit. I labored my way over to the toilet and threw up. Just as I'd finished throwing up, another contraction came on strongly. I was getting tired now. No lying down though. Apparently I not only vomited when I had opiates, but also when I had my own endogenous version!!
My husband suggested a shower. I got in the shower and was soothed by the warm water running over my back. We managed to get the exercise ball in with me. I had goosebumps everywhere and started to feel oh so cold. Time to get out! My contractions weren't very regular, they'd go from 4 minutes in between to 1/1/2 minutes. I honestly think this was how my body needed to work to help our little girl out. If they had of been strong and long with little break in between, I'm not sure she would have coped as well as she did.
My husband called our midwife, Anne. I think Anne might have been thinking irregular contractions, lower back pain, posterior baby, long labour.....she asked me if I felt I could go a bit longer, maybe 1-2 hours. In my head I thought another 1-2 hours??? Fuck!!! But externally I nodded and said, 'yes Anne'. So on it went.
I had another shower and a small sip of water. My husband got me out a frosty fruit, I sucked on it for a bit. Nope, body doesn't want that. Eject eject!! Another vomit and furious contraction. I just kept thinking, don't think about how long this could go for, just ride the next contraction. And the next. And the next.
Anne rang us to see how I was doing. I was thinking, nuh, I want drugs, I can't do this for much longer!! Anne was like 'if you'd like to come in, come in, just give me half an hour to get to the hospital and set up a room'. Yes, I would very much like to come to hospital and have drugs. Copious amounts of numbing drugs. Yes please. It was about 10.30pm.
My husband scampered around packing a bag. He had been at me for weeks to pack one. I had been in denial- yeah yeah, I'll get to that. I did have a lot of things laid out ready to go, so I wasn't totally unprepared :) I slowly labored out to the car. It was still cold and drizzling, but the moon was bright up in the sky. I had a contraction out on our front porch. I called out to the universe and asked for the strength of all the women who had birthed before me to come to my aid. Somehow I got into the car and my husband insisted I put a bloody seat belt on. I didn't want to, but he refused to drive if I didn't. Grrrrrrrr. No time to argue. It was the worst car ride of my life!! I think I had two contractions in the car which were really painful as I couldn't move the way I wanted too!
We arrived out the front of the hospital near Emergency. There were a couple of people outside, but it felt very private. The night air blanketed me in privacy, I was in my own private world. I had another contraction against the car whilst my husband found a wheelchair. Off we wheeled to the elevator while Mum parked the car......... It was 11.20pm
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