With all my pregnancies I have had what are called Braxton Hicks contractions. When I was pregnant with Alex and this time as well, I felt these "practice contractions" starting at around four months. With my first two labors we knew when the contractions started to change, becoming more regular and a little more uncomfortable. Brandon and Alex were also very accommodating to our schedule by coming on a holiday (President's Day) and on a Saturday. Both these labors started at night and woke me up, alerting me to the changes. With this pregnancy our main concern with the labor was what we were going to do with the older kids... what if they were in school or asleep at night? Several of our friends offered to help so we knew they would have a place to go, it was just the timing that was unknown and a bit stressful to think about.
OK, so onto December 29th. We had been having lots of trouble with my car not starting. The kids would leave a door open, or a light on in the car, and the next morning the battery would be dead. The week before I went and bought a new battery and Tony replaced it... great, worked fine after that! Well, on December 27th again my car wouldn't start. It was just that the connections between the battery and car were not tight enough but it was very frustrating because I was on my way to an OB appointment. Tony tightened them down that evening, and I must not have gone anywhere on Tuesday because when we got in the car Wednesday morning, on the way to drop Alex off at a playdate, again the car would not start! I was so irritated at this point I blurted out, "Their house is close enough, we'll just ride our bikes over!" The kids thought this was a grand idea and started to get ready. I called Tony, not expecting to get ahold of him, but he was at his desk and answered. He suggested that I may need to input the security code to the radio and this worked. So now the car was fine but the kids still wanted to ride bikes! This ended up not being such a great idea. It was a short ride, but not really if you are nine months pregnant! When we got to the house for Alex's playdate I noticed I was "leaking" probably amniotic fluid. This was at approximately 11:15 am. Brandon and I still had to ride our bikes home... very slowly! The leaking continued throughout the day, after each contraction. I took Brandon to IHOP for brunch while Alex was at her playdate, and then in the afternoon we went to a doctor appointment for Alex's shoulders. I still needed to get to the grocery store so I called Tony and he was on his way home from work and met us at the Fred Meyers in Richland. I was very distracted and walking pretty slowly around the store and I asked everyone "do you want to have a baby today?" I was half joking, but I whispered to Tony about the "leaking" so that he knew it could be a real possibility.
At home as the kids started eating and Tony was putting the groceries away, I had to use the restroom and there was a gush of amniotic fluid. I said "Tony DeGuia" to get Tony's attention and told him through the door that we probably needed to get ready to go to the hospital. I called our neighbor Kori who had offered to watch the kids overnight. Although obviously quite early, this was actually fairly good timing because we were still on winter break and there would be no rushing off to school in the morning. I called Labor and Delivery at the hospital and explained what was happening and they said I should come in. I still wasn't positive it was time, only because this labor had not followed the same pattern as the other two. However, it is quite an unpleasant feeling to be leaking that much fluid so I wanted to get in quickly.
Fast forward to the hospital. I got changed and the nurse checked me - only 4 cm. dilated. I was kind of disappointed to not be very far along, and even asked the nurse if I really should have come in. I was dreading hours and hours of labor before it was time to push, so we started calling family to let them know we were in the hospital. Well, after a trip to the bathroom the contractions started getting noticeably worse and closer together. I was really doubting my ability to do this without any pain medication and thought maybe laying down would feel better. It didn't but Tony rubbed my lower back very hard during the contractions which did help. I was on my side holding onto the bed rail shaking it when I said to the nurse "I think I am farther along than you think I am!" She checked me again and left the room without saying anything. And then LOTS of people came into the room getting things ready for the delivery. I had gone from a 4 to a 10 and ready to push in about 30 minutes... but there was no doctor there yet! I was told "officially" I was not allowed to push yet but had to push a little to alleviate the intense pain. Finally the doctor arrived, and I was put in "the position" to push properly. In this position the pushing was much more effective. However, after the second round of contractions the doctor told me he really needed the baby out very soon because his heart-rate was dropping between contractions. So Kyle was born on the next contraction at 8:38pm. Everything after that was really quite blissful for me... just as long as those horribly painful contractions didn't EVER come back! LOL! Little Kyle weighed in at 5 pounds 4.5 ounces and measured 18 inches long. After the delivery the nurse came over to me and asked "Does that answer your question of whether you should have come in or not?" Yes, I suppose it did!
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