At my 38 week doctors appointment (2/24) I learned that I was 1-2 cm dilated for the 3rd week in a row. I had absolutely no signs of labor, and no contractions. It didn’t look like baby was coming anytime soon. Even the doctor was pessimistic about the baby making a prompt arrival as she prepared me for a possible induction if I went a week past my due date. Then she gave me a long pitiful look and walked out the door. I did my ritual post doctor visit cry as I mentally tried to prepare myself for being pregnant another 3 weeks.
It was a little discouraging knowing I’d still be pregnant for 21 more days when we were all ready for the baby to get here now. I had a hair appointment that Saturday, and Carl had to finish painting the baby’s bathroom, but other than that I was out of stuff to keep my mind off birthing a hippo baby. She needed to come soon, before I changed my mind about this giving birth idea entirely.
That weekend I went to my hair appointment and even got a manicure and pedicure. I figured I would try to fix myself up a bit to distract my husband from the 60lbs of weight I gained in my chin(s). It worked, because that Saturday night Carl took me on a date. We went to see Black Swan, and afterwards had jalapeño burgers with spicy Japanese sirachi sauce on it, all very calculated efforts in order to coerce/scare/smoke the baby out of me.
On Sunday (2/27) morning I woke up with a stomach ache and umm… bad diarrhea, which I thought was a result of all the spicy food I ate the night before. I also had what felt like a painful migraine in my pelvis, which I was convinced, was brought on from watching Black Swan.(don’t ask me how) I decided to walk it off by going to the grocery store with Carl. While there I was getting many strange looks from people. Carl said it was because it looked like I was about to give birth in aisle 12. With the shape I was in, he bet that I would go into labor within the week. I just scoffed at him. How dare he mock me.
That night I made spicy enchiladas and went to bed early to watch the Oscars. I was still having bad stomach aches, but again I attributed it to all the spicy food I was shoving down my throat. I attempted to sleep, but my stomach pains kept getting worse. Carl had just crawled into bed at 10:00pm after he finally finished painting the baby’s bathroom.
Monday, February 28th, 2011, 12:00am: The stomach ache was feeling more like cramps now, coming about every 5-10 minutes. I started timing my cramps just in case it could be contractions. I still wasn’t convinced though, so I got Carl out of bed at 1:00am to assess my “stomach aches”. We timed them for about an hour and they were coming every 4-8 minutes now, lasting between 30-60 seconds. I was in HOLY P-A-I-N at this point, but I STILL wasn’t convinced I was in labor. I called the hospital to see if they could tell me what to do. They told me to drink water and take a bath and call back if the “cramps” haven’t gone away.
The only thing the bath did was make me wet and in pain. I called my mom around 3:00 am and she told me to just go to the hospital. Better safe than sorry.
Now here comes my favorite part of the whole birth story (besides the actual birth of my daughter of course)….
We packed in a hurry and drove to the hospital. Lucky for me it was only 5 minutes away. We were told to use the emergency entrance, when we pulled into the parking lot the emergency entrance was to the left, but Carl was turning right.
I screamed at him, “Where are you going?!! Drop me off! I don’t want to walk!!”
He said, “But the sign says “Deliveries” are this way….”
Haha, I had to explain to him that those “Deliveries” are for packages delivered to the hospital, and NOT for deliveries of babies! I could not stop laughing! What a good way to take the edge of the contractions.
Part 2 coming up….
