I went to bed on January 13th, 2011 feeling like my labor had officially begun. I was ecstatic. And maybe a little bit nervous. I got ready for bed and told my husband I was pretty sure I was in labor and we would see how the night went. There was no sense of panic or fear whatsoever. It was nice. We were home and we had no plans to go anywhere else.
We went to bed and throughout the night and into the morning I woke up to contractions just about every hour. When I got up the next morning I couldn't wait to call my family, friends and midwife.
I spent the early part of the morning (between 7-8am) making calls and one of them was to my mom, asking her to come over. Her job was to be in charge of my babies. The plan, if we felt the need, was for her to take them to a nearby hotel for the night so my husband and I could bond with our new baby. And having my mom there, taking care of them, made me feel so much better. I also called my niece and told her she could come over whenever she wanted. She has plans to become an RN and it's her desire to work in Labor & Delivery so I offered to let her attend my birth as a learning and positive experience. I also called my girlfriend who was willing to attend and photograph my birth. I wanted to capture every moment.
When my midwife and I spoke I told her my contractions were about 10 minutes apart... Consistently. She wanted me to call her back when they were more like 5 minutes apart (and more painful). My husband and I decided we would go ahead and set up my birth tub since we had been told on more than one occasion that it takes a long time to fill. And once it was filled there was in internal heater that kept the water super warm. My mom arrived and we all had breakfast. The kids danced around and thoroughly enjoyed helping their daddy set up the birth tub. I also took advantage of the time I had to pack a bag for my daughter and son in case we decided to send them to the hotel. It was a magical morning for me. I got to experience the absolute joy of being home with my children while going through the early stages of my labor.
I called my midwife a few hours later with the news that my contractions were continuing and gradually getting stronger, about 5 minutes apart. She decided to come by to check on me. It was just about noon when she arrived and as much as I knew I was having steady contractions I really didn't expect to hear news of any dilation. Well... when she checked me I was already dilated 3, almost 4cm. What!?! REALLY?? Awesome! That was such a great boost to hear. We were rolling right along... She had to run out real quick and told me to call her back when I was experiencing painful, consistent (5 minutes apart), unbearable contractions.
It was about lunch time and almost time for my daughter to go to school so after we shared the news of my progress my mom and I made lunch for the kids. The tub was still being filled and with every contraction I would holler, "contraction" and my husband would rush over and start rubbing my back or feet or whatever I needed until they passed. My niece even joined in and rubbed my back for a while. Not too shabby.
After lunch I packed up my daughters back pack for school and kissed her good bye. And then I sat down with my son and proceeded to rock him to sleep for his nap. I had a couple contractions while rocking him, but it was so easy for me to just remain calm. Once he fell asleep I cuddled him a little longer and then put him to bed in his room. At that point I was thinking, this day could not be going any more smoothly.
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