Ryan's Birth, Part I

I can't believe it's already been a week since the big day(s). I wrote my 41-week post one night earlier than I normally do. I usually wrote the updates on Mondays, but with my midwife and non-stress test appointment looming Monday morning, I was hoping Sunday would be my last chance to write the weekly update.

It turns out I was right.

I had started having more contractions on Saturday night. They weren't anything too painful or even too regular. But they were a combination of the two kinds of false contractions I'd be having for weeks. Instead of just cramping or just tightening contractions, these were the best of both worlds -- tightening and cramping. This, I thought, must be progress. Mike and I walked our hearts out, looping the lake near our complex three full times that night.

But the contractions came and went and by Sunday night, I was attempting to time them on a handy dandy little contraction app on my phone. I thought they could be real, but everyone said I would KNOW when I was in labor, and they weren't strong enough to KNOW that. Around 10:30 on Sunday night, I had my first strong one. It took my breath away and I said, "Ok, THAT was real, I think." We stayed up for a while, but nothing was rhythmic enough to get excited about, so we went to bed.

I woke up at about 3 a.m. with the same stronger, crampy contractions. I couldn't sleep, so I went out to the couch, where I tried to snooze. But the contractions were too strong to really let me sleep, so I mostly just laid there and timed them until Mike got up a few hours later. He looked pretty excited when he came out of the bedroom and saw me curled up in pain (in his defense, I was just as - if not more - excited to be in pain).

We got ready for the appointments and decided that we should take our bags, just in case. The contractions were coming about 8-12 minutes apart and we knew we'd be at the appointments for at least a couple of hours. So we got everything together, still trying not to get our hopes up too much that it was the day.

First up was the non-stress test at 8:30 a.m. Everything checked out as expected. A quick ultrasound showed that his heartbeat was strong and the amniotic fluid level was a little low (but they expect that at 41 weeks, and it wasn't low enough to be alarming). Then they hooked me up to a large belt that recorded his movements for about a half hour. At one point, a nurse walked in, looked at the readout, looked up at me and said, "Are you feeling these?" I said, "Contractions? Yeah." She said they looked pretty strong and were coming about every five minutes, which surprised us. I must not have been feeling all of them because they definitely weren't every five minutes by our calculations.

Regardless, they gave me a clean bill of health and sent me off to my midwife for my 9:30 a.m. appointment. The exam started out fairly routine (pee in a cup, blood pressure, ask questions, yadayadayada). Then came the key moment: the internal exam. I was 1 cm dilated (still not great but finally I was dilated something). I was also 100 percent effaced (YES). AND he was lower than the week before. Good, good, good.

Then my midwife, Anita, got a strange look on her face... and she said, "Um.. I think I just broke your water."

There was a long pause as we took that in and then we all let out some nervous laughter. On the outside I was all "Oh really? Oh my, haha." On the inside, I was all "OHTHANKTHEGOODLORDI'MGONNAHAVEABABYTODAY!" Once your water is broken, you're having the baby within about a day, one way or another, because the risk of infection is much higher. I never would have asked to have my water broken prematurely, but in all honesty, I was pretty relieved that it just happened and the looming question of when and how to be induced was answered for me.

Anita told us to go home and relax for a couple of hours, eat lunch, gather any last minute items we wanted and come back to the hospital for the big event. We left, giddy that it was finally happening. On the way home, I called my mom to tell her the news, and during that phone call, I had my first stronger contraction. I had heard that contractions get stronger after your water is broken, and it's totally true. By the time we left for the hospital around 12:30 p.m., my contractions were strong enough that I would have to stop when I got one and lean up against something to breathe through them. They were still totally manageable, but I could tell they were ramping up.

Before we left the condo, we took one last self-portrait as pre-parents:

And as we approached the hospital, we took a video to document our excitement:

We checked in at the hospital around 1 p.m. and settled in for the main event...