How it all began...

I have had a lot of questions about what happened on that cool morning on September 17th. So here you go.......


I woke up at about 6:30 that morning to use the restroom. At 39 weeks and 6 days, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a normal routine. But this morning something was different. I had this very overwhelming feeling that my water was going to break. I was afraid of my water breaking in bed (for fear of ruining the mattress) so I grabbed a pillow and blanket and went and layed on the couch. I kind of laughed at myself for thinking that my water was going to break but with in 10 minutes of laying on the couch came my first contraction. This contraction was different than the ones I had been experiencing for the last week. This one kind of hurt!! I continued to lay on the couch until the 2nd some what painful contraction came and that's when I thought, 'wow, this might actually be it'!!!

Since I didn't want to wake my husband or my dad, I went down stairs and started playing on the Internet. I never timed my contractions but looking at the clock I knew that they were about 7 minutes apart. After about an hour I realized that I have gray hairs. I couldn't go to the hospital with gray hair!!!! So I whipped out the hair dye and put it in my roots. 25 minutes later I hopped in the shower. This is when my contractions started to come a bit faster and a little bit more painful. I rushed my shower and got dressed. I still was unsure when it would be time to go to the hospital. I did some rocking exercises on the living room when a contraction actually brought me to tears.

It was 8:30 by this time. I walked into the bedroom and woke my husband up. I said "I think you should get up and get in the shower" (quick side story -- we actually had a funeral we were supposed to go to that afternoon). I got a very dazed and confused look. Another contraction was bringing me to tears again so then I got more of a concerned look and I said "I've been in labor for 2 hour now". My husband jumped out of bed and I told him to take his time. Shower and get dressed and we would go to the hospital when he was ready. By the time he got out of the shower my contractions were every 2 minutes and VERY painful. I said "I know I told you to take your time, but we HAVE got to go!!" He reminded me that they wouldn't let me eat anything at the hospital and I should try eating something. So he put 2 pieces of bread in the toaster for me. I went and woke up my dad and told him what was going on. My husband and dad loaded my suitcase and purse into the truck and helped me to waddle out to the truck. Sitting was the hardest thing for me at this point. Standing and leaning seemed to ease the pain a bit but sitting was horrible!!!!! My tailbone felt like it was breaking when I sat on it. During the bumpy ride to the hospital I managed to say "we forgot the toast". Oh that was devastating!!!! I was so hungry already but couldn't get my mind past the pain I was in.

My husband pulled up to the ER doors and walked me inside. The woman behind the desk could see the pain I was in and immediately started wheeling me up to the Maternity Ward. I was wheeled right into a room with 3 nursed in tow ready with a gown and needles and rubber gloves!!! My saviors!!! I wanted to laugh at them when the asked me to lay on the bed. I wanted to scream, don't you know it hurts!!!! Once I was able to lay down they checked my dilation, I was a 4. This was 9:30am. I was told that my contractions were 2 minutes apart and lasting for 80 seconds. That's only 40 seconds to relax between each one. YEAH RIGHT!! The gave me a drug through the IV that made me feel very light head and kind of drunk. The told me that it would help my body relax between contractions even though it wouldn't reduce the pain of the contractions themselves. That drug lasted about an hour, they asked if I wanted that again or get an epidural. I opt for the epidural. Most of you probably know how scared I was at the thought of getting an epidural but when you are in that much pain, you forget all about those fears.

Once the anaesthetologist (sp?) started the process of the epidural I had to stay very still. This was very difficult b/c I had at least 6 contractions during this time. I had my head buried into my husband's chest, tears streaming down my face and my nails digging into his biceps. The epidural was administered at around 11:30 am. Before the epidural fully kicked in, I thought that I had peed in my bed, the nurse said it was my water breaking. With it spontaneously breaking on its own, they said helps speed things along. They were going to rupture it themselves if it hadn't broke by noon. Once it kicked in, I was told to take a nap. My husband said he was going to run home and get the video camera that we had forgotten. So I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When my husband returned I learned that he never even made it out of the parking lot. After pulling out of his parking spot, he was driving down the isle when a woman pulled out of her parking spot backing up right into the bed of his truck. Wonderful!!! Everyone was okay and thank goodness dad was still at home and brought us the video camera.

By this time, guests were starting to show up and I was nice and relaxed.


At 6:30 pm, I was told it was time to start pushing. Let me tell you.... it is hard to push when you have no feeling in your lower body. I had the support of a wonderful husband and a great labor and delivery nurse. Having a mirror while pushing really helped me focus on the task at hand and made me feel that I really had a goal to accomplish. My brave husband watched the whole thing as well. I remember seeing the baby's head and before I knew it, he was resting on my belly crying. At 8:52pm Xander Michael was born. I started to sob. It was the most amazing thing. My husband cut the umbilical cord and we donated the cord blood. I am proud to know that our little boy's first gift in his life may help save another child somewhere out there.


If you want any further gory details feel free to ask, I have no problem answering questions.