I decided to separate this post into parts because... well, honestly, because it is taking me absolutely forever to write and I wanted to finally post something... and I am simply not patient enough to wait until it is done! So without further adieu, here goes! Labor and delivery of Waits: Part 1:
So far I've had my babies anywhere from 9 to 16 days before my due date. With Jovi, my mom got into to town exactly two weeks before my due date, and I went into labor less than 36 hours later. For some reason, I felt particularly paranoid this entire pregnancy that I was going to go into labor even earlier this time around. With Aurelle, we were living in Phoenix surrounded by family that could watch Minnette on a moment's notice when the time came to head to the hospital. With Jovi, we had neighbors living approximately 5 feet from our front door (literally), with whom we had an amazing relationship (and an absolutely awesome babysitting-swap understanding with) that could literally "babysit" our girls while they slept from their own apartment if we needed to leave in the middle of the night. But sadly, said neighbors have since graduated and moved out of student housing, and the apartment across from us is still vacant, leaving us with the only option of calling visiting teachers at 2 am to leave their apartment and family to come camp out on our couch (and when our girls wake-up, they will have absolutely no idea where we are and who-the-heck is sitting on our couch!). And as I was absolutely convinced that I was going to go into labor 3 weeks early, I requested that my mom plan her travels accordingly, if nothing else, to simply to give me some peace of mind.
Well, Grandma showed up, false labor was experienced, 37 weeks came and went, and.... nada.
I didn't experience Braxton Hicks contractions as early, as regularly or as strongly as I did with Jovi, but after my first day of contraction runs, they never seemed to stop, and MAN were they intense (for Braxton Hicks, at least). Basically every single contraction I felt, I swore that I was going into labor. They would intensify, increase in frequency only to drop off an hour later. And this happened at least once a day. Often more than once, many times going late into the night and eventually phasing out around 1 or 2 in the morning- just in time for me to get in a handful of hours of sleep- and this went on for TWO WEEKS.
I was emotionally exhausted and seriously felt like I was never going to have a baby. One of the unfortunate side effects of having all of your babies early is that the day you hit 38 weeks, you feel like you're overdue. I know, it's crazy, and for all of you who actually do go overdue- I am so very sorry, you have my deepest sympathies, and please don't hate me!
On the night of February 7th, I was up talking with my mom around 11 pm when I had a contraction that was super intense and just felt different. If you've ever been in labor, then you know exactly what I'm talking about- it just feels different. As I had a several more- all of them intense to the point of being actually painful- I started timing them and they were coming 10, 20, 15, 11, 7, 30 minutes apart. Nothing regular, and unfortunately my uterus had cried wolf a few too many times so I brushed it off as another false alarm and eventually fell asleep.
As I got up and started getting ready the next morning I realized that I was still experiencing the same painfully intense contractions that I had the night before, though they were only showing up about every 20-30 minutes. I guess two weeks of non-productive- yet intense- labor really desensitizes you, because I remember these contractions being so uncomfortable that I would feel one coming on and immediately stop whatever I was doing, try to find somewhere to sit down, hold my breath, close my eyes and grit my teeth for the next 30-60 seconds until the contraction let up, but somehow I still didn't think that this was the real thing.
That afternoon, I laid down with Minnette on my bed for a nap. Within 20-30 minutes of laying down I realized that I had had at least 5 or 6 of these painful contractions while laying there, and that they were actually getting closer together. I was finally convinced, so I slipped out of bed, let my mom know, called Kyle (who was at school studying) and told him he need to come home NOW... ahem... please... and after throwing a few final items in the hospital bag and grabbing the camera, we headed off to the hospital. I was so excited to finally be in labor that I didn't even remember to take a final belly picture before taking off (I hadn't taken one since Christmas).
To be continued in part 2...
