Around 5:00pm
The nurse put me in a triage room, gave me a cup to pee in, a hospital gown to change into, a bag to put all of my clothes in, and told me she would be back in a little bit to check me. While I was waiting for her to come back I was told to walk around.
Around 5:15pm
The nurse came back in and talked to us for a minute and then hooked up my belly to the straps on the bed to check my contractions. She asked how far apart they had been and for how long... I told her they started around 3 and were a little bit sporadic, but they were getting closer together and had been getting to about 1 1/2 minutes apart. (Lasting at least 60 seconds +) Then she asked if I was term, 39 weeks that day, so yes, we were term.
While the machine was monitoring my contractions and my blood pressure was being checked, the nurse was at the computer filling out some paperwork. I was probably hooked up to the machine for 15-20 minutes, and then the nurse left to help another patient in delivery. When she got back she asked what my dilation and effacement had been at my last doctor's appointment. We told her I was at a loose one and 50% effaced, that morning. She took the contraction straps off, then she checked me to see if I had progressed so I could get admitted to the hospital. She had me put my fists under my hips to make it easier to check (not a good sign, because she needed a better angle to check).... After she checked (pretty uncomfortable), she told us that I was still at a loose one and 50% effaced. I was pretty shocked! She told us she would call my doctor and see what she wanted us to do. Either stay at the hospital and walk around for 2 hours to try to get me to progress, or I could go home and walk around for 2 hours to try to progress.
While she left the room to call my doctor I got up and walked around trying to get comfortable. I drank my gatorade and get through the contractions
When the nurse came back she had me get back on the bed. My doctor said I could stay at the hospital for the two hours and walk around, if I wanted to, and the nurse would check after each hour to see if I progressed.
The nurse asked me if I had taken any lamaze classes. I had thought about taking one, but there were none that I would have been able to go to before the due date (we had trips planned for some of the weekends so we would have missed 2 out of 4 classes, and they didn't have any during the month of December) so I didn't end up taking one. The nurse said she would give us a mini lesson.
I had been gripping the rails on the bed during the contractions, the first thing the nurse said was, "let go of your death grip on the bed." She then told me I needed to focus on my breathing during the contractions, focus on my feet and toes and try to relax them. (So pretty much take my mind off of the contractions). Then she told me to have Jason put pressure on my lower back while leaning over and swaying my hips.
6:00 pm (ish)
I got up and started walking around. The nurse said she would be in and out of the room and while she was in the room she would be asking me questions.
I walked around the room, back and forth, back and forth. Using the new techniques I learned I dealt with those painful contractions, and the awful back pain! Jason helped so much with those contractions, pushing on my back, and reminding me to breathe.
Around 6:30
I went to the bathroom. The nurse kept asking questions, and my contractions kept being ridiculously painful. I thought maybe a change of scenery would be nice so the nurse gave me another robe to put on backward so my bum wouldn't be exposed, and we went into the hall to walk around. We almost made it to the corner, and the smell of coffee was making me a little nauseous so we went back to the room.
About 6:40
I asked her, "If I get sent home, is there anything I can take for the pain?" She told me that most people don't tell you that you usually have about 6 hours of contractions before they will give you an epidural, and I was just going to have to deal with the pain until then. OUCH! I continued to walk around... At this point I was saying, to no one in particular, "I can't believe people do this without drugs." "What are people thinking not wanting an epidural." "I don't know how much more of this I can take." I thought, maybe it would have been better to walk around at home. At this point, Jason pushing on my back wasn't helping at all, I couldn't focus on anything, and relaxing was getting absurdly difficult. I tried using the rocking chair, but it wasn't helping. I went to the bathroom again, and when I wiped there was more bloody mucous. I was skeptical, but it was nice to think that something might be happening. I went back into the room and had some more contractions, Jason tried pushing on my back, and it still didn't help, so I tried the rocking chair again. I was back and forth, no longer timing the contractions, I couldn't tell you how far apart they were, but it felt like I would only walk around for a couple of seconds before another contraction would start. I told the nurse I was getting tired, and she responded with, "that's not good, you've still got a long way to go."
The next time I got out of the chair to walk around I noticed more bloody mucous on the seat (they had a waterproof pad down).
I was sitting on the rocking chair and kind of had an urge to push. I got up quickly and went to the bathroom.
7:03 pm
As I was about to the toilet I pushed a little and a small puddle of water came out. I also spit up a little bit of my gatorade (the first time in the pregnancy that I "threw up." I quickly sat down and had the urge to push again. I heard a pop and felt a gush of liquid come out. When it finished I just stood up, walked into the triage room and told the nurse, "I think my water just broke." (I knew my water had broken, but the nurse already didn't think I knew what I was doing because I was a first timer and hadn't taken any classes). The new nurse on duty had just arrived and was trying to find a marker to put her name on the board, the first nurse was still at the computer. The first nurse sort of disregarded what I said and the other nurse went into the bathroom to see if my water broke, or if I just peed.
"Is this little puddle it?" she asked with a tone of disbelief, as if to say, that's not enough for it to be your water. I told her it was on the ground and in the toilet. She looked again, and realizing it was my water, she said, "Oh!" Then came back in the room.
By then I was still having the urges to push, and I told them. They had me get back on the bed so they could check my progress (although they obviously didn't think I had progressed too much, because there was no urgency in checking me). The first nurse told the new nurse to do it, so she came over and tried to check me, she said she couldn't feel the cervix... (Again, I was upset! If I hadn't progressed and the contractions were this painful and I was having the urge to push, I couldn't imagine how long I was going to have to wait to actually get to a 10, or at least progress far enough to get an epidural!)
I was again told to make fists and put them under my hips so she could have a better angle to check...
Part 3 coming soon...
