Sunflower's Birth - Part 1

I had been having pretty strong Braxton Hick's contractions for about two weeks.  Strong enough that I truly felt labor was going to start any day.  I canceled things and stayed close to home.  It was where dh and I both felt I should be.  Day after day past, and still nothing real happened.  Dh was getting frustrated, I was getting impatient and tired of being watched.  I look back and realize that I should have kept myself busy.  But nothing sounded fun or good to do.  I was ready to have a baby, but baby wasn't ready to be born yet.

Finally on Monday the 28th, around 4pm, the first real contractions started.  And wow, were they real.  Immediately I had to start my relaxation techniques.  They were long, really long, about 2 minutes, but only about 10 minutes apart.  I called my doula just to alert her, and asked when she felt she should come over.  She felt that because I had had a normal birth with Ladybug, this birth would go much faster and be much easier.  So she wanted to come when contractions were around 6 minutes apart.  I went to bed Monday night with contractions still 10 minutes apart and still about 2 minutes long.  They were incredibly strong and I felt them almost unbearably down my thighs and all around my back.  Sleep mostly eluded me.  But I was excited, knowing I was going to meet baby soon.

Tuesday morning, we awoke, sure we would have a baby that day.  We called our friend to come get Fritter and Ladybug, and our doula wanted to come by to check me and listen to baby.  While our friend Mrs. R was here, the contractions started coming closer together.  As she and my dear husband joked and bantered, she also helped to push on my back.  It was comforting having her there, and nice to have the distraction for my dh.

Jen, our doula came soon after Mrs. R and the kids left.  She checked me and found me to be at 4 cm and 80% effaced with what she described as a bulging bag and a very low baby.  She felt it was possible baby was posterior (sunny side up) because of the strong sensations I was feeling, but when she listened to baby with her fetalscope, the heartbeat was easy to find, which suggested an anterior (face down, and preferred) baby.  Jen stayed for a few hours, suggesting different positions to help baby get in a better position if she needed to.  Contractions stayed right around 10 minutes apart, were still very strong and lasting a long time.

Jen felt I should try to take a bath and get a nap, and she left with the promise she would check back in a few hours unless we called and needed her sooner.  Dh settled in to read a book while I took Jen's advice.  We all expected we would meet our precious baby before nightfall.  How wrong we were...

...to be continued...