Lillian's Birth Story, Part Two

(caption to this picture:"Dad works hard at snoring while I push"--this really belongs in Part Three but I don't have any commemorative photos from Part Two)





This picture postdates the contents of this post, as shockingly, we have no pictures from my active laboring at home. If you so desire, imagine lots of walking, birth ball bouncing, and Scrubs watching. We are obsessed with Scrubs, and have almost finished watching all nine seasons, a feat that took about five months.

So, I sent Thomas off to bed around 11pm on August 30. I attempted this as well, but quickly discovered that a) lying down and b) attempting to sleep were not going to work in our bed. Being a bear of very little brain, I decided that maybe I just needed more space and so I moved to the guest room. Wrong again. I tossed and turned for about two hours, and got annoyed sighs from the dog every time I rolled over to record a contraction on our super cool new iPad. By 3 am, I was sure that this was labor and that we were going to have a baby that day. I went in and woke up Thomas, who sprung into ActionThomas! mode and made sure that the hospital bag, car seat, etc., were ready to go.
We decided to start things off with a nice walk. Sullivan was, of course, thrilled by this turn of events, so we harnessed him up and headed out. It was pretty darn strange to be walking around our neighborhood at 3:30 in the morning. Our dog was entranced by all of the nightlife (read: bugs, sticks that look like bugs, wind). We took the iPod touch to monitor contractions (we are so 21st century!), which were about five minutes apart at this point. Stopping every few minutes was a must. We turned out of our neighborhood and walked down to the next neighborhood--Palmetto Hall. Coincidentally, my labor and delivery nurse the next day was slumbering in this very development. I stopped at the corner to throw up which will come as no surprise to everyone who knows my pansy stomach.
The contractions were coming closer together by the time we got home, so I started drinking water to see if they went away like they had on previous occasions. Nope, this was definitely the real deal. I bounced on the birth ball for three Scrubs episodes, which added up to about an hour. By now, it was close to 5 am and the pain was getting intense. I could feel it in my stomach and a lot in my back, a foretaste of things to come.
Quick sidenote: My parents were watching M.A.S.H. when my mom's water broke twenty-six years ago, which is also a medical comedy. Kindof a funny coincidence.
Next up was a hot bath. I sat in the tub until a little after 6 am while Thomas sweetly sat on the bathroom floor next to the tub and finished up some work things that he needed to complete before being out for a few weeks. Things were feeling pretty intense at this point (read: Painful!), so I decided to call the doctor on call to see if I should come in. Dr. Lynch was the on-call doctor and though she sounded pretty skeptical, she told me to go ahead and head out for the hospital "just in case." Thomas and I decided to go for one more walk (Sullivan's fifth walk in a 24 hour period) and if the contractions didn't lessen, then we would leave for the hospital. We made it around the block and to the front of the neighborhood. I had a pretty intense contraction in front of some elementary school kid waiting for the bus. Ha. We saw several neighbors who asked how things were going and when the baby girl was expected, to which we enthusiastically responded: "Today!!" They looked at us like we were crazy people--perhaps we are slightly obsessive about our dog-walking--but in retrospect, I am very glad we spent all that time walking in our neighborhood.
By 7:30, we were completely packed up and on the road to the hospital--less than ten minutes away, fortunately. It was pretty strange leaving the house and knowing that (more than likely) when we returned, we would have sweet Lillian with us. I'm pretty sure I cried at the thought of leaving Sullivan. Let's chalk that one up to crazy pregnancy hormones.
We arrived at the hospital, parked in the baby zone and took the elevator up to Labor and Delivery. It was a secured door, so when they asked us what we were doing there, we looked at each other and responded with, "Um, I think we're having a baby?"
Stay tuned for Part 3!