Shortly after writing my previous entry, we went to visit my mother-in-law for dinner. I told Pierre I wanted to go for a walk, knowing that walks help labor progress (and that he didn't know that...) - but it was too freezing outside. We went to Shop Rite instead to buy some last minute groceries. That must've been enough.
Around 11pm the contractions started again, and kept coming regularly every 10 minutes. They quickly progressed to 8, and we decided to leave Joshua at my MIL's home overnight. By the time we drove home, they were 5-6 minutes apart, so we called our midwife (and I updated my fb status. lol). I didn't feel a sense of urgency, so she told me to try and sleep through it. If it was real labor, I wouldn't be able to do that.
I went upstairs and slept for about an hour and a half through some contractions before I called Pierre upstairs to start timing them again. 2-3 minutes apart. We called the midwife again and headed to the hospital with me laying in the backseat. Up until this point, the contractions were very manageable. When we were about 2 miles away from the hospital, my water broke.
Pierre pulled up to the emergency entrance and got me a wheelchair. I was in a lot of pain at that point and the contractions were coming like every minute with no relief in between. The receptionist in the ER was of Satan (lol - just kidding, kind of). In the midst of one of my contractions, she asked Pierre why I was screaming, and even told us we were in the wrong hospital. I eventually got upstairs to the fabulous birthing center where they took good care of me.
Shortly after arriving, my friend from church (Nana Stillitano) showed up with a hot water bag and some amazing smelling tea. My midwife checked me and said I was 100% effaced but only 3-4 cm dilated (which disappointed me greatly) and said our daughter would be here in several hours. It was around 3:15am at that point. Yet the contractions were very severe and I actually told Pierre I didn't want to do this. I started thinking about getting an epidural, then realized that when you get to the point where you feel like you can't go any further, the end is in sight!
My midwife checked me again. 5 cm. She went to take a nap. lol. Nana and Pierre kept putting warm compresses all over me and Pierre stood there as I dug my nails into his arm. Sorry babe. I started getting the urge to push, so I did - even though I knew I was supposed to wait until someone said it was safe to do so. Before I knew it, I could feel her crowning, and we called for my midwife. She walked in to catch the baby just in time as she slipped right out at 4:33am. No tears or complications.
So in a nutshell, it was about 5.5 hours of labor with 1.5 hours of really intense contractions. My midwife was shocked that I went from 5 cm to fully dilated in 1/2 an hour. I was just happy it was all over! Praise Yah, we have our daughter. We decided on Juliette as opposed to Julianna (which was the big secret name we had both agreed on) and gave her the middle name of Anne (just cause it sounds good to us and Pierre really wanted her to have a middle name).
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm feeling great. Pictures to come:)
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