A year ago today, part 2

Between 4 and 5 months into my pregnancy I started having Braxton-Hicks contractions. My usual routine was that I would wake up to Braxton-Hicks, eat a little breakfast and go back to bed and they would stop. The week before Arwen was born I couldn't get them to stop with food, rest or water. I called my midwife told her they were lasting 15-30 seconds and 1-5 minutes apart. She suggested that I try taking a shower and we would go from there. She was at a party and said she would go home and go to bed in case I were to call her in the middle of the night. I got in the shower and in half and hour they stopped. Chris and I were going to make a secret code word in case we were apart and I went into labor so that if I called him he would just know to come home. Well, we hadn't done that yet and so I had to be sneaky when I called him to say I had been having un-stoppable contractions for 4 hours. He came home but since the shower nothing happened.
The next evening Chris left for POST and I would see him again on Friday night.

(See "year ago today" for that story)

Saturday morning I wake up hoping that I could skip my early breakfast and just sleep more, but after 15 minutes of Arwen saying it was time to eat I finally got up and ate some cereal. When I got back in bed those stinkin' Braxton-Hicks hadn't stopped and they were getting more annoying. I jokingly nudged Chris and asked him how he felt about a Saturday baby, his response was a tired "what?" and I told him to go back to sleep and that I would take a shower to make the contractions stop.

While in the shower I thought that I would spoil myself and shave my legs with my favorite gel and new razor. Half way through my second leg my water broke and my contractions went from mildly annoying to intense and unstoppable. (9:15am)
I was sad that I wasn't going to make it the next 3 weeks and I started crying. Chris burst into the bathroom asking what was wrong and through my tears I told him my water broke and I couldn't stop the contractions. He smiled, gave me a hug and said "honey, it's ok, we're going to have a baby today." We needed to time the contractions for half an hour before calling the midwife, 1 minute long and 2 minutes apart.

Chris helped me out of the shower and into the kitchen where he started the stew cooking and was looking over the list of things I wanted to be clean before we had a baby. I'm so task oriented that of course I would want to work during labor. I was quite surprised though with how close the contractions were and how much I was less able to walk around. Chris knew it was pretty serious when I told him to forget all the cleaning I was going to have him do before the midwife arrived and focus on me.
Our midwife arrived and did a check up and left me to my pile of pillows on the floor.

Time seemed to fly by. While I was on my bed screaming I said it felt like I had to push. My midwife told me to go for it. Fantastic!! I loved pushing! I can remember hearing my midwife talking to her assistant saying that when I get to 2 she'll check me. Little did I know that I had been pushing for 2 hours and making no progress. She checked me and I saw it on her face, "Margaret we need to get you into the shower and you can't push anymore." (I wasn't fully dilated). I started to cry and cry and cry.
Our water heater lasts 40-60 minutes depending on the pressure and as far as I could tell, half way through something clicked and I knew it was time to push. She wanted me to breathe through some more contractions just to be sure especially since I thought I had to push before.
For those of you who don't know me, I hate being wet. Mostly it's the transition, dry to wet and then having to dry off. I really hate being wet when I'm sick or not feeling up to par. Chris refers to this shower as "the dark times", I was screaming, crying and chanting "I hate being wet, I hate being wet, I hate being wet!"

When I got back to my bedroom and on my bed my midwife said she wanted to check me just to be sure...

Growing up my mom taught me to be a lady and one of the lessons was "a lady never using foul language and is never shocked by it."

I would like to take this opportunity to say that women in labor shouldn't be considered "ladies".

I told me midwife "LET ME PUSH @%&# IT!" to which she said "ok!" (Chris tells me I said other things during the day but I just don't remember.) After that contraction she checked and said "ok Margaret, it's time". I was pretty sure I already knew that and if I was able to talk I would have said so and congratulated everyone finally being on the same page! (I didn't know I could be so mean!)
A few short pushes and Arwen was out. (4:29pm) Her daddy caught her and put her on my tummy. He tells me how he tied off the cord and cut but I have no other memory besides looking into my beautiful baby's eyes.