Before I forget the beautiful details of my baby girl's birth, I figured I would follow the idea of a friend of mine (Melissa from college who just had Luke 2 days after Emmalee).
At my week 39 doctor visit, the Nurse Mid-wife (NMW) checked me and I had not progessed at all. I was only 1 week away and wasn't even having false labor contractions, not dilated, not effaced, nothing. I made an appointment for week 40 day day 2 since we weren't sure that Emmalee would come by her due date of November 12. The 12th came and went and no baby. I did however start to have contractions that night, but they weren't really consistent and so I thought they were false labor pains. At a certain point that night they seemed to be about 8 minutes apart so we went on a walk around the neighborhood at 2:30am and they tapered off to like every 15 minutes and then eventually went away 4-5 hours later all together.
So, we went to our doctor appoint for week 40, day 2 hoping that the false labor pains at least had done something to progress labor. I saw a new NMW and she checked me and gave us the news that I was 4 cm dilated! We talked to her about natural induction methods (i.e. intercourse, drinking Raspberry leaf tea, walking, spicy foods, etc.) and she said that she wouldn't be surprised if we had our baby by Sunday. We were so excited to have the hope of having Emmalee sooner rather than later and not having to make the decision to be induced. We were so excited that we decided to get some Raspberry leaf tea and walk around the mall several times.
That night we watched a movie and during it I just couldn't get comfy from the contractions (that I thought could still be false) and thought a relaxing bath might make me feel better. After the bath, the contractions were still coming and even seemed to be closer together. I wasn't timing at this point because I still was not sure if they were real. Steve and I tried to go to bed at 11pm, but it didn't last long as I began to have contractions every 3-5 minutes a part. I still didn't think they were real even though they were really painful and so I tried changing positions in bed, getting on all 4s on the ground, swaying...doing anything I could think of to get through them. Steve noticed how painful they seemed to be to me and at 12am told me that we were going to the hospital that there was no way these contractions couldn't be real. I had been concerned in the past of getting stuck in tunnel traffic if I went into labor during rush hour, but it wasn't a concern at midnight as we quickly made our way to the hospital, the roads very sparse.
We made it to the hospital and were seen by triage nurses and doctors who confirmed that I was in fact in labor. Thankfully they admitted me as the pain was becoming tough for me to bear. I originally didn't think I wanted an epidural, but when it came down to it, I wanted anything that would take the pain away! So anyways, once in the labor and delivery room, they gave me Pitocin to get me dilated further and to progress my labor even more. They also gave me a pain killer via my IV, but that only helped for one or two contractions, thus making my epidural decision easier to make as the contractions became even more intense.
Steve and I tried to get a few hours of sleep during the wee hours of the that Friday morning before I would begin pushing. At around 8:30AM I began to push and 45 minutes later our baby girl Emmalee Rae Sabo was born!!! It was the most incredible experience ever. I am so blessed to have such a sweet, fiesty, lively girl. I will remember that day for the rest of my life; November 14, 2008 the day heaven came to earth. ;-)
