I've always loved birth stories, so when it came time for Scotty's arrival I wondered what my experience would be like. Birth can be a scary thing to anticipate and I feel so blessed that I had an amazing experience.

Scotty was due Sunday, April 10 and I was hoping to go into labor around Friday or Saturday. So for the last few weeks every evening David and I would go for walks around the block in an effort to get things moving. Monday at work I didn't feel great and I was hoping that meant something was happening. But that night we walked and I had some contractions but they really weren't consistent.

Tuesday I felt great again all day with no contractions and my friend Alex came over to share the details on her engagement and we walked around the block and then hung out and talked. I was having some sporadic contractions that evening as well and remember complaining to Alex about how I just wanted to go into labor.

Wednesday at work my boss commented that my belly looked really low and predicted I would go into labor that evening. I thought she was going to be right when after our walk I started having consistent contractions around 6:00 about 7 minutes apart. I was still having them when we went to bed at 11:00. I had told my mom earlier that day she should change her flight from Thursday to Sunday because nothing seemed to be really happening so I called her and told her it looked like she really should come Thursday.

I got up at 3:25 am (I have a contraction tracker app) had some cereal and noticed the contractions were now 10 minutes apart which was kind of disappointing. But I was encouraged they were still consistent. I didn't go to work that morning because I was assuming I would keep progressing and I had my last doctor's appointment at 10:00. But as I got up my contractions seemed to have stopped completely so David and I walked around the block before we went in to see if they would start again. My doctor checked me and said I was only 1.5 cm dilated, which was only half a centimeter more than the previous week. She said I would probably have the baby in the next few days but to make an appointment for the following week just in case.

David decided to go into work since nothing was happening anymore and I didn't want to go in to work and start having contractions again so I stayed home. At 11:30 I started having contractions again and this time they were closer together and longer. They were uncomfortable and I was all packed and ready to go so I spent most the day watching a really cheesy reality show to distract myself while tracking my contractions and breathing through them. I did my hair and got ready thinking we would have a baby that day and at least I would look decent. I wasn't sure when exactly to go to the hospital and was basically just waiting until the contractions seemed painful enough I didn't want to deal with them on my own.

David came home from work early and stopped by In & Out and got us some burgers on his way back. Then he kept working on his door updating project while I hung out. I opted out of our evening walk because I just kind of knew it wouldn't be fun and that this wasn't the pre-labor I'd been having off and on since Monday.  David took a break while the door dried and watched a Modern Family episode with me at 9 pm and I told him the contractions were getting kind of intense and told him we should leave for the hospital at 10 pm. My contractions were five minutes apart and 30 to 40 seconds long.

When we got to the hospital they had me get hooked up to the monitors and checked me. I was so disappointed to find that I was still only 1.5 cm dilated after all those hours! I couldn't talk through the contractions and was having a hard time dealing with them. We were told if I progressed in an hour we would be admitted, otherwise they would send me home with something for the pain.

At the end of that painful hour there was no change and I got a shot of morphine and another pain med that was supposed to last 6 hours and told me to come back in the morning. They wheeled me down and sent us on our way.

Thursday night was the longest night of my life; the pain meds didn't touch the contractions but they made me really sleepy. I got maybe a couple hours of sleep but the contractions were way too intense for uninterrupted sleep. Any position in bed was uncomfortable and I finally got some pain relief bending over our bed swaying. But then I started getting nauseous from pain and moved to all fours on the bathroom floor in case I needed to throw up. David found me there and convinced me to move back to the bedroom and brought me a bowl. He later said this was the low point of my labor- finding me on the bathroom floor, unwilling to leave it. David also coached me on using breathing to distract me from the pain which was how I got through the contractions for the next few hours before returning to the hospital.

PART 2 HERE