Too painful to talk

My due date was Monday, July 4th, 2005. At my doctor's appointment on Thursday, the 7th, the doctor announced that if I didn't have the baby by the next Monday, that she would perform an induction.

"But I really think the baby will come this weekend."

Yeah, right. She had said that for the past 2 weeks.

I was bound and determined NOT to be induced, although I really didn't have a good plan for avoidance. Perhaps it was the strength of my will that caused the contractions to start that evening. After a few hours, I called the doctor.

"You really don't want to come in until the contractions are too painful to talk through."

OKayyyyyy...

I went to bed, hoping for once in my life to be woken by pain. But at 7 I got up for the day, grumpy that I was still quite able to talk through the contractions.

In an attempt to push (hah!) things along, I decided to walk Kathryn to preschool. It was about 1.5 miles round-trip, but we generally were lazy enough to drive the distance. Not that day. I strode with purpose. But still, talking? No problem.

At 11, I decided to call the doctor again. This time, I got the other OB in the practice.

"Well, since this is your second child, you really should come in now."

Now? Immediately? Sure. No problem. I made lunch, ate it, then went to pick Kathryn up at preschool. (We drove this time.) Dropped her and mom off at home, then made our way to the hospital.

The first time stamp on the monitor trace was 1 pm. The nurse - Gregg - was quite convinced I was in very early labor - I was laughing and joking too much. Very disappointing. Whatever - I could wait a few more days. I said that if he were right, I would just go home (and sulk) and come back later - that 'too painful to talk' later. Gregg was quite surprised to find that I was 4-5 cm dilated. I could stay. Yippee!

*bunch of not-terribly-interesting labor stuff deleted*

2:50 pm: Water broke.

Sometime in the next 25 minutes: Doctor FINALLY showed up. He had figured that the epidural was going to slow down labor. Apparently nobody told him that I didn't get one. NICU people showed up 'just in case'. All these people started talking. really. slowly. to. me. like. I. didn't. understand. English. or. something. Push. Push. Push.

3:16 pm: Baby girl was born.



(The part about not coming in to the hospital until it hurt too much to talk? It NEVER hurt too much to talk. Actually, towards the end I couldn't shut up. I got pretty rude and bitchy. (At least, more so than normal.) In retrospect, it was quite hilarious.)