I'll just pick right up from where I left off on my last post, without any fanfare...
As mentioned, I went to bed around 10:30 the night of Monday, October 10th. I didn't get much sleep, however, because by midnight I was awake again. I was having some contractions that were definitely making me take notice of them. I got up and went to the bathroom. I paced the living room for a bit. I ate three crackers (later that morning, I would wish I had eaten more of them!). I went to the bathroom again. The contractions were picking up, but I hadn't been timing them. At 1:14am I crawled back into bed, determined to time them for one hour.
Five minutes.
Six minutes.
Five minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes.
Four minutes. Four minutes.
Around 2:02 am I got out of bed. Went to the bathroom again. Took a deep breath and decided to wake Lige. The conversation went like this:
ME-"Lige, I have been having contractions. I've been keeping track for about an hour and they are five minutes apart."
MY BELOVED-"Um, okay. What do you want me to do?"
ME-"Well, I need to know if you think I should call the doctor now."
MY BELOVED-"Well, why don't you keep timing them for another hour. If they keep up we'll call then." He must have seen my face contort...whether from another contraction or the sheer terror of waiting another full hour, I can't be sure. But he quickly added, "Or maybe just a half-hour. How about that?"
ME- (trying to be calm and submissive) "Okay." My beloved pulled the covers up and went back to bed.
I went into the bathroom, shut the door, and stood at the sink looking at myself in the mirror. I was impressed with how glowing I looked, flushed with the excitement that this was really happening. Then I gripped the sink and bent over as another contraction hit. I timed three of them. They were three minutes apart.
As I walked back into our bedroom to alert Lige, I was relieved to see he was already getting up. I told them they were three minutes apart and I was calling the doctor. He told me he was going to get dressed and load up the kids.
Have you ever called a doctor at 2:30 in the morning? As you can imagine, they are not fully awake. The on-call doctor was barely coherent. I told him what was going on. He mumbled a lot of something. I assumed he was telling me to go to the hospital. I said thanks and hung up.
Between contractions, I tried to pack a hospital bag. Since we were planning to head in on the 16th, I had not bag ready. In fact, I couldn't even find a bag! Somehow between getting dressed and loading the kids, Lige magically produced a bag and I threw stuff into it.
I called our dear friend who would be watching our children. I think she answered on the first ring, sounding as if she'd been anxiously awaiting my call. She sounded alert and excited...way better than the doctor!
In between all these activities, my contractions were getting stronger. However, I felt so amazing in between them, that I thought for sure this must be false labor. I kept having another thought, too. Now that I've called the doctor, it's going to stop. Okay, now that I've gotten the kids up, NOW it's going to stop. Now that I've got my friend up and ready to take our kids, labor will stop now. Thankfully this was the real deal!
When we got to our friends' house, she met us in the driveway to gather the kids. She herded then into the house, and we were on our way to Kearney. We arrived around 3:30.
Okay, I'd love to continue, but there is a lovely baby girl beckoning to me. Until next time...
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