Labour of Love - Corny I Know...Deal With It.

Ken has been pestering me to post the story of Frances' birth, so here is the timeline.

2:30 am - I wake up with light cramping, wake Ken up, tell him not to get too excited and kick him out of bed so I can watch TV.

3:30 am - I realize now I am in labour, decide to watch the food network. Learn how to make a proper coconut cake from Alton Brown and timing my contractions reveals they are 7 min apart. I decide not to wake Ken up, he will probably freak out and I continue to labour in peace.

5 am - My contractions are now 6 min apart and I am too uncomfortable to stay in bed. I get up and make a lasagna. Yes, you read that correctly. We ate it when we got home, I did an admirable job.

6 am - The contractions are now much stronger and still 6 min apart. I wake Ken up and tell him to call in a sub. I call the hospital and speak to a doctor. He finds out this is my second kid and asks pretty please for me to come down to the hospital.

6:15 - I take a shower, do some last minute packing and call my parents. My Dad asks "is this a trick?" After assuring him it's showtime, he promises to send my Mom.

7 am - My Mom finally arrives, and we say goodbye to Teresa and head off.

7:30 am - I am put on a monitor in triage. My contractions are 4 min apart and very strong. I am only in triage for 30 min, and was dilated 4 cm.

8 am to 11 am - I labour and actually feel pretty good. My nurses took me off the monitor so I could move around, use the ball, and watch arrested Development on the laptop. At 10:45 I request the epidural. I am checked again and am 7 cm dilated.

By 11am I am in the process of having a very large needle jammed in my spine. This whole process takes about 30 min. During this time I start to feel the need to push. The anesthesiologist gives me a test dose (which is very small) and leaves to get the IV. I tell the nurse I need to push, and low and behold, I am now 10cm. My nurse puts on gloves and begs me not to give birth without a doctor. I hear her go out in the hall and yell for the doctor, saying "this is her second kid and she's pushing!" The doctor arrived, and in 3 contractions and 4 pushes my little Frances was born, naturally, at 11:48am.

I would not choose to give birth without an epidural again, but I'm glad I did it. I went through the whole birthing process on nothing stronger than Tylenol 3, and felt a little badass. Ken said when the shoulders came out I screamed louder than he'd ever heard before, whatever. Shoulders really hurt when they come out.

She was so worth it.

   Teresa seems to think so too.