Our Birth Story - Part 1

39 weeks 1 day pregnant.  That's how my Monday started on September 13.  I woke up at around 7 a.m. when Doug got up to get ready for work.  I was on the couch - where I had been sleeping for the past 7-8 weeks.  I kissed Doug bye as he left for work, and got all of my blankets and pillows put away.  It wasn't long, though, before I got really tired again and fell back asleep.  Most of that Monday for me was spent sleeping.  I truly believe my body knew what was coming and wanted me to get as much rest as possible.  I got up around 11:30 a.m. to fix Doug some lunch, and was awake until he left at 1 p.m.  And then it was back to sleep for me!  I woke up around 4:30.  Decided it was best if I took a shower and actually got myself looking decent that day, even though it was already almost evening!  When I was finished getting ready, I put on some comfy clothes and headed out to our back lot to do some walking.

I had been walking quite a bit back there for the past week.  I would go out and make about 10 laps around the large gravel lot.  I was finishing up my walking and decided to head to the front porch and have a seat and enjoy the beautiful day.  But, once I got up to the front yard, I got a great idea!  I decided to do a little jogging to maybe help move things along!  So, 39 week 1 day pregnant me started a slow jog up and down and back up our driveway.  As I was walking on the way back to our house, I started wondering if all my walking and jogging would really do anything to help me along, or if I was just being impatient. 

Doug got home around 6 that evening and decided to mow some of the yard while I went inside to make dinner.  We sat down to a lovely meal of cheddarwurst (glorified hot dogs) and enjoyed dinner.  As we were talking, I told Doug that I had been walking quite a bit that day, and even went jogging.  He kinda laughed at me, I'm sure thinking that I was a nut for jogging!!  About 2 minutes later I got up to clear the table.  As I got to the kitchen, I stopped dead in my tracks...

7:45 p.m. - "Um Doug...I think my water just broke..." were the next words that came out of my mouth.  He looked at me and asked, "seriously?"  Well, I knew I didn't just pee myself, and this liquid was running down my legs, so that had to be it, right??  The first thing I did was call my mom.  I told her what happened, and was still running down my legs, and she agreed that that is what probably happened.  I got off the phone with her and Doug started to get the bags in the car while I changed clothes. 

On our way to the hospital, I called Doug's parents to let them know what was going on, and told them we would call back once we knew more.

I had been timing my contractions since we left home, and they were about every 5-7 minutes apart lasting for 1 minute.  Nothing intense...yet.  We were just outside of Joplin when Doug asked me if I was very uncomfortable...then asked if going through the McDonalds drive-thru for coffee would be out of the question - HA!  (We didn't stop!)

Once we got to the hospital, (at about 8:50 p.m.) I walked up to the ER to tell them that I was pretty sure my water had broken.  There was another pregnant lady that had just arrived and they were getting ready to wheel here down to labor/delivery.  They asked me if I was ok to walk, because I would have to wait for another nurse to come with a wheelchair.  My reply was that I was fine to walk.  It was just a little uncomfortable to be walking with fluid leaking down your legs! 

9:00 p.m. - As soon as we got to labor/delivery, they put me in the birthing room, got me changed into my gown, and we got things started!