Submitted by Terra in California
So, my birth story is interesting in that I was summoned to jury duty at about 36 weeks pregnant (36 weeks and two days to be exact, leaving almost 4 weeks before my due date). I am sitting in jury duty waiting to be questionned when I start getting what I thought were braxton-hicks, as I had never had them before. Well, I labored for TWO hours in jury duty leaving the court house at 4:30 with contractions at 2 minutes apart (first baby by the way). So, I call my husband who is 45 miles from where I am crying because I’m in too much pain to drive. I refuse to let him call an ambulance as I do not want to go to the hospital alone. ( a little irrational? YES)
I labor in the car for another hour until he gets there, we get to the hospital around 6:00 (this is 3.5 hours of labor). They check me and I’m at a 6… begging for an epidural. I had myself a little wound up out of fear of being alone. I get moved to a delivery room, the doctor comes in and checks me… time to push! My son was born at 7:35 pm, labor started at 2:30 pm.
He was healthy and happy. What an amazing experience. The love and elation you feel the moment you see your baby is just overwhelming. As exhausted as I was, I couldn’t sleep… I stared at him and followed the nurses into the nursery all night for his bath, his vital checks, etc.
Today he is a happy 13 month old!
ps - I ended up not having the epidural. There wasn’t time by the time the doctor got there. I was upset at the time, had a hard time breaking through that pain, but in the end, I’m SO glad I didn’t have one. I was able to get right up and shower (which felt GREAT) and I felt great. I told my husband to remind me of that for the next baby…. I’d like to do it drug free.
