the birth Story.

New status (Mommy Blogger): unlocked. I hated reading birth stories before I got pregnant. Even when I was pregnant, I was very careful about which stories I read. I honestly never thought I'd blog about Sophia's birth story, but the more I thought about, the more I thought, why not? This blog has become so much more than I ever thought it would. In here are the stories of some of the best and hardest moments of my life, times that challenged me and times that I grew as a person. Giving birth was one of both the best and hardest moments of my life. And it was beautiful. And painful. And glorious. Here goes nothing (and don't worry - I'm not one for gore or horror, so I left out the nastier bits). The due date. March 24th. It came and went. I started having some contractions around 9pm. Pretty harmless ones, but I could tell my belly was getting ready. They lasted for about an hour and a half but then they slowed and I picked out an outfit for work and packed my lunch for the next day. Anthony was convinced I wouldn't go to work, but I set my alarm to go to the 7am Mass anyway. The middle of the night. I slept horribly. Well, from 11pm-1am I slept like a rock, which was good and needed because it would be more than 24 hours before I'd sleep for even an hour again. At 1am the contractions came back and woke me up at least once an hour. When my alarm rang, I decided I'd try and sleep and make it in for the 8:30am Mass instead. Anthony got up and asked if he should go to work since I was having contractions. I told him to go, if (I wasn't totally convinced) this was "IT", it could be hours and I'd rather he go to work. So I sent a text to the business manager at work and told him that I'd slept horribly and would be working from home for now. He understood. No use sending up "I AM IN LABOR" signs unless it was necessary. I didn't want the fuss. Anthony left for work at 7am - after he'd (somewhat frantically) packed the car with every last thing we might need. The laying in bed. Around 8am the contractions became more regular. I'd been timing them since about 6am and they were now gradually increasing in length and intensity, with less time between contractions. I text my mom and had talked to her and told exactly three other people. Anthony called me on his break at 10:40am because he hadn't heard a darn thing from me all morning. He was...excited and anxious and it was apparently snowing and he wanted to know if he needed to get a sub. I told him that the contractions were about 40 seconds long and 6-7 minutes apart, so if he wanted, he could come home, but I was doing okay. You could practically hear him bolting out of his classroom to go find a sub. He got home and I called the doctor at 11:45am because his office closes for an hour for lunch (I have his cell but didn't feel the need to freak). I told him that the contractions were now 50-55 seconds long and about 5-6 minutes apart. He said that sounded like I was in actual labor and that he'd call the hospital to let them know I was on my way. I told him that I sent Anthony out for food, so the hospital shouldn't expect me for another hour or so. I also called my business manager at work and admitted that, yes, I was in labor and wouldn't be coming in today as we were headed to the hospital. I asked him to keep it on the down low (I work at a GIANT parish and didn't want to alert the masses). He sent out an e-mail to the staff that I was "in download mode". Apparently when I said "down low" he heard "download". Not sure how I'd download the baby, but it made me giggle. Anthony came back with Wendy's and, OH MY GOSH, I think that was the best tasting food I've had in a very long time. The chicken nuggets and french fries were divine. We ate and got in the car. We got to the hospital - mind you, it was snowing because we live in COLORADO and it does that in the middle of 70 degree days here - and the free valet parking had a line that looked forever long. We debated sitting in the line, but I felt another contraction coming on and, uh, commanded that Anthony do away with valet and park. By time we found a parking spot in KANSAS, the contraction had passed. And another one struck as we walked from KANSAS to the hospital doors. We made our way up to labor and delivery to be checked in. {Part two comes tomorrow because this part has been epic enough!}