Birth Story Part 2 - No Going Back!

By the time that M joined me, I was already well into the admissions process. What I have never understood about that is why it takes so long. First off, we were "pre-registered," which I thought would save time. Secondly, we had just been there the week before for our non-stress test. The information hasn't changed, people, and I am in labor!

The lady checking us in was all cheerful, and I was getting nervous, and still quite distracted by my contractions. Every time that I would get one, she would ask another question, almost as if she was doing it on purpose!

"It's a good sign that you are losing concentration," she chippered as I breathed my way through another contraction. I kind of wanted to hit her.

After admissions, we went and sat on a bench waiting to be called back to triage. Although I was excited, I was still very nervous. I just wanted to know that everything was all right with Little Man.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait long, and soon I was being weighed, leaving a urine sample, and getting into a gown. They hooked me up to the heartbeat and contraction monitors. I told them that I was pretty sure that my water had broken and they took a culture to confirm that. I calmed down a bit once I heard the baby's heartbeat going nice and strong. It was also interesting to see the spikes on the little paper showing regular contractions every two to three minutes that were lasting 60 seconds. With contractions that close together, the nurse told me that if the test showed that my water had broken, I would be admitted for sure.

While we were waiting, they did an internal exam and found me to be dilated to 4 cm! And the test came back positive for my water having broken. There was no going back now! And just to prove how committed I was to delivery, I immediately asked when I could get my epidural. Those contractions were no joke!

The final step in triage was to get my IV for fluids and such. I was a little nervous about it because the nurse that did it was in training and I have had some bad experiences with that, but it went without a hitch. Once that was done, I met my nurse that would be taking care of me during labor and delivery. She asked if I could walk to my labor room or needed to be wheeled. I wanted to walk, so off we went. We had to stop twice for some serious contracting, but we finally got to room 303, where I thought Will would be born. . .