J. G’s Birth of Henry Edward…

It started out innocuous enough. On Thursday and Friday June 14/15 I had some mild cramping. Got me thinking that perhaps labor was soon approaching, however, I didn't dwell on it. Saturday passed uneventful with no cramping (at least not that I could tell!). Sunday, June 17th I awoke at 5am and 7am with more severe cramping. When I got up at 7am to start my day, I immediately lost my mucous plug. Of course after taking child birth classes, I knew that this didn't necessarily mean that I would go into labor that day and in fact it could even be a few weeks away. Nonetheless, around 9 or 10 am, my cramping had turned into full-fledged contractions lasting for about 30 seconds and occurring about every minute and a half. I took this time to labor at home for about 4 hours at which point the contractions progressed to 30-50 seconds long, about a minute apart. I was laying down on my couch and every time a contraction would hit i'd move to the floor which just seemed to feel more comfortable for me. After speaking to the midwife on call that afternoon (Terri Poepperling), my husband and I decided to head to Shady Grove Hospital around 2pm. I was in so much pain I was unable to buckle my seat belt and leaned over the back of the seat in his truck. Upon arrival and check in Terri performed an internal exam and determined that I was 3cm dilated and about 90% effaced which she said was huge for a first time birth. She anticipated I might have a fast delivery. From here I labored in several different positions starting with kneeling on the bed for several hours. At 5pm Terri checked me again and determined that I was 5cm dilated and that labor was continuing to progress.