My estimated due date came and went. At 40 weeks, I knew my body was nowhere near ready to give birth. My first hint of labor happened at around 41 weeks. I woke up in the night to strong contractions about three minutes apart. I hadn't been expecting labor so soon, and I wasn't sure what to expect at that point, because these contractions had come on so fast, and my two previous labors had started out slow and mild. Turns out, they stopped after an hour.
The next morning I was disappointed to not be in labor, but I noticed right away that my belly felt significantly lower. I was curious to check my cervix to find out if my body was any closer to giving birth than it had been before. When I checked, I discovered that my cervix was much thinner than it had been the week before and open about a centimeter. I was encouraged by the progress. That day I cleaned my whole house because I thought "It could happen any day now." Of course, by the time I did go into labor, a week and a half later, it was messy again. Figures.
At 42 weeks plus two days, I got that feeling again that I might be going into labor. This time, I had some major menstrual-like cramps and nausea along with sensations directly around the cervix now and then. They never established a constant rhythm, so I didn't get too excited, but it lasted about six hours before it fizzled out. The next morning, my cervix was thinned out almost entirely and open about two centimeters. But the tell tale sign for me was the presence of blood-tinged "mucus plug", a very strange name for the protective goo that blocks the entrance to the womb during pregnancy. I was excited to see this, because I knew it wouldn't be long now.
But I still had to keep myself busy while I waited for things to get going, so I went to visit a friend, Nichole, who's due date was two weeks after mine. She was now past her due date as well, and she was getting very impatient to have her baby, so we decided to keep each other company. While our daughters played, we talked about labor, postpartum and breast feeding, and the general politics of birth within the medical and midwifery systems versus free birth. She didn't seem like she was about to go into labor, but then again, I guess neither did I. When I left she said "Hopefully I'll have a baby tonight!" I smiled and joked "The race is on!"
Nichole and I were planning to call the same doula, Andrea, and that evening I called her to touch base, "What are you doing this weekend?" She said she had nothing planned unless Nichole or I go into labor, and I told her I was pretty sure I would be in labor by tomorrow or the next day. That was Friday evening. Late that night, Andrea sent me a message saying Nichole was in labor and she was going over there. I had a chuckle over this. What are the odds that we would have our babies on the same weekend? I wished Nichole all the best, and tried to express to Andrea that I was confident I would be fine, even if she didn't make it to my birth. Maybe I was too excited to sleep that night, because before I knew it, it was 2 am. I felt a bit of remorse for staying up so late, knowing that I could very well wake up in labor. I didn't want to be exhausted when it came time to give birth, so I tried to get some sleep.
That didn't last long though, because two hours later I awoke to a contraction that just about rocked me out of bed! ... (To be continued)...
To read Eagle's birth story - Part 2, click here
