Birth Story - Part 1

Tuesday, January 15th was my sister, Kristen's birthday.  My due date was the 16th, and she had been hoping for a nephew for her birthday.  Although I had been having Braxton Hicks for several weeks, my OB seemed to think that Riley was pretty comfortable in there.  At my last OB appointment, I was just 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  The prior week, my mom had been down visiting from Plano, just in case, but ended up going home so that she could work until the baby came.  She left her dog, Cooper at my house so that he could entertain Beau.

Puppy Love

Although I wasn't up for much, I took Kristen to get our nails done on her birthday.  I go to the same nail place that my mother-in-law and her friends go to.  The people that work there know me pretty well, even though I maybe go in there 4 times per year.  While we were getting our nails done, several of the ladies were talking to me about my pregnancy.  They all seemed surprised to find out I was due the next day and assured me that I still had awhile because I didn't look miserable enough.  Hah!

4 days before my due date.  I was huge!!

That night, my sister went out to eat with her boyfriend and friends.  She invited us, but I was too exhausted to go.  Instead, my hubby and I stayed home and decided to rest up and watch tv.  I ate a bowl of Lucky Charms* around 8 and pretty much vegged after that.

At 10, Chris and I put on the season 4 finale of Sons of Anarchy.  The show is super intense any way, but it was even more intense than normal.  About 15 minutes, they showed a dog fighting scene that was too much for me.  But that didn't matter, because I all of a sudden felt wetness.  As I realized what was happening, I said "Oh my gosh", to which my husband (who was completely engrossed in the show), said "I know, right?!?".  I responded with, "No, honey.  I think my water just broke!".  After repeating it about three times to my shocked husband, I got up and ran to the restroom.  Part of me wanted to make sure it wasn't just pee, even though I knew it wasn't.  Chris turned off the tv and started running around the house like a mad man.  We had been packed for weeks, but he was gathering everything and putting it in the car.  I changed clothes, called my parents and my sister and went to the kitchen to make myself a peanut butter sandwich.  

At this point, I had not had any real contractions.  So while Chris was rushing around, I decided that I might as well get some protein in me because I knew it would probably be a long time before I got to eat anything else.  I was standing at the kitchen counter, eating, when he finally finished.  He just looked at me and said, "this is not how I thought this was going to go."  True, 80% of women start contractions before their water breaks, but my instincts had kicked in and I knew I had a little time.

To Be Continued....

*I used to eat Lucky Charms all the time while pregnant.  I used to call my baby the little Leprechaun because it was the only thing that I could eat that didn't give me miserable heart burn.  :-)