On Monday, November 8th I woke up at 4:30am to use the bathroom. Nothing unusual about that for a pregnant woman. However, I thought it was a little odd when I felt the need to pee again a half hour later. I got to the bathroom, barely sat down on the toilet and felt a gush of water. My water broke. It was seriously the most convenient water breaking in the history of, well, ever. It was so convenient I would have thought there was no possible way it could have been my water breaking if it weren’t for the fact that once the gush stopped, I was able to actually pee. I then promptly went back to my bed, turned on the light, and started checking my sheets to see if anything leaked. Nope, totally dry (Again, super convenient for this OCD mama). Sim woke up, asked what I was doing to which I replied, “I think my water just broke.” He was instantly up and wanting to take me to the hospital. I told him I wasn’t having any contractions so I was pretty sure we didn’t need to go anywhere. I climbed back in bed, grabbed my phone and Googled “water broke no contractions” and figured we had some time to kill.

A half hour later, at 5:30am, I finally had my first contraction.

So we had a nice leisurely morning. Ana and I cuddled in bed for awhile. I cooked us a nice breakfast of French toast and sausage. I had no idea when they would let me eat again and I knew I would need something to keep my energy up. I took my time getting ready, shaved my legs and finished packing my hospital bag. I arranged to have my good friend Cyndie pick up Ana for the day. Then when my doctors office finally opened I called and the advice nurse told me to come on in.

We arrived at the hospital about 9:30am. We walked into the maternity area and Sim commented that he didn’t remember any of this from when Ana was born. But it was all coming back to me. They checked me in to the maternity triage to make sure my water actually broke (it did) and after a series of medical questions, tests, and monitoring I was final admitted to the hospital and checked into my Labor and Delivery Room at 11am. We walked into room 322 and it was instant déjà vu. Sim said, “Now this part I remember.” To which I replied, “That’s because I am pretty sure this is the same room where we had Ana.” We checked the pictures from her birth on my blog and sure enough, everyone was wearing security badges with 322 on them. We were going to be having Hadley in the same room we had Ana. I decided that was a very good thing and instantly felt comfortable.

At this point my contractions were still really irregular and not painful, so it was clear that my labor was going to need a little assistance. But since I had tested positive for the Group B Strep, the doctor on call wanted to get in a round of antibiotics (about four hours) before starting the Pitocin. So Sim and I kicked back, watched some bad daytime television, and waited.

At 3:15pm they started the Pitocin. Initially it completely stopped my contractions and I was getting a little worried they might start talking c-section, but after continually upping the Pitocin my contractions started coming more frequently and started to really hurt. I was happy that my body was responding to the drug, but not too happy about the pain.

At 6pm they checked my cervix for the first time (since my water had broken AND I had the Strep B they wanted to check me as little as possible to prevent possible infection) and I was dilated to 3 cm. THREE. With the pain I was in, I was sure I was at least 7 cm. I could not believe I still had so far to go. The contractions were coming so close together and were so intense I was really shaky and light-headed. At this point, I made the decision to get the epidural. They called the anesthesiologist and by 7pm my epidural was in and I was one happy girl.

At 8pm the doctor checked me again and I was 8 cm. I was ecstatic! I am a firm believer that the epidural allowed me to finally relax enough that my body was able to progress. At 9:25pm the doctor wanted to check me again and I was 10 cm, 100% effaced and at zero station. The doctor and nurses got everything ready and at 9:30pm I started pushing. Hadley Elizabeth Bateman was born exactly eight minutes later at 9:38pm.