This is for Posterity, so be honest

This could go under the label of "too much information", but since it is part of the story of Molly's birth I figured it needs to be written down. And since this blog tends to be my journal.... here is the story.

My babies have all come just a few days early, 4 or 5 days. So luckily we were able to plan ahead and have my Mom here, on hand, to stay with the kids because there was no time to do anything. Once Miss Molly decided it was time, everything went really quickly.

I had woken up at 2:00 a.m. or so Tuesday morning to use the bathroom. Nothing out of the ordinary when you are this pregnant. My husband asks me how I am feeling as I climb back into bed. I tell him I am feeling fine just needed to use the bathroom. We went back to sleep not thinking anything was going to happen. (My last two babies decided to come in the wee hours of the morning so we tended to think this one would as well) So at 4:30 a.m. I wake up to a little cramping, nothing that was that strong or lasted that long. This too had been happening off and on the last few days so didn't signal anything to me. I dozed off again until at about 5:00 I woke up with another of those not so bad cramps that didn't last too long but then it happened again about 10 min later. I started to get the hint that these cramps were serious.

After I had breathed through a few more of these contractions, I then got up to take a shower. While in the shower the contractions started to come more quickly. I got out of the shower and woke my husband and told him to quickly take a shower because we need to go. Without actually timing my contractions I would say they were coming about every 5 minutes and lasting about a minute. But then while sitting on my bed still in my towel on I suddenly had the feeling that I was needed to pee and I quickly stood up and just in time to save my bedspread from amniotic fluid because there was a huge puddle on the floor. I screamed, and dropped my towel to clean up the mess and looked at the clock. It was 6:07. My husband jumped out of the shower at my scream and taking a moment to see what had just happened he grabbed his clothes and called to my Mom. She came running and of course Sophie came too.

I tried really hard to get dressed so I could get to the car but got no further than a shirt because the fluid just kept coming and my contractions were getting stronger and stronger and not giving me much of any break between them. My husband could tell, having been through this with me three times before, that I was headed in the "wilderness of pain" which is his title for the transition phase of labor. I was shaking and couldn't get myself to walk across the room to my shoes let alone out to the car so he could drive me to the hospital. His first thought was that he needed to get me some help right then so he called 911. They said they would send help and started to talk him through preparing to deliver at home.

The first responders were a few police men.

Before too long my bedroon was filled with policemen, firemen and finally the EMTs. I am still standing half naked in my bedroom trying to get through each contractions and then in the brief moments between, move to where I was told and let them do the checks and preparations they needed to determine if I needed to deliver there or they would be able get me out of there. I guess when in "the wilderness of pain" modesty just doesn't cross your mind.

They decided to take me to the ambulance and get me to the hospital. You can see on the clock it is now just after 6:30 a.m.

Throughout the entire 15-20 min it took for the ambulance to get me to my hospital. The EMT's kept timing my contractions. At this time they were lasting about 2 minutes and giving me only about 20 secs between. They kept telling me to not push. Luckly I didn't feel the need to push yet. And was happy to know I would make it to the hospital after all.

They dropped me off at the Emergency room and the doctor there quickly did a check and I was fully dilated and they could feel the head but decided to get me to Labor and Delivery. Once there the doctor came gave me a quick check and put a monitor on the baby and we got to work pushing out the baby. Within 30 min of being at the hospital, Molly was born. It is always amazing to me that once the baby is out the pain stops too. I couldn't believe how quickly it had all happened. It was after the birth we finally got around to filling out the paperwork and the forms that needed to be signed to admit me in the hospital and allow them to treat me.

My Mom later told me how Henry and Sophie were entertained by the Firemen and Police men that morning. (Ian I guess slept through the whole thing) They both thought it was grand adventure.



Evidently the morning shift had just started and many of those responders came just because they didn't have anything else going on yet. So in the end we had three police cars, a fire truck and the Ambulance all respond to our 911 call. That is a lot of guys to help one very pregnant lady.



I guess I was glad to be the mornings entertainment for all those men. I am just happy my little girl is here safe and sound and we are all doing well. I would have preferred it to be a little less dramatic. But isn't it nice to know all we need do is call and someone is here to help us in our times of need.