Four years ago today....(part one)

I was in terrible labor with my first wonderful son, Colin.

The events of that day are still as fresh to me as if it just happened last week. This was the day, my due date--the 30th of October. Who on earth ever has their baby on their actual due date? I don't know of one single person. But, I was determined that this child would not stay in his comfy little womb one more day.

I think with your first child, the anticipation is so great of that child actually getting there that most women can hardly take it. At least, that was my experience. Part of that had to do with the fact that my wonderful, ever positive doctor, had been assuring me for weeks that it would be "any day now."

I had been dialated to 3 cm. for 5 weeks before I actually had Colin. In fact (many of you may not know this) but I had actually gone into premature labor with him at 35 weeks. They hospitalized me for a few hours, and gave me a drug to stop the contractions, which worked. Dr. Shepherd then sent me home, and basically told me that from here on out, if this little one still wanted to come, he was comfortable with that--I was far enough along that the baby would be fine. However--he preferred that I take it easy, because the longer those little lungs could develop, the better.

The next five weeks were, at best, miserable. I felt as though I was walking around on eggshells--that it could literally be any moment that I went into labor. And, as a woman who had never experienced labor before, I wasn't quite sure what to be on the lookout for. I mean, sure, I had read every book under the sun about labor, and I knew what all of them said--but I didn't know what it would really feel like. So, of course, every contraction I had (and I had tons of them during that 5 week time) I was wondering, "is this it?" And, then.....it wasn't.

I would wake up everyday thinking, "Maybe it will be today!!!"

And I would go to bed that night, thinking, "Maybe it will be tomorrow...."

So, by the time I made it to my due date, I was determined--NO MORE WAITING. (Um, I have a patience issue....I work on that, everyday. It was worse back then....)

It was going to be today. I had done everything--the walking, the spicy food, more walking, lots of activity, more spicy food--and nothing. The one thing I had not tried was.....dum dum dum....the castor oil. How I dreaded this. My girlfriend did it and said it was awful, but my doctor said that it had worked for lots of his patients.

So, that morning, I went on a hunt for the stuff. I made a wonderful little cocktail--one scoop of vanilla ice cream, a can of root beer, and 3 oz. of castor oil. Down the hatch....then I chased it with a Reese's peanut butter cup. I know, I know. How absolutely awful, right? Well, you are right. It was possibly the worst thing I had ever tasted in my life.

That was 8:30 or so that morning.

By 2:30, nothing had happened and I was sure that the stuff hadn't worked. Shane and I had spent the morning working on our back room addition (at our last house) and I had been on "pulling all of the old nails/screws out of the studs" duty. We were demo-ing the room, and had a ton of garbage, so we decided to take it down to a friend's burn pile, which was about 10 miles or so away. We loaded up the truck and headed out.

We arrived at the burn pile after about a 15 minute drive. I was still feeling just fine, nothing at all out of the ordinary. We both opened our doors to get out, so that we could dump all of the stuff, and just as I stepped out onto the ground, I felt a gush.

Oh my goodness.

I didn't know what was going on. Here I am, as big as a house, trying to look down to see what on earth is happening, and all that I can see is my gigantic belly. The gushing is still going on, however, so I yelled to Shane. He came flying over, and we realized--My water had just broken. Neither of us really knew what to do.

I told him to go ahead and finish unloading the truck, but to hurry....the contractions had already started. And then I realized: you really DO know when it is the real thing. Those contractions just aren't the same as they were before.....this was it.

We were almost back to our house when, to my utter dismay, the castor oil kicked in.

Oh, had you forgotten about that part? Well, see, here is a little bit of irony in this situation. Colin had obviously planned on coming that day anyway. The castor oil, to this point, had done nothing. My water broke on it's own. However, just because the castor oil hadn't started my labor didn't let me off the hook of the effects of that castor oil.

I am going to spare you the details of this one....but let's just say....it wasn't pretty.

We made it home, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the hospital. The rest of this day was a blur of pain, and of my trying to find ways to manage that pain. Tubs, walking, showers, lying, leaning, sitting...you name it, I did it. For hours and hours. By midnight.....I was dialated to 4.

Did I mention I came in at 3? This baby was determined to take his time and put me thru as much misery as he could--at least, that was how it felt to me that night!

It is, I am sure, obvious to you that I did not have this baby on the 30th.....so, catch the conclusion tomorrow!