My VERY, VERY short birth but long story
My EDD was Feb 19th and when that day came and went I wanted to cry, I was ready to see my baby. On Saturday morning my DH suggested we all take a walk, it was a nice day so we walked down to the store on the corner and back.
DD finally goes down for her nap and we started talking about how we can't wait for our baby to arrive. We busied ourselves with posting some things on craigslist that we've been wanting to get rid of. When we were almost done posting our things I got a pretty strong contraction and joked about how sometimes those braxton hicks really get you. It's about 2pm, maybe a little after.
A couple minutes later I got another really strong one and then another one, so I started timing them. Well, 45 minutes later they were still coming strong about every 2 minutes, but not quite regular. DH said he wanted to take me to the hospital to get checked out because he could see I was worried. DD arrived in about 10 hours total so I figured i'd have bout the same amount of time this time, maybe a little less. So I took a shower, took my time a little, again thinking I had tons of time. The contractions were EXTREMELY strong at this point and it's about 3:30.
We get DD ready and call our friends (who are a couple hours a way moving into their new house), they were the ones who were going to watch DD while we were at the hospital because she's comfortable with them and we have no family here. By the time they get me into a triage room at the hospital (they make you go to triage first and get checked before they'll send you to L&D at our hospital) it's about 4pm and my contractions are more regular. Well, as usual in hospitals they are taking their sweet time to get a doctor from my practice to come and check me and ok me to move up to L&D. By the time the OB comes in she checks me at 5cm and my water bag is bulging. I tell her by the time I was 5cm with DD she was born less then 2 hours later. The OB looks at me like "yeah, whatever" until my next few contractions hit and she takes a look at the readout and realizes that these contractions are very regular and very strong. Finally, I get sent up to L&D, by this time the pain is so bad that all I can do is concentrate on my breathing. I keep getting asked if I want an epi (at least four times that I remember) and I keep saying absolutely not.
At this point they are wheeling me into the delivery room and our friends have still not arrived to take DD and their policy is to not usually let such small children in (she's 2) but they have no choice. They get me into the room and I remember looking at the clock for some reason and it's 5:27pm. They get me settled onto the bed and I get checked and I am about 9cm and my water bag is still bulging. All of a sudden I tell my nurse that I have to push NOW, she calls for an OB ASAP. The OB to arrive isn't even from my docs practice but she was the closest one. She starts getting ready when an OB from my practice comes running in and gets ready, she checks me and I'm at 10cm. I push a few times and out LO comes, it's now 5:39pm.
I look over and DD is sitting in a big chair eating crackers, drinking apple juice and watching TV like it's any other day. Our friends didn't make it but it all worked out. From my very first contraction to seeing my beautiful boy was about 3.5 hours. He was born on Feb 21st (my mother's birthday), weighed 7# 12oz and was 20.5 inches long (same as DD). I never thought i'd have a baby that fast!!
Re: My VERY, VERY short birth but long story
Congrats, mama!! WOWZER on the fast labor!
As I was reading your story I thought to myself hmmm, sounds like my hospital. Haha, you're in Providence so that makes sense
I'll be delivering there again this time!
I had a 6hr labor with DD and I'm actually pretty terrified of it being that much faster but it's good to hear your DD having to be in the room with you worked out okay!! That's a real possibility with us, too