Well, here I am back again. Let me explain where I have been for such a long time. I went into the hospital for preterm labor and was there for eight weeks so they put me on bedrest. I went in on August 15, 1999 (the day that I turned 28 weeks) because I had been having contractions all weekend and they were starting to get crampy.They didn't hurt at all but the day that I called my doctor they were a bit crampy. She told me to come into the hospital so they could check me.

When I went in and when they checked me I was 4 centimeters and dilating. While I was there and they were hooking me up to all the yucky stuff (I was on magnesium sulfate for three days) I had dilated to 5 centimeters plus they said that my water bag was bulging badly. So, they kept me there for eight weeks. I kept going into labor and they kept stopping it throughout the whole time I was there. By the time I went into labor for real (35 weeks, 6 days) I was 5-6 centimeters dilated and 95 percent effaced.

Now here is my birth story:

The night that I actually went into labor was Friday night, October 8. I had been feeling yucky all day long, plus I had had diarrhea for a couple of days prior to that. I had no appetite to eat so when the dinner trays came, I just stared at it. My nurse came in and I told her I hadn't been feeling well all day and that I was really uncomfortable. She then told me jokingly that I was 8 1/2, almost 9, months pregnant and that I was SUPPOSED to be uncomfortable. Then I told her that I was more uncomfortable than I had ever been and just wasn't feeling right. She asked if I wanted her to put me on the monitor and I told her yes. She did and it turned out that I was having contractions every ten minutes or so (I have to tell you, my contractions didn't hurt at ALL until I hit around 8 1/2 to 9 centimeters AFTER they broke my water and started Pitocin on me later on that night).

The contractions moved to every 5 minutes or so and when the nurse checked me she said that I was on my way to being 7 centimeters. They hooked me up to an IV and sent me over to Labor and Delivery where they monitored me for around an hour, I guess. My doctor told the resident to check me and they said that I was between 7 and 8 centimeters so my doctor told them to tell me to walk for an hour. When I did, she came in and checked me and said that I was EASILY 8 centimeters.

That was when they broke my water and started Pitocin on me. That was around 11:30 p.m./midnight. Nothing started to happen until around maybe 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. when my back labor hit me and then I started to reconsider my decision about an epidural.

Until then, I wasn't in any pain at all and they kept trying to push pain meds on me -- not the epidural, but other pain meds and I knew from my birth with my daughter that I DIDN'T want anything besides my epidural if I did decide to have one. I was around 8 1/2 to 9 centimeters dilated and they gave me the epidural. After the epidural started to work, it felt good that I was clear- headed and could remember everything. The doctor then checked me and said that I was 9 3/4 centimeters and to lay me on my left side so that I could finish dilating. I laid there for half an hour and at 2:35 a.m. they came in and checked me again and said that I was completely dilated.

At that point the nurse had me start pushing a little bit at a time, a couple of pushes here and there. When the doctor came in and I started to really push I looked at the clock and said to my birth coaches, " Ok, girls, this baby will be born by 3:30 a.m." That was at 3:05 and by 3:30 sure enough, he came out screeching his full head off. When he was born and for the first few days after that he had a very screechy cry. The minute he came out, I started to cry because it was so awesome to hear his wonderful cry after all the time I spent in the hospital trying to keep him inside me. My daughter was born at 31 weeks and was very small when she was born. She didn't cry and she didn't hardly move at all which is why I didn't want hardly any drugs with this baby. When they laid my son under the little heat lamp thingie, he wouldn't stop wiggling and crying. It was the most beautiful sight in the world.

The most exciting part was that they put a mirror at the bottom of the bed and I was able to watch my baby emerge out of me. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. All in all, from the time they put me on the monitor til the time he came out, it was 8 hours and 15 minutes of labor. It was awesome....=) My son Patrick David was born on October 9, 1999 at 3:30 a.m. weighing in (a month early) at 7 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 1/4 inches long. He scored two nines on the Apgar and is so healthy. If he was over 7 pounds at 35 weeks, 6 days, can you imagine what he would have been at 40 or 40+ weeks???? UGH!!!!! =)

Until the end of time,

Jenea