Link's due date was August 3rd 2013. Having this date in mind, seeing my ankles and feet swell beyond recognition, and with the agony of warmer and warmer days to come I was dead set that he would come in July. NOT August. I did not want to walk around as an elephant any longer than absolutely necessary in the summer. In fact, I had a date in mind from the beginning. I just knew he was going to come on our anniversary, July 22nd. Which is twelve days "early" (anything after 37 weeks was just fine with me!) I just knew it.
On Saturday, July 20th my bestie Leah and I went to get manis and pedis. I was very thankful I got this one last thing done for me, it made me feel pretty in the hospital (mind you I could not actually see my own face.) That night around eleven while I was in bed I noticed some very slight sort of cramping feeling in my lower abdomen. I knew this was it. It was the beginning. I knew the baby may not be here for quite a while, but I could tell it was real. The cramping would come and go every 7 to 10 minutes, and last 10-20 seconds. Overall I was very happy and excited I might get to meet my baby boy soon.
I had been disappointed at my last two doctor's appointments. At 36 weeks when I was checked there was no dilation or efacement. Zero. Not what a woman who was hoping to have the baby at 38 weeks wants to hear. At my 37 week appointment, again, no dilation. He said my cervix was a little thinner, but that he didn't think baby was coming sooner than my due date. Shucks.
So Sunday morning, July 21st, I woke up (Chris had already left for work at 5 that morning.) I went to the bathroom and noticed (TMI warning!) some slightly pink mucus. Yay! He was definitely on his way. I called Chris and told him so he was on the heads up and so he could let his work know in case he needed to leave. By eleven am, I wasn't feeling any more cramping, and was feeling well the rest of the day. I went to the grocery store to get a bunch of food to make and store in the freezer for after baby comes. (We bought a stand alone freezer for our garage on Friday, July 19th - just in time!) I can not remember at all what Chris and I did that night. We just went about our normal routine. We both had work in the morning and I had my 38 week appointment before work. In bed again I noticed the cramping coming around every 7 to 9 minutes, still very light, not painful, just definitely there.
In the morning July 22nd, again, I had a slightly redder mucus when I went to the bathroom. I remember looking in the mirror and saying to myself, "this really is real." I went to my appointment, proclaiming to the nurse and my doctor that I had been having activity and would be having this baby soon. He looked at me, happy, but I could tell he was thinking I was probably jumping the gun. I was, after all, a first-time mom and had been having no movement downstairs at all yet. He checked me and I could see the surprise on his face. I was dilated 3 cm and 85% effaced. Guess I wasn't lying. He said it looked like I would be having this baby in the next day or two.
I called Chris on the way to work to let him know about the progress but that he should be fine to stay at work (he got off at 2:30). I went in to work around nine and did some office stuff for a couple hours while keeping track of my contractions, they weren't painful or incredibly regular (9 to 13 minutes apart) but they had been steadily coming as opposed to the previous day where I wasn't noticing them during the day at all. Thankfully work was really low key since my boss was on vacation for the week. Around eleven I decided to go home. My goal was to get the house cleaned up a bit and maybe take a nap.
Chris got home around 3pm and that's when I noticed the contractions getting a little stronger, but still very mild. Porter had been sort of limping after he had been lying down for a while, at first we thought he just had a stiff leg or hip, but it had been going on for a while. So we had a vet appointment for him scheduled at 4 that day. So we packed him up and headed to the vet. My contractions were definitely getting more consistent by then. I had three contractions during the twenty minutes we were in with the vet. (The vet thinks Porter has either a strained or torn ACL, oh no!) Next, we needed to pick up the freezer. So, with Porter in the back seat, we loaded the freezer in the back of the truck. On the way home I noticed my contractions getting quite a bit more uncomfortable. Still I wasn't alarmed. I figured we would go home, get some dinner, pack up, finish cleaning the house, and spend the night just trying to stay comfortable and go to the hospital in the morning.
Well, we got home and while we were waiting for Chris's brother and father to come help unload the freezer I went to the bathroom. (TMI Warning!) when I sort of stood up/hunched over to wipe (can't really bend at this point) there was a small gush of warm clear liquid. I sat back down and contemplated this. Welp. Guess this is going down tonight. On our anniversary. Good thing we didn't have anything planned.
I yelled for Chris, when he came in I told him my water had just broke, which meant we needed to get to the hospital now. Things were a little frenzied. Chris called his brother again to ask where he was (turns out he was just turing into the neighborhood, and was like "chill.") As he pulled up, Chris was frustrated his dad wasn't with his brother so he couldn't just leave the project to them while we got ready to leave. So while Chris and his brother dealt with the freezer I packed a bag and gathered things we would need for the baby. Chris hurriedly fed the dogs and explained to his brother how to take care of the dogs while we were gone (including giving Porter the medication we had just gotten for him.) Overall it was really overwhelming.
Finally we said goodbye to the dogs and were on the way to the hospital. Since, obviously, Chris's family would know we were going to the hospital we decided to call my mom and let her know we were going as well. Of course she offered to come down and wait (this is why I didn't want to tell anyone too early!) I was like "NO!" I love my family, but I didn't need anyone waiting on me while I was in labor and I only wanted Chris in the room. Besides, it was 6:30 by the time we were going to the hospital, and chances were this baby wouldn't be born until the wee hours of the morning anyway. People just needed to relax. Meanwhile, I was not relaxed. The contractions were becoming very uncomfortable on the car ride. We arrived to the hospital. We hadn't had dinner. It was hot. Happy Anniversary.
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