Samantha Birth Story - Part 1 - Not labor

So, where do I start? Do I start with going into labor on 13th? Falling on my belly on the 10th? I think just a quit recap of the 13th….

I woke at 1:15am on the 13th to contractions that weren’t really regular, but definitely woke me up… I got kind of excited thinking that not only was it Gwenan’s birthday, but that was also Chris’ dad’s birthday. And if Baby Dos was a boy, his name would have been Samuel Douglas – after Chris’ dad. How perfect to have “him” born on his namesakes birthday!

So Chris stayed home since nothing seemed to be stopping any of the contractions. I did manage to get about 1.5 hours of sleep starting at 6:45 and was happy about that. Then, since the contractions were still going on, I called the doctors office and was told to come in at 10 to get checked.

Instead of being not effaced or dilated, I was happy to be 1cm dilated - barely – and a little effaced. So we headed to the mall to walk around and try to get things going. Well, they did! Man, was I in pain for a while – unreal. I bought a muumuu to wear and some crocs shoes that were amazingly comfortable and I felt much better. So we walked some more around the mall and the contraction got to 3 minutes apart and very regular and pretty painful. (I thought.)

Into the car and off to Porter hospital…. But shortly after I got in the car, they slowed back down and I had a sinking feeling. And rightfully so. I got there and hadn’t effaced or dilated since the morning. So after checking me out, I was sent home. And had stopped most contractions by this time.

The next week plus was filled with contractions on and off and I knew they weren’t doing much – except keeping me awake and wearing me out.