Daddy got a few last minute things in the car and then we headed downstairs to head for the hospital. At this point it was close to 1pm and I had been in labor for 6 hours. I had a few contractions on the stairs and was afraid I wouldn't make it to the car. I said bye to Lela Carmen and Octavio and tried to quickly walk to the car. About halfway there I almost stopped to have another contraction, but luckily I made it just in time to the car before having another one.
I sat in the back seat while Daddy drove and listened to one of my hynobirthing cds. I kept my eyes closed the whole time to the hospital, but your Daddy said there was a lot of traffic getting there. Once we got to the hospital, Daddy put on his hazards and parked right in front of the entrance to the birthing center. I tried to get out of the car but I ended up having a pretty strong contraction so I told Daddy to close the door and I let out a bunch of loud "oooooooooooh" sounds with the contraction. It was weird to see people just walking around going to appointments while here I was contracting away. I barely made it out of the car and then had another contraction. Luckily, I made it down the hall to the elevators and hopped on and had a contraction in the elevator.
I had no idea how close the contractions were at this point, but they weren't painful, just intense. When we got up to third floor, we quickly met our nurse Gail (super nice!) and she got us into our room, #324. I had a contraction right before we went in and then another one before I got into bed for monitoring. I didn't really want to get into bed, but they needed to monitor you for 20 minutes to make sure you were doing aokay. I declined the saline lock, but they still drew my blood for labs (not sure what for). I laid on my side while they did the monitoring and that's when I found out the contractions were coming every 2 minutes. I barely had time to recover before another one would come. I kept making my "ooooooooooh" and "ahhhhhhhh" sounds. Daddy got the things from the car and I changed into the same black tank top that I wore during labor with your brother.
Kala still hadn't gotten there yet, but they called her twice to come over to check my cervix. She finally came and at that point you had only been monitored for 15 minutes, but since my contractions were in such a regular pattern she decided that it was enough monitoring and they took the monitors off, hooray! I told Kala I wanted to go to the bathroom so we headed over there after 2 contractions and I labored there for a few contractions and then my water broke! It was a huge gush and that's when things started to get really intense. I didn't feel you drop, but suddenly the pressure became much stronger, not really painful, just lots and lots of pressure. I did my "oooooooooh" sounds and at that point is when I felt like it was a turning point. Either I could go with the sensations I was experiencing or be scared and stall your birthing. I decided to just go with it. At this point, Kala wanted to monitor you again with the fetal monitors since my water had broken to make sure you were still doing well. I needed to lean back a bit, but I couldn't really do it well so I headed back to the bed so she could monitor you.
My plan was to get on my hands and knees like I was doing at home, but the pressure on my back was too strong at that point. I actually thought that you might be posterior because the back pain was so intense during contractions. I ended up laying on my side which felt better and Kala was finally able to check my cervix. At my 40 week midwife appointment they had asked me if I wanted to see how dilated and effaced my cervix was but I had declined to be checked. I also asked that the midwives not tell me how dilated I was during labor until it was time to push. Kala checked me and after she was done, she said, "Johanna, you can bear down (push) whenever you want." I was shocked because that meant I was 10 cms dilated and completed effaced. I wasn't sure if I heard it right so I asked, "does that mean I can push?" and she said yes, whenever you want. It was all moving so quickly, I couldn't believe I was ready to push you out.
Gail, the nurse, and Kala were so great about the pushing part. I was thinking of getting up and sitting on the squat birthing stool at this point, but I just couldn't get through a contraction without another one coming to give me time to get on the floor with the stool, so I stayed on my side and Kala put up a squat bar on the bed for I could do a side squat. They just let me do my thing, I pushed when I wanted to and there was no counting to 10 or asking me to hold my breath or any of that which was great. Everything was nice and calm and relaxed. Once you started to get further down the birthing canal things started to change. I had a difficult time making really low sounds at this point. It just felt so intense. I still didn't know how close we were to you coming out, but Kala said something about the head being close which I thought was crazy and then she said something about 2 other nurses coming in when the baby came out and then she asked Daddy to wash his hands so he could catch you.
