Early Saturday morning I woke up having some contractions, but that was nothing new... I went back to bed assuming they would stop. By 6am I was pretty sure I was in labor, but still was waiting for some really painful contractions. I called Julie, our doula, and she told me to take a shower and call back if I was still having contractions. I called about a half hour later and told her that my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, but not that intense. My parents had just arrived from Dallas the day before, so they watched Andrew while David and I went for a walk. Julie got to my house and didn't think we were in any hurry - I was walking and talking through the contractions and still smiling. After a few walks around the block, I thought we should go to the hospital, because I didn't want to be miserable on the car ride over. When we arrived my contractions were every 3 minutes or so, but very bearable. When we walked in the building a nurse ran over with a wheelchair - I politely declined and told them I would like to continue walking for a while before going up to labor and delivery - I was feeling good. We had some breakfast and then went for a walk outside around the hospital, it was a beautiful May morning. When we came in from our walk, I decided to go up and get checked. As we were heading toward the elevator the doctor on call (Dr. Soper) met us at the doors. She told me that I this was my second baby and I needed to get upstairs. I told her I was feeling great and really didn't think we needed to be in such a hurry. The lecture from the doctor slowed my contractions down - now they were only every 6 minutes or so. I was afraid they were going to send me home. She checked me and said "you are 8cm, 9 when having a contraction - you are going to have this baby in the next 20 minutes". I really thought she was kidding, but Dr. Soper is not the kidding type. Julie mentioned that I was beta-strep positive and needed antibiotics. The doctor then told me it was stupid not to come up earlier and that the drugs would do no good unless I had them for 4 hours, which was not going to happen. I told her to give me the antibiotics and decided I was not going to have this baby for 4 hours! So I got the meds and then walked around the hospital, sat on the ball, took a shower, had David and Julie rub my hands and feet - it was a relaxing morning! Four hours later, after receiving my second dose of antibiotics, they checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push. The doctor broke my water and I was still feeling great, I wanted to get up and do some more walking. After standing for about a minute, I was ready to push. It was an excruciating 22 minutes of pushing, but I couldn't complain after a very comfortable 12 hours of active labor. Baby Isaiah was perfect! The nurse took him over to get him cleaned up and exclaimed your hair is in your eyes little guy - he got his first hair cut at 5 minutes old! We were the talk of the floor - the mom that walked around the hospital fully dilated with no drugs and the beautiful blond-haired baby that was born :)
Contractions on the birthing ball on the main floor of the hospital
It was a beautiful day so we took a walk outside
The contractions were not totally painless, but very easy to work through
Here I am calling my sister, fully dilated and still feeling great
My husband was amazing - very encouraging
I was so excited to see him, shocked that he came so fast!
Daddy was glad to see him too
He was handsome!
I told Julie we made her job too easy this time!
