One Year Ago

I really was just joking when I served the baby an eviction notice on Thursday morning, September 25. And it was unintentional that both lunch and dinner on Thursday were both rather spicy. It seemed like a regular day. In the evening, Dan and Paula came over to watch the season premiere of The Office. As usual, I got tired and went to bed at around 10pm while they all were still watching Somebodies.

Gabe: Headed to B'ham with the rest of the ATL365 staff in the a.m. to pour some iron.via Twitter - 7:41pm

At around 1:20am I felt something a little warm on my lower back, and I got up for my usual hourly bathroom visit. That's when I felt this gush and it got all over the bed. I just knew, especially since I had the false alarm a couple of weeks ago when I thought I was maybe leaking amniotic fluid.

Since Gabe was getting up early to drive with his staff to Birmingham for the film fest, I was sleeping in the guest room. I walked down the hall to wake him up and tell him about my water breaking. He got up and seemed confused. He asked me if I was sure and suggested that I peed on the bed. I told him to go get this special panty liner that my OB gave me that would change color if it was amniotic fluid. He came back and sure enough, the liner turned green.

He still didn't believe me! He still thought it was urine, and he asked me when was the last time I did anything early in my life? Since I’m Asian and usually late for everything (CPT), he figured that the baby would be late too. Yes, it all felt surreal…

Gabe: Water breaking? Is this it?via Twitter - 1:51am

We hadn't packed our bags because I still had to use everything anyway like my cell phone charger. Also, I didn't want to leave my bag with my camera and laptop in the car for weeks. So we scrambled around to pack my bag since Gabe was already packed for Birmingham. Since I’m a little OCD, I had already printed out a list of things I wanted to pack so it really wasn’t that hard. I also took a shower, and then I called my doctor's office and she told me to go to the hospital. We finally left the house at 1:45am.

The drive…I will never forget it. 2am. Quiet on the street. Gabe and I are alone, for the last time. The anticipation. We are going to be a family. We are going to have a son.

We pulled into Piedmont's emergency entrance and the attendant took me up to Labor and Delivery.

Gabe: At the hospital.via Twitter - 2:37am

Gabe: Hospital...so, contractions...I.V. Paperwork. Discharge. Moved car. Talk of inducing at 9am or so.via Twitter - 3:53am

Nurse Connie asked me some questions about why I thought my “water bag” broke, and I told her about the liner. I’m sure the nurses have to send a lot of women home because of false labor so she seemed impressed when I told her about the panty liner. She then asked me what the plan was since I hadn't really advanced past 50% effacement and 2cm. I told her that even though my water broke, I wasn't having any contractions yet. And I didn’t really have a plan; I told her I would trust the nurses and doctor to tell me what to do. However, if there was still nothing by 6am then I would possibly want to speed things up with Pitocin. And I definitely wanted an epidural when the time came, but I wanted to be as little medicated as possible.

We settled in, and of course Gabe set up his electronic control station and turned the television on to CNN. I think he forgot that I was in the room because he never took his eyes off his iPhone or iMac [I only learned almost a year later that he was freaking out and didn’t know what to do]. Then I started having contractions, and yep, what everyone said was true! You can definitely tell the difference between Braxton Hicks and real contractions. They were really painful! I finally got fed up with Gabe and told him that he’d better take his eyes off his phone and start paying attention to me! After my contraction subsided, he told me that he understood that this was rough and that I would say things that I didn't mean. I looked at him incredulously and told him, hell yeah, I certainly meant what I said!

All the excitement finally hit Gabe so he tried to take a nap. I had him put in a DVD of The Bourne Identity to keep me occupied. However, the contractions were pretty painful and I couldn’t concentrate on the movie. I think I dozed in and out.

Gabe: Timing contractions.via Twitter - 4:30am

So 6am came along, and Nurse Connie came back in and said all the nurses were amazed at my "monster contractions." She said it was "all or nothing" for me and called me “poor girl.” She also laughed because my blood pressure was the best even after the last huge contraction. So even though my contractions were huge, they weren't regular so she started me on Pitocin.

Gabe: Ice chips...monster contractions...first mention of epidural.via Twitter - 6:58am

The contractions started coming more regularly and boy were they painful! I was begging for an epidural by 7:30am. They found the anesthesiologist right away and he rushed in before he even had a chance to change his clothes. I think the nurses were all waiting for me to ask for the epidural since they could see how strong the contractions were. And after those contractions, getting the epidural was a piece of cake.

The epidural was my new BFF! OMG! What a difference. I felt so good and even told Gabe I was ready for 3 more kids...

However, the Pitocin was apparently making my blood pressure go up so Nurse Deborah suggested that I come off of it. By 7:55am, I got another internal and I was only dilated 4-5cm.

Gabe: the epidural is in, trin is smiling.via Twitter - 7:47am

Gabe: 4 to 5 cm...via Twitter - 7:49am

Gabe: So far, so good. "Baby's heart rate is great!," says the nurse. Trin is cracking jokes. She Loves the epidural: predicts 4 more kids.via Twitter - 9:10am

By 9:25am, I was dilated 6cm. I was really disappointed by how slow things were progressing. Paula decided to drive to Birmingham later so she arrived at around 10am with Starbucks and a muffin for Gabe. I was only allowed to have ice chips and I was getting really thirsty.

Gabe: I hope the baby recognizes the consequences of being born on 9/26 as opposed to, say 10/9. Birthdays: Olivia Newton John vs. John Lennon.via Twitter - 9:12am

Gabe: Posting blogs, emails, tweets, SMS etc. Feeling VERY Obama right now...and no, the the baby's name is NOT going to be Biden.via Twitter - 10:49am

Gabe: When the time comes, we'll be posting name, weight, time on Trin's http://BabyWardell.Blogspot.com baby blog.via Twitter - 11:00am

The time seemed to go by so slowly as we waited so I took out my laptop and did some work. The reactions from some of my coworkers were so funny when they realized I was emailing work stuff during my labor, but it was helping to keep me occupied. Gabe and Paula were texting, Twittering, whatever on their iPhones.