so around 2:45 am tuesday, may 11th, i started having contractions... i couldn't tell if it was just back labor so for a few minutes i tried to endure the pain myself... about 15 minutes later, i decided jason needed to be awake with me : ) so... we started timing and the contractions seemed to be very regular. at 3:20 am or so he was sure we needed to call becky (aunt becky to bella, our fabulous neighbor who had middle of the night duty), my mom & his mom... i was a little nervous about the phone calls as i didn't want to wake anyone if this wasn't indeed true labor... well, thankfully jason was thinking clearly and insisted he was calling... about 10 or 15 minutes later becky was at our house, jason was showered and we were finishing our packing for the hospital... becky said we needed to hurry as it seemed my contractions were closer than every 5 minutes... i was sure i was fine and said we'd leave in just a minute- i just wanted to make sure everything was where it needed to be for jason's parents who were coming to get bella, etc...
we'll we got in the car and jason seemed to be "hauling bananas" down dekalb avenue- i asked him to slow down as i felt like i was on a roller coaster- his response "babe, i have one job to do- get you to the hospital in time"... how does one respond to that?!?! other than clutch everything in the car in severe pain as yet another contraction comes.
eventually we arrived at the hospital and i still had thoughts in the back of my mind that they were going to say i was in false labor- HA! were we in for a surprise! i was 8 cm dilated, fully effaced, etc. my first question/concern was what about the epidural... the nurses assured me that there were no concerns- i would still be able to have one and that they would start the bag of fluid immediately... well that was a funny joke- it took (2) nurses, one of whom seemed to dig for over 5 minutes to find a vein for my IV... they said i had "tiny veins"... whatever that means ~ all i knew was that i was in INTENSE pain and that time was of the essence... something it felt as if they were missing... i believe it was when the first nurse left to find another nurse to find another to locate my vein, i said that i was pretty sure i needed to use the bathroom- however, that was actually my water breaking- upon making the nurses aware of this they began to seem a bit concerned/unsure of whether i would really be able to get an epidural- one of the nurse's responses to me was "i don't know" regarding the epidural... talk about being nervous and upset... i literally didn't know what i was going to do. before i knew it the dr was in the room, i was told i was 10 cm, her head was coming and there was NO TIME FOR AN EPIDURAL... WHAT?!?!?! this was NOT MY PLAN!! i was quick to tell them that i didn't want to do it... i didn't know how... and that "damn it, i want my epidural" ~ the last comment was followed up w/ an apology to the nurse- i told her i don't talk like that normally and feel so awful to be so rude, but this was completely freaking me out... and in jason's words i became possessed for the remainder of the delivery... the dr did do a great job helping me (thankfully she had delivered her 2 children naturally so she knew first hand what i was going through)... when asked if i wanted to touch ava as she was being delivered, i quickly answered, "NO, i just want her out of me!!!!!!!!!!!"
when all was said and done i had delivered a beautiful baby girl and jason and i agreed he can never, ever, ever say that i don't have a high pain tolerance : ) and now we like to joke that if we go for #3 (and please note, that is a HUGE if) we will just need to leave for the hospital the minute my first contraction starts if i don't want jason delivering him/her on the highway!!
