Birth Blog 1/4: Early Labor

Water Breaking
My water broke at 6:30 while I was in bed, 36 weeks 6 days pregnant.

I felt a little moisture between my legs, stuck a finger down there to see what was up, and went, "Huh." I mean yeah, there was moisture, but pregnancy has been one type of discharge after another so I didn't think a ton of it at first.

But then I rolled over and it felt like someone had popped a water balloon between my legs.

"Oh."

The bathroom door to my left was shut, meaning that Gabe was in there getting ready for work.

"Gabe." Nothing. "Gabe. Gabe!" He opened the door. "My water broke."

"Are you s—" His gaze dropped to the giant spot on the sheets, the drips making their way down to soak the carpet.

"Yes." I got up and hobbled to the bathroom. When I sat on the toilet, gushes more surged out. It sounded like I was peeing, which I called to Gabe. "That's not pee! That's my water!"

I was not nervous or scared. I hadn't had any signs of early labor or anything, but she didn't feel early to me.

"I guess we're having a baby," I said.

Gabe stared at me. "...yep."

Early Labor


The next few hours were mostly pretty chill.

I texted our doula, Jocelyn, who lives in Florida. She'd been planning to fly up May 18, but on short notice the earliest she could get to NC was 10pm, so Gabe and I decided to switch the plan to virtual care with her, via texting and video chat if need be.

Since I was feeling good and my water (which was continuing to gush out in random bursts as I went about the house) was clear, I felt good about laboring at home—despite what the obgyn on-call nurse seemed to assume. I called the office to let them know what was going on, and the nurse said to go to the hospital if I didn't start contracting within in the next hour. Fortunately after a couple of laps up and down our street, I thought I could feel some tiny baby period cramps and called them contractions.

There were two small scares that morning: 1) I suddenly realized about 7:30 that I couldn't remember the last time the baby had moved. You can imagine the games my head played until she finally nudged me again. 2) Some of the water coming out of me was very slightly pink tinged, so Jocelyn suggested we go to the obgyn and see if everything was good. Some blood is normal, but the way it was very mixed in with the amniotic fluid was questionable.

However, at the 10:30am obgyn appointment, the baby's heartbeat was great, it was so obvious that my water had broken that they didn't even test it, and Dr. D'Angelo seemed shocked and vaguely impressed that I declined a cervical check. As far as I'd learned in birth prep, the baby was gonna come on her own time and at her own pace, so knowing how dilated I was at the time would mean nothing.

We stopped at Biscuitville on the way home and got sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits for ourselves and my best friend Cassidy, who I'd called in. I thought about calling Sarah, my sister, and her kids to come over, knowing that toddlers would be the BEST distraction from uncomfortable-but-non-urgent early labor. However, I wanted to see how things progressed.

At home, between bites of biscuit, Gabe finished packing and loaded the hospital bags into the car while Cassidy and I meal prepped some frozen breakfast burritos that I'd meant to make the week before. It came up in conversation that the red raspberry leaf tea I'd been drinking to prepare my uterus might've worked a little too well, and then it occurred to me that maybe drinking it would speed up my labor too. I started chugging, and uh.

It worked.

The tiny baby contractions moved quickly into full-blown period cramps that were very distracting. Whenever they got so intense that I couldn't talk through them, we would start timing.

At some point, Gabe and Cass got the labor pool ready: an inflatable thing from Target that we set up on the back patio and began filling with the hose, adding boiling water to it to try to get the temperature more comfortable.

There are a couple of characters in the TV show Friends who get pregnant, and we'd saved all those episodes to watch during my early labor to get my mind off things, so we started the first of four episodes while the pool filled and water boiled. Cass and Gabe sat on couches, I sat on a big yoga ball, bouncing and rolling through contractions—which Gabe had started timing with an app. Apparently they were close and consistent enough that the app was telling us to go to the hospital, but I could still talk through them so I felt like we should wait. Well, I insisted we wait.

Two-thirds of the way through the first Friends episode I paused it to go to the bathroom, and when the next contraction hit on the toilet, I realized that they were a LOT worse when I couldn't be on the yoga ball. I finished my business and called Gabe in. I only wanted him during this phase. I moved into our closet (attached to the bathroom) and started laboring on all fours on the floor. When I would drop onto my forearms, my t-shirt rode up and got in and mouth, which pissed me off, so I took it off.

As the contractions got more and more intense, Gabe gently began suggesting we listen to the app (we were on its sixth or seventh nudge to go to the hospital). I resisted.

"I can talk through them," I said, rocking on my hands and knees. "The birth course said to wait until you can't talk through them, and even the in-between time is tough. That's not happening yet."

But it was real uncomfortable XD Through each contraction, I hummed and moaned deep in my throat, careful to keep my sounds low and my jaw and shoulders relaxed. I told Gabe that I either wanted to get in the labor pool or use my labor combs. He brought me the combs, and they made a HUGE difference. I would grip them during contractions and the teeth pressed into my palms, doing something scientific pressure-point-wise.

Around 3:45pm Gabe convinced me that it was time to go to the hospital. I still didn't believe that it was and I was convinced the staff would laugh at me for coming in so early, but I told Gabe that I trusted him and that if he really wanted me to go, we could go.

We got in the car and Cass followed. Laboring in the car was super, super uncomfortable. I don't remember much about the drive, and my memories get dimmer from here on out. I remember Gabe taking a curve in the road too sharply for my taste and me loudly demanding that he NOT do ANYTHING like that AGAIN because it made me feel like I was going to throw up. I also told him to talk to me during contractions. "Talk about how they're not pain, they're power." I was surprised at how breathless I sounded. "Tell me I'm strong and my body was made for this." And he did. "LOUDER" I snapped at one point, because my moaning and humming had escalated. "You've gotta be louder than I am."

We arrived at the hospital and there was some parking drama because I couldn't walk the length of the garage, but I also didn't want Gabe to drop me off and leave me to go park. In the end, that was what happened though, and a security guard (?) wheeled me into the labor and delivery department.

I remember the breeze on my face as he wheeled me felt really nice. The contractions really did not.

The journey to the check-in counter is a blur of fluorescent lights and disembodied voices. Gabe caught up to us as I was checking in with...some female behind a counter. She was asking me questions (we had preregistered at the hospital) and I was answering them with my eyes closed, fists clenching the labor combs for dear life even between contractions, which were like really intense period cramps...I think? I don't remember filing away a different way to describe them.

When Gabe arrived he took over answering questions, and I thanked God for the bazillionth time that I have a husband who loves me and pays attention to me and whom I can trust to speak for me when I can't.

Got to a triage room, was put onto a hospital bed. More disembodied voices, annoying questions. Cassidy caught up with us at this point. I agreed to a cervical check and was told that I was 4cm dilated, and that usually the first four take the longest.

Next, a labor room.

~ Stephanie