Mary-Therese's Birth Story Part 1

Mary-Therese's (MTs) due date was Saturday, April 22nd. Just like most first time moms, that day came and went. My husband, Jose and I went out to lunch to celebrate this little milestone of ours. We officially made it to 40 weeks. The wait was almost over. We knew that this was probably the last time we went out to eat with just the two of us for a while, so we tried to relish every moment together. At the time, I was scheduled for an induction. Something I was not too keen on. I had done a lot of research while pregnant and knew that there was really no reason to have an induction with a perfectly healthy baby and pregnancy. I prayed about this over and over again. I finally decided to cancel it and wait a few more days to see if anything happened. I just needed to buy some time. 

When I went to the doctors on that following Tuesday for my check up, the doctor was not too happy we canceled the induction that was scheduled for the day before. I wanted to have a natural unmedicated birth and knew that if I were to be induced, it would make the delivery so much harder on me mentally and physically. Regardless of how I felt, the doctor still insisted on putting me down for an induction date. I finally agreed, with reassurance from my husband, to schedule another induction date. I knew if I prayed hard enough, God would allow something good to come out of a situation that seemed to be out of my control. We decided on Wednesday April, 26th at midnight. I asked my doctor to do a membrane sweep before I left the office. I had heard that many woman go into labor soon after they had this done and this was my last hope. 

We left the doctors office feeling okay and trusting that God would allow this baby to be here on His own timing. It took a lot of surrendering and trusting. The entire day, I didn't feel much different. We walked around Target and got things ready for the hospital. I tried to comfort myself by thinking "Well at least we know when we'll be in the hospital." We got packing that day and made sure most of the house was in order. I remember my sister-in-law asking me that night, "Do you feel like the baby is coming?" "Do you feel any different?" To which my answer was always, "No, I feel the same."

That night I decided to take a warm bath to relax and get my mind ready for the events to come. I knew this was probably the last night I really had to myself. It was about 10 pm on Tuesday, April 25th. I decided to turn in early after the bath because I was feeling tired and I didn’t take a nap that day. (Something I later regretted). My husband came to bed about 11:30 or so. I remember hearing him come in, as I was in and out of sleep. As soon as it seemed like he had gone to sleep, I was awoken by some tight and painful contractions. I knew what pronominal or false labor left like because I had been feeling that for weeks now. Somehow, this just felt a little different. I tried to sleep and wait it out. Even if it was true labor, I knew some woman could sleep through their contractions. I tried to sleep, but I was awoken every time. I began to think something was starting to happen. 

After these contractions woke me up 3 or 4 times, I decided to wake my husband up to tell him what is going on. He was excited because this could be it. I was almost in disbelief, as we were scheduled for an induction the following day. Would God really allow me to go into labor the day before my induction, which I really didn't want? Since I had never been in labor before, I didn't know what exactly labor pains felt like, so for a while I was trying not to get my hopes up. We decided to time them for a little while to see what would happen. Sure enough, they kept coming every 7-10 minutes or so. They started to increase in their intensity. I wanted to stay moving so I got out of bed. Every time I felt a contraction, I ran down the hall way as fast as I could. I was hoping this would help me manage the pain better. I also used a hair comb in my hand to squeeze every time I felt a wave of pain. I did both of these to distract myself from the true contraction my body was feeling. I knew how funny this must of looked if anyone were to see us. Every 7 minutes or so I was running or shuffling down the hallway holding a comb in my hand. At this time, I was still able to talk and make jokes with my husband and I found our events to be pretty comical at the time. 

Even though it felt like only an hour had passed by, it was already approaching 4 am. The contractions were now almost 5 minutes apart and a whole minute long for a whole hour. The baby felt so low in my pelvis. I was no longer running, but now I could barely make it down the hallway without stopping. To add to the events of the night, it started to thunderstorm. Our lights in our house started to flicker and we could hear the rain and wind were strong. I decided it was best to start going to the hospital. I worried about making it in the storm as I knew we would have to drive slow. We grab our things and headed to the car. 

To be continued...