and I'll start with Emmett's birth story.
Dana had her weekly appt on Emmett's due date, the 14th. nothing new, same dilation and effacement as the previous 3 weeks. well on wednesday the 15th, at around 3pm Dana started having more painful contractions, but very irregular. she'd have one rough one, then nothing for 10 minutes, then a slight one, then a rough one 8 minutes later, etc...
well at about Aria's bedtime (8pm), I had to put Aria to bed because Dana was having strong contractions, and they were starting to be more regular and about 7-8 minutes apart. She would write down the time on a little notepad (we're saving it to put in Emmett's baby book). Dana's mom had been staying with us so we could go to the hospital on a moment's notice. therefore, Dana got ready to go to the hospital while I finished with Aria.
then we waited. we didn't want to be the people who called the medical advice line too early, so we just kept writing down times for the contractions and waited. Aria's birth was different because Dana's water broke, and she was put on a pitocin drip, so we never really experienced natural labor. This was a completely new experience, thanks Emmett! (absolutely zero sarcasm there)
Dana called the advice line at about 10:45 because the contractions were getting stronger and closer together, about 6-7 minutes apart. the advice nurse told Dana that she would call the OB/GYN on call and would call us back. since the hospital is about 20 minutes away from us, we decided to head there before the callback.
we checked into the hospital at about 11:30pm, and found out in triage that Dana was fully effaced and 5cm dilated. So we went to an LDR room and got ready! by the time we had gotten situated and Dana was all hooked up, the Dr on call came by and Dana had dilated 6/7cm. contractions were really bad at this point, so Dana asked for the epidural. once that was administered, everyone left, expecting us to sleep for a bit while things progressed. "see you in 2 hours." was what the nurse and Dr said.
well apparently, our nurse's nickname had become "speedyCat" because all her recent patients had delivered fairly fast. it was an ongoing joke among the nursing staff. at around 1:45 (only about 20 minutes after everyone left us so we could nap), Dana asked me to get the nurse because she was feeling some pressure. the nurse checked Dana and said she was fully dilated and ready to push! by the time the Dr came in and everyone was setup in the room, Dana had begun pushing. it was 2:18am. Emmett came out at 2:24am, I cut the cord with tears in my eyes (exactly the same feeling as when Aria was born), and we held him with joy in our hearts.
