Sunday morning at 5 a.m. I woke up to what I thought might've been a contraction. I felt a lot of pressure, like a bad menstrual cramp, and then it went away. I had about 3 of those episodes in the space of 45 minutes, at which point I snagged the iPad and opened the app I downloaded previously to help time contractions. It was tricky deciding when they started and ended, but the general pattern of being about 15 minutes apart and lasting about a minute and a half continued.

At 6:45 I got up to use the loo and noticed some bright red bleeding. I was pretty sure that was a symptom my doctor told me to call about, so I turned on the ol' lappy, verified the instructions to call OB Emergency Services in that circumstance, and proceeded to make the call. The midwife wasn't terribly concerned, but said I should probably come in and get checked out "just in case." I woke up Jacob at that point by shaking him and saying "We need to go to the hospital." He was a little out of it at first, but quickly snapped to action.

I wanted to eat breakfast since I knew I wouldn't be allowed to eat once we got checked in, so I had some cereal while Jacob hopped in the shower. We packed the hospital bag (if by "packed" you mean "threw in a bunch of random clothes and the camera and some other odds and ends") and got ready to leave. By this point, contractions were coming about 6 minutes apart and I was more convinced this was the real deal. This did not, however, stop me from apologizing to Jacob in advance if this was a false alarm and made the trip for no reason.

During the car ride, contractions were coming three to four minutes apart and I really had to focus on breathing through them. Fortunately, since it was Sunday morning, there wasn't any traffic on the ride to the hospital. Unfortunately, the valet service was closed, so we had to find a spot in the parking garage. Jacob tracked down a wheelchair and proceeded to take me for a whirl as we attempted to find the entrance to the hospital from the garage. (It was trickier than anticipated.)

We made our way up to the labor and delivery unit and then wandered the halls for a bit, unsure of where to go since nobody was around. Jacob ended up calling the Labor and Delivery unit again, effectively saying, "Uh, my wife is in labor and we're at the hospital . . . where do we go?" When we finally checked in, I told the woman in charge that I'd been having contractions about four minutes apart and had experienced some bleeding. When they checked me, we were told that I was 7 cm dilated.  I ventured to ask, "Does this mean we're not getting sent home?" No, no, we were not. Later, one of the nurses said prior to getting checked they didn't think I was in actual labor because I was so calm about describing the frequency of contractions.

We were taken to our labor and delivery room and I requested an epidural. Jacob went back to the car to get our things, so he missed out on the whole process. At this point I was kind of out of it. I could hear the anesthesiologist speaking, but I wasn't really processing his words. Getting the epidural wasn't too bad, but I think it may have been too late to be super effective. I think he was finished by 9:20 and said it should start taking effect by 9:30. My legs and bum got tingly, but I still felt incredible amounts of pressure. I kept grabbing onto the side of the bed and trying to switch positions to cope with the pressure better, but nothing really seemed to help. The contractions were piling on top of one another, and I didn't get much of a break in between. I remember kind of whimpering and saying, "It hurts," to Jacob at least twice. I did a lot of heavy breathing and kept asking for water. Around 9:55 I asked Jacob what time it was, and when I asked again at 10:10, I said, "It's only been 15 minutes?!" More power to the women who have to endure long labors.

A short time later, I was checked again and was found fully dilated with the baby's head super low. They called for some doctors, and by the time they got there, one held up his fingers maybe an inch and a half apart and said that was the distance between her head and the opening. They got me into position, with Jacob holding one leg and a nurse holding another, and told me to push when I felt pressure. I wasn't really sure how to control my breathing at first, and someone put an oxygen mask on me. After maybe three contractions and a total of 14 minutes of pushing, our daughter made her entrance into the world.

Marie Elizabeth, welcome to our family. We couldn't be more thrilled that you're here!