Here's the story of how you came into the world! I think I'll organize it by date and then time of events...
February 14th: Mommy has a doctor's appointment (34w, 4 days) and is dilated 2cm!
February 23rd: Another doctor's appointment (35w, 6 days) and is dilated 4cm!
March 1st: Doctor's appointment again (36w, 5 days) and is now dilated 5cm (give or take). Since you aren't yet 37 weeks along, the doctor decides to wait until the following week to strip membranes. If not for that, you probably would have been born earlier (just a hunch!).
March 10th, 8:15am: Doctor's appointment (38w, 0 days). Doctor jokes about why I'm still pregnant (since I'm a master dilator!), and does the regular check stuff...heartbeat is good, still dilated the same as the previous week, you're down pretty low, and he strips membranes. It seemed to take a bit longer than I remember it doing with your brother (different doctor). Seemed to be a bit more instant cramping as well, and the doctor mentioned that there would probably be some spotting afterwards (had blood on glove).
9:30am: Mommy gets to work, still cramping a lot, but continuously. I'm a bit "off" at this point, and make plans to half-day it, and to get everything ready to go on maternity leave. Now is when I start noticing what I thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions (so called "false labor")...they are just tight, and don't hurt, especially compared to the cramping. Monica at work suggests that I start timing THOSE...and I kind of laugh, still in denial that they could be "real".
12:30pm: I leave work and head home. Your daddy is off work anyway and doing things around the house to get ready (he's convinced you're coming the next day, and I was pretty convinced too!). As we're doing things around the house (all the while, still having the tightening), he suggests that since we are running errands near my parent's house, to just get Daniel and take him to your grandparent's house. Not wanting to jinx it (or jump the gun), I turn that idea down (stupid of me!).
3:30pm: We get done eating lunch and head home. Your dad goes off to run the errands quickly while I rest and try to use the contraction timer. From what I can see, contractions are coming maybe every 5-10 minutes (not sure if they are consistent though!). I'm still in denial.
6pm: Your dad and Daniel get home. We have some dinner, watch some TV and hang out a little bit. Not sure how close the contractions are at this point.
8pm: Daniel is in the bath, and I continue to time contractions again. Still, not very painful, and still have the cramping that hurts worse. They seem to be steady at about 8 minutes apart, 1 minute long. I'm still in denial, and think that it won't be until morning that things really get going. Along the way (while timing), there is one contraction in particular that REALLY hurt. So, while being still in denial, I sort of had a moment there where I thought this could be it.
10pm: Daniel's been in bed for a while, and me and your dad are sitting around watching TV (and your mommy is posting on Facebook!)! Contractions starting to get more painful!
10:25pm: Mommy posts on Facebook that she's hit the "It's TIME!". Trying to get a hold of my parents so they know we're coming to drop Daniel off...but it takes like 8 tries to get through (sleeping soundly!). Brilliant move on my part going all the way over to their house, rather than having them meet us at the hospital (don't know what I was thinking there either!).
11:30pm: FINALLY on the road, after fumbling around making sure we had everything. Contractions are definitely under the 5 minute apart mark...more like 4 minutes. I kept trying to calculate how many contractions I'd have to go through before arriving at my parent's house...just to keep my mind off. It hurt, but it was still bearable at that point in time.
March 11th, midnight: Left your grandparents house for the hospital. All freeway, thankfully! At this point, contractions are coming even faster...and they REALLY hurt a lot. I can barely remember half of the trip, just because I had my eyes closed!
12:25am: Got to the hospital! Seemed like an eternity to go through the parking garage to get to the 3rd floor maternity spots. Got out of the car, grabbed like one bag (the one with the camera) and tried to make haste to check-in. I don't remember a whole lot of that either, aside from having to put a lot of effort into getting there and trying to get through contractions still. We made it to the check-in (which was an effort to get through all of the questions...the person at the desk was typing as fast as she could though...that was good!).
From there...the times are a bit fuzzy...
After check-in, we went into triage. I remember handing the nurse the paperwork from the doctor's office (that they gave to me just in case) noting that I was GBS + and needed antibiotics, etc. I got weighed (holding on for dear life to the bar on the scale) and temperature taken. From there, we went back to one of the triage rooms, where I swear I couldn't get undressed fast enough and into the hospital gown. Contractions were still killing me! The triage nurse came and asked the infamous "how far dilated was she at her last appointment". Mike answered that one (again)...and then all hell was about to break loose!
The nurse did the cervical check. I didn't see what her facial expression was (I was pretty out of it in pain), but she had to call back a 2nd nurse to double check..."I think she's at 9cm!". All I could think about at that time was...PLEASE give me an epidural...I REALLY hope I'm not too late!
I'm not sure how much longer it was, but the nurse joked that I was making her run through the hallways again. They got another person to help move the bed, and we took off flying down the hall to the delivery area. Again, I had my eyes shut for most of the trip, so I have no idea where we were going...I just laid back and got through the ride.
Upon arriving in the delivery room...I had to switch beds (I do remember that!) and the nurse was starting an IV to get everything pumped in (which, she could have been slicing my arm with a Swiss Army knife and I wouldn't have cared at that point!). They'd called for the anesthesiologist, so he was on the way (as soon as enough fluids got pumped into me). I kept feeling like I had to pee, and that it would make me feel better if I could...but that didn't happen.
They did the epidural while I was on my side (vs sitting up). It seemed to take longer than I remember from before, but as soon as it kicked in...sweet, sweet relief!
As a side note...your mommy had some pretty wild things coming out of her mouth during contractions. Not just the regular "ow ow ow"...but more like "contractions PLEASE don't hurt me!", as well as lots of humming, etc. It felt like I was a lot louder than I apparently was in reality...and I also was trying to deal with pain by grabbing on to things (Mike's hand, the bed rails, bar in the car, etc.).
I'm not sure how long I got to "enjoy" the epidural before the doctor and resident got there. As soon as they got there though, they broke my water and had me start pushing! About 4 sets of pushes (3 pushes per contraction...the last one had 4), and you were out! They took you over to the little incubator bed and got you cleaned off, weighed and all of that good stuff.
We hung out in the delivery room for maybe 2 hours or so...got to breastfeed and all that good stuff. From there, we got the (bad) news that we'd be in a shared room just until later in the day, which meant that your daddy couldn't stay (we got a private room so he could that night...yay!).
And so ends that story!
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