Labor and Delivery

Friday, January 18, 2013 : Labor Begins.

I began having mild contractions on Friday evening that progressed to 5-6 minutes apart and kept me up most of the night, but slowed down the next day.

Saturday, January 19, 2013 : Let's Walk!

If we were back in the states, the 24-hour Wal-Mart would have been our "go to" walking area. However, we are in Germany...in January...so we were restricted to laps in our PX (basically our Army Wal-Mart, but smaller. WAY smaller.) And after about the 5th trip there, we were bored and just ready for Parker to arrive. Contractions picked back up by the evening, but still no progression past 5 minutes...

Sunday, January 20, 2013 : What do you mean you can't sleep through contractions?!

Let the sleepless nights begin! ...and the baby isn't even here yet! Day 3 of contractions with what seems like little progression...

Monday, January 21, 2013 : "I think we should go to the hospital..."

After long nights and days of walking in circles looking at the same 10 things at the PX, a trip to the hospital is in our near future. We arrived at the hospital around 9:00 p.m. and I was only 1 cm dilated. Bummer. The "good" news: my contractions were getting more intense and by the next morning, I had progressed to 3 cm!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 : The Due Date.

I spent the day walking around the hospital and sitting on the CDG Monitor (to monitor contractions and the baby's heartbeat), but by dinner time, I was in the bathtub trying to relieve some labor pains. Despite being asked multiple times if I wanted anything to relieve the pain, I was determined to have Parker all natural and continued to refuse the pain meds. The midwife checked me again around 11:30 p.m. and I was 6 cm dilated so she moved me to the labor and delivery room - we were on our way! Shortly after moving and getting settled in, they broke my water and we were moments away from meeting our son! I pushed for about 1 hour...

My labor and delivery room. We were 90 minutes from delivery at this point, and even though contractions were steadily increasing and I was pain medicine free...I was still smiling! :)