Around 1:00 or 2:00am, I took a hot bath to try to relieve that tightness/achiness in my back area. I still couldn't rest very well. I kept timing contractions and updating Mike.
I started feeling pretty uncomfortable pains and realizing this was the real thing around 3:00am. I was still afraid the pains would stop though and started consulting with Mike about when to call the midwife. I called her around 4:30 to give her some warning.
I started wanting Mike to get the kiddie pool set up. He was hard to wake up and seemed grumpy at first, but he worked really hard at getting it the right temperature once he was fully awake and realized that I was really in labor.
I sat in the pool for about an hour through some pretty intense contractions. Mike called the midwife again around 6:30 and told her my pains were about four minutes apart. He'd been timing, but they ranged from 3 to 7 minutes.
My five-year-old son woke up and thought I was making some funny noises. He told me my moaning sounded "silly."
I got out of the water around 7:00am. Sitting up in the bed felt more comfortable in giving my backside support. The lightness of my body in the water had made the pains feel more intense.
The midwife arrived just afterward and lisyened to the heartrate. She and her apprentice monitored baby's heartrate pretty frequently.
I had Mike to wake up my oldest daughter, who was 7. My pains were starting to feel really tight and intense. I took slow, deep breaths and pushed against my back with my hand. At this point, I was still talking normally between contractions and making sure the kids knew I was fine.
After awhile, I felt like I needed to lean forward and I started getting out of bed onto the floor. I was on my knees and the midwife scooted over an ottoman for me to lean over on. After not much longer, the pains got almost unbearable and I started feeling pelvic pressure. Mike was on the phone giving directions for someone to take his basketball team to camp. I thought it was getting close, so I sent my daughter to get him. He practically ran back into the bedroom and threw up my gown and got behind me. If I wasn't in so much pain, I would have laughed at him. I knew it wasn't THAT close, but he stayed poised to catch the baby.
