On Sunday, May 17th, I started feeling a lot of what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions. Early the next morning, around 2:45 to be exact, I started having more painful contractions that came about every 3-5 minutes or so for the next 4 1/2 hours. I was surprised that the contractions were already so close together this early on in labor.

That next morning, Ben and I decided to go to work for a few hours where I continued to have contractions but they were more mild. I’m pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy — more so at Ben’s work since he told people at his job that I was in labor, and at work. I think I was able to hide it a bit more at my job. I basically wandered the halls trying to take my mind off of what was happening, knowing it could be awhile.

Around 4:00 that afternoon we decided to go the DC Birth Center to talk with the midwives. I was less than one centimeter dilated and about 60% effaced at that time so we headed back home — they told us to take it easy, and to call if the contractions are 3-5 minutes apart for a few hours. That evening, about an hour after we left the birth center, I started having extremely painful contractions that came about every 3-5 minutes which lasted from 6:00- 11:00pm. At 11:00pm we headed back to the birth center at the midwives’ request. The drive to the birth center was one of the hardest parts of the whole experience as every bump and stop felt like a thousand little knives were jabbing into my back and side, and pretty much all around my pelvic area. When we finally got there, we found out that I was only a centimeter dilated and 90% effaced. I was a bit discouraged as I was sure I had made it further along. So back to the house. I remember I had to drop to the ground every few minutes during the contractions — I found myself on the floor of the Birth Center, the parking lot, and on the floor board of our car kneeling over the seat. Whatever works.

I had heard that you should usually go to the hospital when your contractions are 3-5 minutes apart for a couple hours and mine had already been that close for 5 hours! The midwife said if one of three things happen, we go to hospital – contractions every 2-3 minutes for an hour, pelvic pressure, or if my water breaks.

The contractions continued to be 3-5 minutes apart (although many were closer) for the rest of the night. I finally got into somewhat of a groove though, and while I paced the entire upstairs of our house in between contractions, I listened to Ong Namo by Snatam Kaur on loop. I must have heard that song 100 times! Ben stayed right by my side for most of the night, and was wonderful, but I finally told him to go to bed as we were both so exhausted. I thought at least one of us should try to get some rest. At one point I almost hit my head on the dryer door in between contractions — almost falling asleep standing up. The contractions were 3-5 minutes apart from 6pm-7am — around 13 hours total. It was quite a long journey, and only did I know it had just begun.

As the morning came and the sun rose, I was in somewhat of a daze, exhausted, still pacing the upstairs, and still having contractions but they seemed to slow down to about every 8 to 10 minutes. This was somewhat of a relief and a well-needed break, although I was still a little confused as to what my body was doing and why it seemed to be taking so long, I was trying to let things be.

I tried to lie down for a few minutes but was unable to really rest as the contractions continued the whole next day (Tuesday, May 19th). As night approached, I called the midwife to ask her what the game plan was, and that I didn’t know if I could go through another entire night like the last. After knowing that I had been up for about 42 plus hours, the midwife was worried that my exhaustion was the cause of my body not progressing into active labor. The midwife recommended that I take Tylenol PM to try to get some rest. She said that it wouldn’t stop my body from going into active labor if it was ready and that it wouldn’t hurt the baby, of course.

I took the Tylenol PM around 8pm and laid in bed with my computer:) I found this site that helps you time the contractions — you basically hit the space bar when the contraction starts and then hit it again when it stops. It times the duration of the contraction and the time between each contraction. For about an hour or more I fell asleep for two minutes and then woke up to a contraction — it was like hitting snooze the entire time. I definitely conked out after each contraction stopped due to the Tylenol PM and the lack of sleep. At 11: 20pm, my water broke in bed! I jumped up and ran to the bathroom after I told Ben what was happening. I was shaking and felt cold, and definitely feeling the effects from the Tylenol PM. I quickly grabbed my bag and went straight downstairs to wait for Ben.

So I’m not quite sure what Ben was doing upstairs but it seemed like it took forever. It turns out that Ben had thrown out his back the night before while hauling all of our stuff to the car during our first trip to the Birth Center — and he had just had back surgery a few months before. Needless to say, we were both moaning on the walk to the car.

I felt generally calm on the way to the hospital to meet the midwife but still a little shaky. Ben dropped me off at the front entrance and I ended up sitting on a bench in the dark to wait for him to park. There my water broke some more and I just sat there hoping Ben would come around the corner soon. When we got inside, they took me straight back to a room. There we dimmed the lights and Ben set up his laptop to play some music. I continued to have back-to-back contractions til about 4am. After the volunteer doula showed up around then, and after laboring in the shower for about 30 minutes, I felt like I couldn’t go on. I was completely delirious and exhausted. Although the midwives usually don’t do a cervical check after your water breaks, unless necessary for some reason, she did one anyways to see if I had made any progression. When I found out that I was 7.5 centimeters dilated, and when she told me it’s likely to be several more hours of contractions ahead with the way things were going, I decided to get an epidural. The epidural was a little scary — when they stuck the needle in my back they hit a nerve and it made me jump a tad — which you’re not supposed to do, obviously. But everything went fine and shortly after I found myself asleep after being awake for 51 hours (minus my few minute cat naps).

Around 6am I was still at 7.5 centimeters so they decided to put me on a low dose of pitocin. After that didn’t seem to be helping, they slowly raised the amount of pitocin. I later asked the midwife if she thought the epidural was slowing labor down — she didn’t think so. She thought there was a good chance that I would have had to get pitocin either way — since it took me so long to get to the point I was at then.

Finally around 11am, I feel pressure in my pelvic area and start feeling the need to push. At the same time there was some beeping noise that came from the machine right next to me — apparently it was my epidural drip that was all out, I’m glad it was just that and not something else. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure that I “felt” everything there after as the pain seemed to kick back in. For about 5 minutes (or what seemed like more) my doula was trying to locate the midwife and nurse. When the midwife showed up I was ready to push. After about an hour of pushing, Maya Coble Hiltzheimer was born at 12:53 pm, and weighed in at 6.9oz, and I was so relieved. Our lives have never been the same.

The midwives concluded that I had what’s called a pro-dromal labor. Based on the amount of contractions that I had, I should have been progressing much faster. I’m just happy that everything turned out to be wonderful and that I (we) now have a beautiful baby girl who is now looking at me with a big grin.

We love you, Maya!

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Maya sets her eye on the foot of the Beast

One step closer. Fearless.

Emma readies her Tongue Defense System

Emma landed a tongue so fast the camera could not capture it -- but the aftermath proves there was contact.

Maya regroups after the tongue bath, and engages her own Drool Defense

Undeterred, Maya presses onward

Victory.

Thanks for making it this far.  More tiny adventures to come.

Eye on the prize

Working the elbow technique

Success!

A few days later, she moved her game up onto her knees.

Refining the technique

And today, her adventure is in backwards crawl-sliding, in which she backed herself up about six feet to the underside of a bookshelf.

Unfortunately the house stops there, so we had to reset her trajectory

We expect she’ll be fully mobile in another few weeks, at which point I assume all bets are off, given her energy level while stationary.