Benjamin's Birth: Pt. 1

My oh my, what a whirlwind the past four days have been!

Such an exhilarating, exhausting, joyful, crazy, and wonderful experience.

Let's start with how it all began, shall we?

It was Friday afternoon, September 13.

I had been having my usual contractions throughout the day, although they were a little different; they were more "crampy" than usual.

I didn't pay much attention though, because we had an OB appointment in the afternoon, and they still weren't regular or anything. 

At our appointment, I was still only 1cm - the same as I had measured at Tuesday's appointment. 

Nothing had changed, I didn't think anything would change.

I headed back to work and then Thomas and I went to dinner with my parents after work. 

Throughout dinner I kept having those painful contractions and I noticed they were happening more frequently.

But I convinced myself they meant nothing and ignored them.

Once we got home from dinner, I mentioned to Thomas that I had been having crampy, painful contractions all day, and we decided maybe we better start paying attention to how often they were coming...

So we played some cards and watched the clock. 

At first they were about 30 minutes, but they quickly decreased to 20 minutes apart. 

After our card game (I won of course!) we decided maaaaybe we should pack the snack bag, gather our chargers & electronics, and have everything together juuuust in case...
We also had some fun taking pictures of my belly.

Just in case it really was my last night with Benjamin nestled in my belly...

I went to bed at about 11:00 with the contractions still about 20 minutes apart...

...It was about 1:15 when I woke up to a painful contraction. 

Thomas was still awake, sitting on his computer job hunting. 

I sat in bed timing my contractions that were becoming more and more painful, and killing the time on Pinterest. :) 

Thomas came in about 2:00am, surprised to see me sitting up in bed. 

I told him: the contractions were about 4 1/2 minutes apart!!!

Decided to time them another half hour before I called the doctor.

At about 2:30, I called and got the okay to head over to the hospital!

We arrived at Maple Grove Hospital at about 3:00am. 
We sat in the triage room for over an hour while they measured my cervix and kept me hooked up to a monitor to watch my contractions and Benjamin's behavior. 
I was 3cm!! I was shocked! I was just 1cm at the OB a few hours ago! 
Crazy.
FINALLY, over two hours after my arrival, the nurse said: "This is it. Let's get you to a delivery room!"
YAY!!! This was a moment I had waited so long for! We would be meeting our little baby boy in a matter of hours. 
Now, at the time, we were thinking some time in the evening after dinner...
...Ha. Yeah, right...

We got settled into a room, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and growing stronger.
I was still in a great mood though, and able to have fun...so we decided to start taking pictures to document this wonderful experience!

 At 6am, the doctor, Dr. Mirau, had come by to introduce herself, stating, "I am off at 7, so I won't be delivering your baby, but I thought I'd introduce myself anyway and see how you're doing."
SURPRISE. She did deliver Benjamin.
But we'll get to that part later...

After talking a minute, she checked me and we learned I had only grown 1cm in 3 hours. Dr. Mirau suggested that if I wanted, we could break my bag of waters and that might help get the labor moving. She stressed "might."
I thought sure, why not?
It has to break at some point, right?
Bad. Idea.

(To be continued...dun dun dun...)