I was 38 weeks 2 days pregnant with my first child at the age of 18 on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008. I woke up at 9am, feeling crampy. I felt like I just needed to poop, so I kept trying to go but nothing would happen. I paced around my room for about an hour before my boyfriend woke up. He asked me what was wrong but I kept saying "nothing, my stomach's just bothering me". He asked me over and over if I thought it might be labor and I said no way. After watching me pace around for maybe 30 minutes, he suggests that I call my mom just to ask her opinion because he's pretty sure I'm in labor. I reluctantly call her and as soon as I hear her voice, I just break down in tears "mommyyy, it hurts..." and she laughed at me and said "yep, you're in labor, I'll be right there". I wake my dad up (we were living with him at the time) and tell him that I think I'm in labor and mom's heading over. I start walking in circles around the first floor and my mom shows up and starts timing my contractions. She says that they're already 3 minutes apart and we can head to the hospital whenever I want to (it was maybe 11-11:30am at this point). I walk around a bit more as the contractions are starting to get more and more painful and decide to head to the hospital.

Get to the hospital maybe around noon. The nurses check me and get me set up in the labor room. They ask me if I want an epidural, I say no, and then they scoff at me and say "you'll probably be in labor for a while, so get comfortable". The nurses leave the room after doing what they needed to do and came back to check on me once in a while. Every time they would check on me, they'd ask me if I wanted that epidural yet. When the contractions became very intense, they asked me (again) if I wanted the epidural and I finally caved and said YES! They go to find the anesthesiologist and come back to tell me that he's busy in the ER and I'll have to wait until he's done. My mom is holding my hand and telling me to breathe and relax. My boyfriend is holding my hand and seemed so anxious and nervous himself. My dad kept popping into my room to check on me. Then he realized I had a TV in my room, and I guess there was no TV in the waiting room, so he puts the football game on the TV so that he can watch the Steelers play. Then I have my dad and my cousin coming into my room every so often to check the score of the game - while I'm laboring. At one point, my dad tried to crack a joke (he has a special kind of humor) and told me to "man it up" in the middle of a contraction, so I asked him to leave my room.

Finally, I feel the urge to push and tell my mom. She goes to find a nurse and comes back to say they'll be right there. Waiting, waiting, waiting - the urge comes back and still no nurses/doctor around. My mom goes out again two more times to tell them. Finally, on the 4th trip, my mom grabbed the first person that "looked like a doctor" and drug him into the room. He checks me and verifies that I am fully dilated and yells at the nurses for not checking me the first time my mom told them. I start pushing and my OB finally shows up and takes over. After a couple pushes, my OB grabs the scissors and gives me an episiotomy out of nowhere (no local anesthetic, nothing - OUCH!). The baby slid out almost immediately when she cut me. Then we deliver the placenta and she says she feels a blood clot inside my uterus and shoves her entire hand up into my uterus to dislodge the clot (what an awkward feeling o.O). Then she stitches me up and leaves.

Jude Riley was born 11/23/2008 at 2:34pm. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. I was in labor for a total of 5.5 hours.

 

Bonus link to the birth story of my second child