20 1/2 Hours

My labor began at 2am when my water broke. We made our first trip to the High River hospital to be monitored and make sure everything thing was okay. Since my contractions had not started they sent us home and told us to return in 12 hours. On our way home my contractions started. I monitored them for the next couple of hours as they went from 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart. We then made our second trip to the hospital and were told that I was now 1-2 cm dilated. They gave me a shot of morphine and sent us home again. The morphine was nice as it allowed to me to sleep for a few hours. I then started getting back labor (not the most comfortable experience) and we left for the hospital for the third time. I was now 4 cm dilated and in active labor so I now they wanted me to stay. They gave me a second shot of morphine so that I could walk around and help the process along. High River has a small maternity ward and I was the only woman there for the entire duration of my labor. It was very quiet and peaceful. Around 6pm I decided to take a shower and stayed in there for 3 hours, I loved it. Trev was so patient in sitting there and running the water all over my back. At this point I no longer had the back labor and the contractions were not too bad. They gave me laughing gas to take the edge off if I wanted. Trev of course had to share in the experience! While I was in the shower my contractions started to slow down and become very short. I got out of the shower more out of boredom then anything else as it seemed like nothing was going on. The nurse did another check to see what was going on and I was fully dilated but not really having contractions. She had never had this happen before. She monitored me for a while and asked me at one point if someone had snuck in and given me an epidural as I did not have a lot of pain. The doctor called it a hypotonic labor in which your contractions slow down or stop. As the contractions were short and far between I ended up pushing for just over an hour. After what I call a good labor Noah Cade was born at 10:29 pm on September 16. He was 7 lbs 2 ozs and measured 19.5 inches long. We are very excited he is here and can't wait to share him with all of you!