A Labor Story

So, I started to have contractions on Wednesday, March 26 at about 4 in the morning. They weren't that strong, but they were about every five minutes or so, so I started getting hopeful that it could be the day that we'd have a baby... I had plans to go to breakfast with my friend Liz, so after the contractions had started to slow, I decided to go (I mean, what else was I gonna do??) So, at breakfast, Liz was timing my contractions- which were much stronger, but 7 or 8 minutes apart- it was so funny to see Liz's face everytime that I would have a contraction... she kept saying "OH MY GOSH! We better call Justin!".... Anyhow, by lunch I decided to call my doctor who wanted me to come in for a labor check. So, I called Justin and told him to finish up stuff at work because we might be heading for the hospital after the doctor's office. At about 2:30, the doctor checked to see how far dialated I was, and she found that I was about 3 centimeters, which is enough to get admitted to the hospital. So, after making a quick run to the grocery store (at that point I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and I knew as soon as we checked into the hospital all I would be allowed to have was Jello and water... I needed to get some calories!) So, we got ourselves admitted by 4:00pm or so, and then the waiting began. Everytime the nurse would hook me up to the monitor that shows the babies' heartrate and my contractions, the contractions would all but stop! After a while, the nurse and the midwife just looked at me and said "What are you doing here??" My contractions were inconsistently 15 minutes apart! So, we walked and walked and walked- a few miles around Women's and Babies Hospital (Justin felt like a caged animal) and as we walked, I had contractions about 3-4 minutes apart! But still, everytime I would get hooked up to that monitor, the contractions would stop... so, they kept checking to see how dialated I was, and I kept progressing... so we kept walking! By 11:00pm, my water still hadn't broken, so the midwife broke my water, and then the contractions were coming one on top of the other! After a few more hours it was time to push- I pushed for 26 minutes, and then, at 4:06am on March 27, Kristin Grace was born! We were so surprised- we really thought that she was going to be a boy, and so many others thought so too.... but, she is a beautiful, healthy, baby girl! Praise God!