It began on Friday, September 7th. I woke up with an overwhelming need to clean. Everything. Now. I spent the day doing load after load of laundry (including the baby laundry that had been sitting in a box waiting for me.) I worked hard on the living room, getting it organized, and clearing surfaces. I got a little distracted and started on the unnecessary task of sorting through pictures. I sort of lost steam after getting sidetracked with that.
But, just before dinner time the desire and motivation to get the house clean returned with full force. There is no pleasant way to explain why, so I'll just say it returned after a little discovery during a trip to the restroom. It was at that time when I started to wonder if my feeling of an early baby was really and truly right, it was then that I realized baby could be coming soon.
I asked Mr. Boss to take over dinner prep, and I got to scrubbing my bathroom. I had cleaned it fairly recently, so the job didn't take as long, but I was still thorough. After that, I moved on to the children's room, wanting to have it finished before bedtime.
(Around this time, I heard the sound of water running, I went to the bathroom to check on it. There I found Z, standing on the toilet, water running from our sink faucet. The sink was full to overflowing, water spilled over onto the floor that I had just finished drying. It was awesome.)
We ate dinner, and then we sent the children to bed. I wasn't sure if/when labor was going to start, so I didn't mention to Mr. Boss that I thought it might be soon. Instead we put on a movie and I kept washing and folding laundry, determined to get everything done. I was folding clothes when I felt like I needed to pee. When I was done, I stood and turned to the sink to wash my hands, and that's when I felt it. A trickle. I quickly dropped my drawers, sat back down and waited. Nothing happened. So, I stood back up. Once again, I felt a small trickle. It didn't take me long to realize what was happening. My water was broken. It didn't come in a great, rushing gush, like I'd experienced with C, just a little bit of leaking. I was feeling a bit shocked, so it took me a moment, but I got smart, put on a pad, washed my hands, and came out of the bathroom. I went straight to my phone to text my midwife, Nedra. It was about 10:30 pm. As soon as the message sent, I figured it was time to fess up to my suspicious spouse. Our baby was coming.
I got the laundry I'd been folding put away, and abandoned the movie we were watching so that I could get the dishes done, clean off my stove top, and get my 39 week post put together and scheduled for the next morning. (Because these are the things you do when you realize your water has broken.) Mr. Boss asked if he should blow up the pool, but I told him not yet. I wasn't really having any contractions, and I didn't know how long it would take for them to start, so I figured we could wait.
By 1 am, I finally felt satisfied with the cleanliness of my house, so I went to bed, to get as much sleep as I could. I tossed and turned for a while. Maybe it was because I was excited and surprised, but I could not fall asleep. Eventually, I did fall into a light slumber, but was woken around 3:45 by what felt like pretty regular contractions. I was breathing through them, but they were a bit uncomfortable, so I decided to get up to find a better position. I thought that this was it, and figured that meant it was a good time to get the pool started. I woke Mr. Boss and asked him to get on that.
We both came out into the living room, I sat on the ball, he tried to get the pool started. Because we didn't have an electric pump, we had to do it by hand. We were told a bike pump would do the trick, but Boss realized that we'd need a needle attachment if it was going to work. The problem was, we didn't have one of those. So I pulled out the hand pump that came with my ball and had him try that. Still, he couldn't get any air into it. I asked if I could give it a try, and was able to get some air into the pool. Boss thought that would take too long. He decided to go against everything he believes in, and went to Walmart, because it was the only place he could think of that would have needles and be open at 4 am.
While he was gone I continued with the hand pump stopping here and there to breathe through a contraction. When Mr. Boss returned, he was impressed with the progress I had made on the pool, but ready to take over. The only problem was that, even with the needles, the bike pump was pretty useless. So the pool was blown up exclusively with the hand pump, each of us taking turns.
I had made pretty great progress with the pool, but since I'd gotten out of bed, it seemed like my contractions had tapered off. I continued sitting on the ball anyway. I hoped that contractions would pick up again. I waited until I felt dead tired, then I went back to bed. I felt bad leaving sleepy Mr. Boss to finish up the pool, but I was sure baby would arrive sometime that morning and wanted it to be ready.
He didn't finish, when he could do no more he fell asleep on the couch. And when the children woke up, bright and early as they always do, he got up with them and let me sleep.
But, just before dinner time the desire and motivation to get the house clean returned with full force. There is no pleasant way to explain why, so I'll just say it returned after a little discovery during a trip to the restroom. It was at that time when I started to wonder if my feeling of an early baby was really and truly right, it was then that I realized baby could be coming soon.
I asked Mr. Boss to take over dinner prep, and I got to scrubbing my bathroom. I had cleaned it fairly recently, so the job didn't take as long, but I was still thorough. After that, I moved on to the children's room, wanting to have it finished before bedtime.
(Around this time, I heard the sound of water running, I went to the bathroom to check on it. There I found Z, standing on the toilet, water running from our sink faucet. The sink was full to overflowing, water spilled over onto the floor that I had just finished drying. It was awesome.)
We ate dinner, and then we sent the children to bed. I wasn't sure if/when labor was going to start, so I didn't mention to Mr. Boss that I thought it might be soon. Instead we put on a movie and I kept washing and folding laundry, determined to get everything done. I was folding clothes when I felt like I needed to pee. When I was done, I stood and turned to the sink to wash my hands, and that's when I felt it. A trickle. I quickly dropped my drawers, sat back down and waited. Nothing happened. So, I stood back up. Once again, I felt a small trickle. It didn't take me long to realize what was happening. My water was broken. It didn't come in a great, rushing gush, like I'd experienced with C, just a little bit of leaking. I was feeling a bit shocked, so it took me a moment, but I got smart, put on a pad, washed my hands, and came out of the bathroom. I went straight to my phone to text my midwife, Nedra. It was about 10:30 pm. As soon as the message sent, I figured it was time to fess up to my suspicious spouse. Our baby was coming.
I got the laundry I'd been folding put away, and abandoned the movie we were watching so that I could get the dishes done, clean off my stove top, and get my 39 week post put together and scheduled for the next morning. (Because these are the things you do when you realize your water has broken.) Mr. Boss asked if he should blow up the pool, but I told him not yet. I wasn't really having any contractions, and I didn't know how long it would take for them to start, so I figured we could wait.
By 1 am, I finally felt satisfied with the cleanliness of my house, so I went to bed, to get as much sleep as I could. I tossed and turned for a while. Maybe it was because I was excited and surprised, but I could not fall asleep. Eventually, I did fall into a light slumber, but was woken around 3:45 by what felt like pretty regular contractions. I was breathing through them, but they were a bit uncomfortable, so I decided to get up to find a better position. I thought that this was it, and figured that meant it was a good time to get the pool started. I woke Mr. Boss and asked him to get on that.
We both came out into the living room, I sat on the ball, he tried to get the pool started. Because we didn't have an electric pump, we had to do it by hand. We were told a bike pump would do the trick, but Boss realized that we'd need a needle attachment if it was going to work. The problem was, we didn't have one of those. So I pulled out the hand pump that came with my ball and had him try that. Still, he couldn't get any air into it. I asked if I could give it a try, and was able to get some air into the pool. Boss thought that would take too long. He decided to go against everything he believes in, and went to Walmart, because it was the only place he could think of that would have needles and be open at 4 am.
While he was gone I continued with the hand pump stopping here and there to breathe through a contraction. When Mr. Boss returned, he was impressed with the progress I had made on the pool, but ready to take over. The only problem was that, even with the needles, the bike pump was pretty useless. So the pool was blown up exclusively with the hand pump, each of us taking turns.
I had made pretty great progress with the pool, but since I'd gotten out of bed, it seemed like my contractions had tapered off. I continued sitting on the ball anyway. I hoped that contractions would pick up again. I waited until I felt dead tired, then I went back to bed. I felt bad leaving sleepy Mr. Boss to finish up the pool, but I was sure baby would arrive sometime that morning and wanted it to be ready.
He didn't finish, when he could do no more he fell asleep on the couch. And when the children woke up, bright and early as they always do, he got up with them and let me sleep.
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