"Oh,That's Normal."

I laid in bed for two hours timing my contractions. At 2 am I had enough, I shook Aaron awake and we headed to the hospital. It was January 8th. In triage I progressed to 4 centimeters but in the following 8 hours, Ava decided she wasn't ready. Our Doctor sent us home to rest, fully expecting us back a few hours later. We didn't go back. He instructed me to ignore the timing of the contractions because they could at times be inconsistent. Everyday my sister would call to check on me, I'd tell her that my cramps hurt the same, sometimes even worse then before. She'd say, "Oh, that's normal."

This went on for several days.

I woke up January 12th excited and giddy, this was our one year wedding anniversary! I had a lot to do before Aaron got off work. Several weeks earlier, I had the top of our wedding cake reordered along with the beautiful orchids to decorate it with. We had taken the original top on our honeymoon to enjoy and the thought of eating year old cake didn't appeal to me. So, at ten o'clock I headed out with horrible cramps. I got coffee to help me feel better and then ran my three errands. When I finally made it home, I laid on the couch, ate almost a whole bag of m&m's and watched my soaps. As the day progressed into early evening I found it increasingly harder to move around the house, but it was nothing that I couldn't handle. After all, it's "normal". I made one of Aaron's favorite dinners and waited very anxiously for him to get off work. Mom and Andi decided to call several times and irritate me to the point that Andi decided to call Aaron and talk to him instead. they were making arrangements for Ava's delivery.

I continued to watch the clock, where was Aaron? At this point I was more then irritated. I called him and yelled at him to come home. When he arrived I yelled at him some more, I told him that we were going to eat dinner, enjoy a special dessert and then go to the hospital. We ate, or rather he ate as I tried to hold in the cramps. We toasted with sparkling white grape cider by candle light and then I yelled at him to clear the table then go into the bedroom so I could set up the surprise. At this point, I'm doing the "potty dance" to hold Ava in.

I was able to set up the cake, but then I gave in and told him that we should go to the hospital, I couldn't even blow out the dinner candles. On the way to the hospital, the cramps subsided. I thought we could probably go home, it could have just been gas.

Aaron didn't listen to me.

He dropped me off at the entrance and while he parked I went to the maternity wing and waited for the nurses to finish visiting. I told them that I was having really bad cramps. They asked how far apart were the contractions, I didn't know, I wasn't paying attention.

It turns out I was 8 centimeters. By the time I made it into the delivery room, given my neubane shot I was told to start pushing. 6 or 8 pushes later, I met my daughter and the pain medicine finally kicked in. Who knew I could handle "natural" childbirth.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.