After Caleb went to bed, I worked on putting pictures into frames that I planned to hang up the next day. Tony and I began watching a movie, and then we prepared to go to bed about 10:15.
As I lay in bed awaiting sleep, I began to feel contractions, which was not unusual for this late in a twin pregnancy. But these started to get a bit stronger than I was accustomed to and they began occurring more frequently than was normal - about one every 10-15 minutes. All that night I was up and down - from the bed to the couch to the office to the bathtub. The contractions never let up enough to allow me to sleep at all. There was even a random thunderstorm that popped up in the middle of the night (there wasn't a cloud in the sky that day or the next). I was convinced that I was the only one who heard it. Everyone in the house was sleeping soundly, unaware of what was happening inside or outside the house. It was a long night.
When 6:30 finally rolled around, I finally contacted my mom and my friend Becky, my "labor coach." When Tony woke up, he took the news in stride and began making preparations (and some of Caleb's breakfast cookies we were completely out of!). I also called my doctor's office who directed me to head towards the hospital to be checked out. I remember running around the house that morning making sure we had everything (and periodically yelling instructions and ingredients to Tony across the house for Caleb's cookies!). When my mom arrived to watch Caleb and we finally finished packing up all our stuff, we hit the road. It was another beautiful fall day.
At the hospital, I was assessed and told that I was only one centimeter dilated. I already had a doctor's appointment scheduled for later that afternoon, so I was lobbying the hospital to just let me go to the appointment instead of waiting on the doctor to arrive (who wouldn't arrive for another hour or more, we were told). After another hour or so, the nurse checked me again, and I had gone from one centimeter to five centimeters dilated. "You're in labor!" she said. The doctor then magically appeared and confirmed what the nurse reported, and she had us moved to our own room in labor and delivery. It was also confirmed that both babies were still head down - so no c-section! She also said that the babies should be here by 8:00 or 9:00 that night (although she didn't make any promises). Hooray!
We called my sister and Becky (who were going to be present during labor) and the rest of the family to let them know that the day we had been anticipating for so long had arrived!
At this point, the contractions were becoming more intense and more frequent. We had my relaxing music playing, and I was using my deep yoga breathing to help me through the contractions. Ashley and Becky were spoon feeding me ice and offering me sips of apple juice or ginger ale between contractions (that was all they would let me "eat" and I was starving!). It didn't seem too bad...After all, 8:00 was only a few shorts hours away! And Tony, Becky, and my sister were helping me pass the time during and between the contractions.
The doctor would appear every couple of hours to check on my progress. Late in the afternoon, it became apparent that I was stalling out at seven centimeters dilated, and the doctor recommended starting pitocin in order to increase the intensity of the contractions. I had been very adamant that I did not want pitocin because it seemed that it led to a c-section in almost every case that I had heard of. But when the doctor said that we could just wait and see if the contractions intensified on their own...and that she would be back to check on me in two more hours, I agreed to the pitocin. Two hours is an eternity when you're in labor! And that would mean that we would likely miss the 8:00 deadline for the babies to arrive. So they started the pitocin. My mom also arrived about this time.
And the contractions did become more serious. I would move from sitting on the bed to leaning on the bed to sitting on the exercise ball to standing doing hip circles to taking a trip to the bathroom just to keep moving and distracted. I know that images of me doing hip circles in a hospital gown (with my bottom sticking out!) will permanently be seared in the memories of Tony, Becky, Ashley and my mom!
9:00 passed, and I was nowhere close to time to push. I became very frustrated. At one point, I was about to say something out of frustration that I would regret, and Coach Becky said to me (in a rather harsh tone for someone so sweet), "Don't cross the line, Alicia!" We still laugh about that moment because she said that after she said that I just shut my mouth, stuck my chin out and sucked it up.
The doctor appeared again about 11:00 that night. They checked me, and I was still only 9 centimeters dilated. The doctor said that she would be back...in two more hours! I looked at her and said, rather desperately, "Where are you going?!" I didn't want to hear about her other patients and obligations...We were already passed the deadline that she had set!
Shortly thereafter I had the overwhelming urge to push, but because I was allegedly only 9 centimeters dilated, I wasn't allowed to. Finally, the midwife made her appearance, and she had the nurse check me again. I was finally at 10 centimeters and ready to push! The finish line was just ahead! They wheeled in the mirror, we all got in position, and she had me do some "practice pushes." To this day, I'm not really sure what "practice pushes" are. They felt a lot like real pushes to me. In fact, they were so effective that I had to stop pushing (while I could see Wren's full head of hair in the mirror!) while they called the doctor and other hospital personnel into the room to get set up for the babies' births. Why they were not ready to go before I was allowed to start pushing, I do not know. Those were a long few minutes!
At last, I was allowed to push again, and within a few minutes, we welcomed Wren Naomi Argo into the world at 12:38 a.m., October 14, 2015! She weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz.
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