Birth #2 with Jackie, July 1999

My due date was July 28, 1999. I was at work on Tuesday, July 20^th, and I was starting to have some very strong braxton hicks. I was up the night before with my 4^th child – he was really croupy again, so I was also very tired. I started getting paranoid about going into labor while being at work, so I asked my boss, "Is it possible for me to work at home Wednesday and Thursday?" He said yes, whatever I needed to do. So I ended up finishing up my work on Tuesday, and worked on Wednesday and Thursday from home. By then I no longer felt that labor would be any time soon, but I still felt more secure being at home. Jackie, our midwife, felt that I would deliver somewhere around August 1, and I kinda figured I might even go past then. I was really hoping to deliver on my due date because that was the first day that my husband had off for a 4 day stretch. I prayed that God’s will be done. On one of my last prenatal visits, Jackie said "This is still going to be a small baby!" I was thrilled with that news, since I was dreading having a "big" baby.

On Tuesday night, the baby’s head was smashing down on my cervix so hard – I was in so much pain. I could hardly do the dishes, and even when I laid down, the pain was pretty excruciating for at least two hours. I planned on going shopping the next day by myself, but then started having doubts since I was in so much pain.

Wednesday morning I talked to mom, and she volunteered to watch the two little ones, so my husband and I took the two older children with us and went shopping. We walked from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. I thought "Maybe all of this walking will help me to prepare for labor." We rushed home Wednesday night to get ready for church. Right when I was changing my clothes at 6 when I went to the bathroom I had a bunch of "brown blood". I was kind of surprised, but then again, I figured it was from the night before when the baby’s head was hitting on my cervix so hard. I figured he must have broken a few small blood vessels.

When we got home from church at 10 p.m. I called Jackie to let her know what was going on. I still figured it would be a few days away, but wanted her to be prepared just in case.

My husband and I got the kids settled down about 10:45, did our devotion, and finally got to bed at 11:45. I was so tired, and I fell asleep immediately. About 10 minutes later I awoke to a contraction. "Oh no, I’m not ready for this!" I laid real still in bed, and about 15 minutes later I had another contraction. At first I told myself they were just strong braxton hicks, but 15 minutes later I had another one. I couldn’t deny that it was definitely a mild contraction. After another one 15 minutes later, I went to the bathroom to pee. When I wiped myself, there was a gob of mucus and bright red blood (my mucus plug). Now I knew for sure that I was in labor.