Ada's arrival: Part II

When I last left off my doctor had arrived at 9:00pm just as I'd settled in for a long night. He checked all the readings from my NSTs and then said he'd be doing an internal exam. Ahem, that was uncomfortable. He told me that the baby was still very high and that he was going to give me a Cervadil suppository that would "ripen my cervix". He told me if I had any pain to let the nurses know so they could hook me back up to the NST monitors. For the sake posterity I'm putting this next part in - After he inserted the suppository he pulled out his hand and held it up so I could see the blood.

"This is nothing to worry about," he said, "I've just had my finger in your cervix."

He left and I settled back in bed hoping to get some rest. By midnight I could no longer deny that I was in pain. I was having what felt like really strong menstrual cramps and I couldn't get comfortable. I thought to myself "If I were at home I'd take something for this." I figured that meant I should call the nurse.

I was once again strapped to the monitors which meant getting comfortable was REALLY, REALLY out of the question. I had to stay still so the monitor wouldn't lose the baby's heartbeat. I tried to let the sound lull me to sleep but the pain was getting more irritating and intense and I was getting nervous. I didn't have a watch to time the contractions but they were coming close together.

At 2:00am I felt a gush and knew that my water had broken. I called the nurse and then called Melbourne.

"Are you asleep?" I asked.

"Not yet," he replied.

"You and Mom might want to go ahead and get dressed just in case. My water just broke," I told him.


Within minutes my contractions had intensified immensely. I kept looking at the monitor every time I felt one but nothing was showing up on the read out. I called the nurse and told her that I was definitely having contractions but they were low in my abdomen (the monitor was placed really high on my abdomen). She asked how much pain I was in and I told her it was getting really bad. She gave me a shot of some pain killer - I have no idea what it was - and told me to relax.

I was really, really nervous at that point and called Melbourne back. He asked me what was going on and I told him that the nurses didn't believe what I was telling them about the contractions - I was unable to talk through them at that point - and were just giving me drugs. He told me he was on his way.

By 3:30am Mom and Melbourne had arrived. They didn't want to let them in the room since I was sharing it with someone but my Mom put her foot down and came in. They told her that they didn't want to move me to the labour suite just yet because the bed was uncomfortable. She told them that my husband was on his way up and she thought I'd be more comfortable in a room with the him and her so they'd better go ahead and move me.

They brought in wheelchair and whisked me off to the the labour suite . . .