I woke up the morning of June 28 around 6am feeling contractions. They weren't super painful, more like period cramps but I could tell they were contractions (unlike Noah's where I didn't feel them at all until an hour before he was born). I timed them and they seemed to be pretty close together (3-5mins apart) but the pain was only lasting for 15 seconds...not the 30-60 seconds they say in all the baby books. I decided just to keep an eye on it.
It was still happening at around 9am so I texted Alissa and Alissa if she thought I should go in. I told her I might just wait until my water broke because with Noah I was so frustrated because I had no idea when I should actually go in to the hospital. She told me that some people's water doesn't break until right at the very end and that I should just call the doc and see what she thought. I called around 9:30 and they told me to come into the hospital to get checked out. I let all the parents know I was heading in and that they could come pick up their kids now or wait to hear whether or not I was actually going to be having a baby that day! Amanda came over to stay with the kids (it was just Nixon and Addie that day) and Noah. Nathan and I left for the hospital around 10:30am.
We got to the hospital at 11 and went to the triage room. They checked me and I was 8 or 9cm I think. They were surprised I wasn't acting like I was in more pain.They put an IV in because I was a little dehydrated and then sent me to a room. My doctor got there and then we were good to go. It all happened so fast...I was pretty shocked at how fast things happened and it is all a blur of like 5 minutes. She broke my water and then like 3 contractions later Nathan was like "look look!" and the doctor was handing me our beautiful, perfect baby girl.
Sylvia Joyce was born 6.28.12 at 12:03pm. She was 8lb 2oz and 22 inches long. I did not think it was possible for a birth to get any easier than Noah's birth, but it was!
I felt the contractions earlier than I did with Noah, but all of the contractions were less intense than with Noah. With him they actually felt like they lasted 30-60 seconds...this time they were all really short bursts of pain. One of the nurse kept saying things like "you must be a really good person" or "you must have a great karma" because she was so amazed at how not that much in pain I was. It was nothing I did, God just blessed me with a high pain tolerance/super easy labors! That's a major bonus because we want 7 kids :)
FYI: Stir ups are amazing and I highly recommend using them. Super effective. Maximum efficiency!
