the week eve came to town - the first 24 hours

i'm going to try to write down some of what i remember from the last week, from the time julie went into labor. sleep has been little and far between, so this won't likely be the most coherent or eloquent recollection, but who cares about that anyway?

THE FIRST 24 HOURS

the contractions began at about 2am on Tuesday morning, August 16. julie woke me up saying that she thought they were the real thing. i was really tired, and not expecting our baby to arrive until later that week, so i tried to convince us both that they would probably go away.

they kept coming, about every 9 minutes. i hadn't gotten to bed until about 1am that night, and was already sleep deprived... i thought "this is not a good time"... i was actually hoping that it wasn't *real* labor, but simply the early stuff.

by morning the contractions were speeding up a bit, maybe every 6-7 minutes. we called our nurse-midwife. she told us to just hang in there until the contractions were about every 2-3 minutes. wow! in the movies you just drive your wife to the hospital with that first contraction--what a load of bunk!

for the rest of the morning they kept coming about every 5 minutes or so. we decided to go to the mall, walk around... hopefully speed things up. whenever julie would walk, the contractions would speed up. at the mall they started coming every 3-4 minutes during walking time, so we decided to leave and get ready to go to the hospital.

once julie sat back down, they slowed to every 7-8 minutes or so. how confusing!! we called the midwife again. she told us to just keep laboring at home, and wait until the contractions were every 2-3 minutes. OR, we could come in that evening around 8 so that they could give julie something to help her sleep.

by about 8 the contractions were still only every 5 minutes or so, but we were exhausted... we headed to the hospital. once there, we waited around for an hour while the more obviously laboring women were admitted first. once we got in, julie was checked... only 2 centimeters and 60% effaced! argh... they gave julie something to help with sleep, and we got out of there around 11pm.

at about 2am wednesday morning, julie was in some really serious pain... the contractions were really strong now, and the pain was mostly in her lower back. i was out of my mind trying to help her... not having slept since sunday night. i packed her up and headed back to the hospital.

[more to come]