On Tuesday, March 7, I thought my water broke, but it was my mucous plug. We went to the hospital Tuesday morning and were sent home after an exam. The funny thing was that the whole time, I thought it was my water bag, and we drove to the hopital very relaxed, and I kept telling Andy how it was so different from what I imagined labor would be like since I wasn't in any pain. After we were sent home, we had a relaxing day and rented a movie.

My real contractions started at 2am on Wednesday morning, March 8. They were 5-8 minutes apart most of the day. I tried walking throughout the day and was frustrated that I couldn't get them to get any closer. We ate lunch at Amber India and went to Costco to walk around (walking helps to labor to progress faster). Every so often, I'd have to pause and tell Andy that I was having a contraction, so we'd stand in the middle of the store or parking lot and he'd hold me.

After 7pm, my contractions were 2 minutes apart. We went into the hospital at 10pm, and I was in so much pain. I was 90% effaced (cerxix was thinned), but only dilated 1 cm (I had to get to 10cm to deliver), so I was sent home with a sleeping pill and pain killer (Pergaset - stronger form of tylenol). Unfortunately, the sleeping pill worked really well, but the pain killer not at all, so I was stumbling around the house like drunk person in pain (of course, this is funny in retrospect). I called labor a delivery again, asking to please be admitted if I went to the hospital again and begging for something to help the pain..

We went into the hospital again at 4am, and I was admitted. I was given morphine for my pain (which also didn't work), and we waited until I was in active labor (3cm) at 9am. I was promised an epidural at 5 cm and was so worried I'd miss the window of opportunity (After 6cm, labor moves quickly, so most hospitals don't give epidurals). I progressed to 5cm pretty quickly as indicated by my urge to push. That was one of the harder parts of labor -- not pushing when the baby's head is already low. I was really worried about my urge to push, and was given an epidural soon after. That relieved the urge to push and I was finally able to sleep for the first time during my labor.

Then we just waited to progress from 7 cm to 10 and then push. Andy called my mom at 11am from his cell phone to let her know how labor was progressing (She's an nurse in Labor and Delivery in Baltimore). I pushed for 25 minutes - under the epidural the wholetime, and Rebecca Wen-Feng Wong was delivered at 2:34pm on Thursday afternoon.

Everything after the epidural was a piece of cake. Andy was a great coach. What we learned in class was really true - women know exactly what they want when they're in a lot of pain. Andy would pat my shoulder,and I told him I didn't like it. He also had a snack during my prelabor and I told him he needed a breathmint! (You can only imagine what turkey jerky smells like with heightened senses!) All in all, I think I stayed pretty nice to Andy, but I can let him tell you if that was the case. Andy felt pretty helpless when I was in pain, so I know that was hard on him -- but not that hard since he was on a conference call with work when I was in the delivery room!

So I guess what people say about forgetting the pain of labor is true. It was tough but was all worth it in the end.

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