Birth Story Part One

Part One....

My due date based on conception was April 4, so that put me at 4 days past my due date when another round of contractions started on April 8. For over a week, I'd go through spurts of regular contractions, but they'd always fizzle out. I assumed on this time would be no different. However, in attempts to get labor started, I walked around outside with the kids, kept active making dinner, and tried to keep the contractions going. Around 5:30pm the contractions weren't letting up, some were getting harder to concentrate during, and they were coming a bit closer together, anywhere from 4-5 minutes apart. I called my midwife, Susan, to give her a heads up, but to let her know they could very well fizzle like they had in the past week. She called back to check on me about an hour later. At this point the contractions were definitely more painful then they had been, and some were even coming 3 minutes apart. She decided to come over and check me, to see if any progress was being made... worst cast senario, it was false labor again, and we'd just do our normal prenatal appointment that we had scheduled for the next morning. Susan arrive around 7:30 pm. After my cervical check, she estimated I was about 4cm dilated, sometimes even a 6 during a contraction. However the head was still high, my cervix was very long and thick. We assumed I was in the early stages of labor. Susan called the other midwife, Birdie, and after talking, decided Birdie would come over as well just to see what was going on. Contractions started picking up a bit more and I found myself rocking, moaning, and concentrating the best I could through all of them. They were still coming every 3-4 minutes, but definitely increasing in intensity. I called my friend Jen, who was planning on being present for the birth, and she headed over as well. Both Birdie and Jen arrived between 9-10pm. We all hung out and chatted while I dealt with each contraction. Around 11:15 I sent Paul to bed. I knew that I'd want him rested for whatever came next. Susan, Birdie and Jen all decided to rest as well, and I headed upstairs to lay down around 11:45pm. Within minutes of laying down, I immediately noticed a change in my contractions. They were much closer together, and incredibly more painful. After laying down and trying to deal with them for about 45 minutes, I took a nice shower. After my shower, I layed back down and immediately the contractions started back up again. I headed back downstairs around 1:30am and talked to Jen. She woke up my midwives after seeing me trying to cope through a couple of these "new" contractions. Birdie checked me and I was 5cm dilated, with my cervix thinning out, the baby was dropping lower, etc. I got a nasty case of nausea and to top it off I was experiencing hot and cold flashes. This went on till about 4am. Around then I noticed that I'd go 10 or 15 minutes with no contractions, then 15 minutes of straight painful contractions. Definitely not a "normal" labor pattern. At around 5am, the contractions pretty much fizzled out and I headed upstairs back to bed with Paul feeling discouraged and upset. I sobbed in bed for about 10-15 minutes. I was exhausted... I felt like my body didn't know what to do. I felt defeated.
Julia woke up at 6:30am, and thus began my day. My midwives and Jen all left around 8am or so. Before leaving Birdie checked me one more time and said that my contractions were obviously doing something... progress has been made.
So now its a wait and see sorta thing...

I'm physically and emotionally exhausted. 1 1/2 hours of sleep is just not enough for me today.