I went to bed on April 4th around 10pm and I was as uncomfortable as I had been for weeks. I woke up at practically midnight on the dot. Cramps.
Soon it was very clear that these were contractions. I started tracking them at 12:18am.
10 minutes apart.
8 minutes apart.
6 minutes apart.
It was 1am. Okay this is happening.
5 minutes apart.
It was time to wake Joe and time to call the midwives. I spoke to a Nicole at 2am. She told me to take a shower or a bath, have something to eat, and try to rest. “Call me back when it becomes hard to speak through contractions.”
“Okay, got it.”
I tried to go back to sleep but with each passing contraction I needed to be standing so I could rock, pace and breathe through it. It’s 2:40am and now each contraction is lasting 1 min long.
4 minutes apart.
Time to call my mom. It would take her 40minutes to get to us. It’s 3:20am. I call Nicole back. She talks me through a contraction and tells me to come in. I hesitate, really not wanting to drive ALL the way there only to spend hours laboring.
“Emma, it’s time to come to the hospital.”
We wake Harper to tell her, let her know we’re leaving and I hug her for the last time as my only babe. We left about 4am and had a 35 minute drive to the hospital.
It was the LONGEST DRIVE OF MY LIFE and admittedly Joe drove 85-90mph all the way there. I squeezed the LIFE out of his hand, prayed we wouldn’t get pulled over, and that I wouldn’t deliver in the car (it was a rental!!) and was begging my body to hold on.
We WHIPPED into the emergency room entrance. Jumped out of the car and hauled ASS into the hospital. (Joe had to go back out later to move the car to the parking deck 🤣)
Mind you this was during the peak of Covid-19 and screening was happening at the door. It was 4:40am and this poor man who was supposed to screen us was terrified that I was in full blown labor and sent us right to Labor + Delivery.
We got to the desk to check in and I sign God-knows-what form, got a bracelet and a mask and then got down on my hands and knees for yet another contraction. I guess that was a sign that I was not messing around because Nicole and two nurses came out to get me.
“Whoooaaa, Emma are you feeling the urge to push?!”
“YEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!”
Into a wheel chair and into the first room. So much of the next 50 minutes is a blur.
8cm dilated and no time for an epidural.
I cried and begged, doubted and moaned, feared for my life and my body. But Joe kept telling me- YOU CAN DO THIS. And somewhere in between all of this, that SAINT of a husband pulled out my oils, rubbed Valor on my mask and started up the diffuser. I couldn’t be more grateful for him in that moment.
My water had already broken (pretty sure this happened in the elevator), this baby was coming fast and furious.
Audrey James Prentiss was born at 5:50am and I will never doubt myself EVER again.
