Birth Story Part 4- Labor starts

Boy woke us up, as usual on Sunday morning at 6:30am (!) and we began to get ready for church at a leisurely pace. At around 8:30 am I felt a contraction that was painful, but blew it off because of Friday’s experience. And then I had another relatively soon after the last, and then a third. I said to my husband, “I think this is real”.

Since, of course, it would be hours before anything exciting would happen, we were trying to decide whether to go to church or to stay home. We decided to go, primarily because everyone that we had asked to watch Boy when this blessed event occurred (our "babysitter list- families 1, 2 and 3") would be at church. Lord, forgive us for our improper motivation to go to your house. :) We packed the car full of pre-packed hospital bags, Boy’s overnight bag, and ourselves. As we arrived, the contractions were still coming regularly, but we didn't time them since they weren't TOO painful. We slipped into the service (of approx 300 congregants) and Hub whispered to “babysitting list family 1” letting them know what was going on. In addition, the couple next to us had a baby just two weeks prior, and were “onto” me when I closed my eyes and squeezed Hub’s hand periodically. However, we were at the back of the big sanctuary and were relatively unnoticed.

So we read, sang, and listened with the rest of the congregation. The contractions were not “too strong to walk or talk through” the measure that had been drilled into our heads by the midwives for when to call. The service ended, and we went to the “coffee time”. I was chatting with Dad of the “babysitting list family 1”, who had come to inquire how I was (or perhaps how long his family had until they had to take our son). At that moment I was slammed with a very strong contraction that was not only painful, but filled me with emotion, and I started to cry instantaneously! Through tears I said to my friend, OH! We have to go NOW!