The Birth of Eliza Jane: Part One

Sit down, get comfortable and brew a cup of tea because this could take a while. Some preamble can be found in this post.

I am so glad I have email correspondence with my sister-in-law from this week and notes scrawled all over for this. And I have written the story in detail for myself (up until our first visitors, my sisters, arrived to meet the baby). It's interesting how memory of the experience is quite different from the facts I recorded during and shortly after the actual event.

Our baby was due December 18, 2014. I was more than happy to go overdue and was hoping to deliver sometime after Christmas and before New Years. My ideal date of delivery would have been December 27-29. My baby had other plans, as they usually do.

December 19.
The first twinges of changes started on Friday night as this was the first night in my entire pregnancy that I slept poorly. I woke up having some lower abdominal and lower back cramping accompanied by a few weak Braxton Hicks. I also felt slightly nauseated through the night. It felt a lot like getting my period, which can only be described as tolerably unpleasant. I ended up getting out of bed at 03:00 to drink a giant glass of water, hoping it would help. I slept fitfully until 06:00 and then decided to get up for good so as not to disturb Erik.

December 20.
Throughout the day I did have a few irregular contractions and continuous menstrual-like cramping. The contractions required little more than acknowledgment and sometimes a position adjustment. I didn't feel they were doing any work though I hoped they were encouraging cervical changes. Clearly they were doing something because I started losing my mucous plug. I did an internal exam as I was curious to see where the baby was and I could feel a nice hard head with my finger only an inch inside.

We had friends come visit in the evening and I started having a few mild contractions while they were over, but nothing that required my undivided attention. They left around 21:30 and we made our way to bed.

I started having regular contractions almost immediately. Again, they weren't super uncomfortable, but I was unable to fall asleep and I would break out in a sweat with each one. I did not want labour to start at night, but it occurred to me that it may be shaping up that way. I stayed in bed and timed the contractions -- they were lasting 45-60 seconds and coming 6.5-7 minutes apart.

Surges continued this way through the night and I tried my best to ignore them and rest between them.  I was surprised by how much focus they actually required. I wouldn't say they were painful, necessarily, but they were mighty uncomfortable and I did have to remind myself to breathe and relax through them. I remember needing to calm myself as I wondered how in the world I was going to handle what was coming if this was just "warm up".

I tried my best to not bother Erik. I didn't need his help at this point and I figured that one of us should get some sleep, if possible. I managed to doze between a few of the contractions, but it seemed they would hit me harder if they woke me.

I contemplated getting out of bed, but resisted the urge because I didn't want the baby to drop further and for labour to start up for real. I wasn't prepared to have a baby this early and definitely didn't want to start my labour in the middle of the night with no sleep.

Unfortunately, I was unable to sleep so I got out of bed at 02:00 and hoped things would either slow down or speed up. At this point I was having diarrhea after each contraction so I focused on keeping hydrated. The change in position helped and the contractions decreased in intensity. They were closer together (5.5 minutes), but were easier to manage.


I tried sleeping sitting up on the couch, but I was exhausted so I eventually crawled back into bed. I didn't last long because I found contractions much more manageable when I met them head on rather than being woken by them. I needed to focus and prepare myself to meet them -- being woken by them made it feel like they "got away from me" and I had to fight my body.

December 21.
By 06:00 contractions were less regular. They were anywhere from 30-60 seconds long and coming 5-12 minutes apart.

I finally admitted that I may be in pre-labor and that things were progressing. I knew it was still early and we had a long way to go (maybe even days), but I was already tired and this filled me with dread as I knew labour wouldn't wait until I was rested.

At around 09:00 the contractions stopped. I had a handful on Sunday, but they didn't amount to anything and didn't have any sort of intensity. We didn't end up going to church because I wanted to rest, but we carried on.

Sunday night was a bit better than the night before. I went to bed at 19:30 because I wanted to try get some sleep before my night labour started again. I managed to actually sleep from 20:00-20:30 before surges started again. They thankfully weren't as intense as the night before and they were 20-30 minutes apart.

I got out of bed and went to spend some time with Erik in the living room. When we eventually went to bed I decided to snuggle with Erik and deal with the contractions while laying down. I stayed in bed through them for most of the night, often breathing loudly to keep myself focused and to prevent myself from wriggling right out of bed. After each contraction I would get up to pee (and often have a bit of diarrhea) and then drink some water on my way back to bed.

I started feeling lower back pain with the contractions, which was miserable. I felt like the belly pain was manageable, but my back would have me fumbling out of bed mid-contraction in an attempt to find a more comfortable position.

December 22.
I was feeling pretty positive on Monday morning when I got out of bed (having not slept, again). I felt like I was getting some work done and that these contractions were getting the babe into a better position for delivery, if nothing else. Something was happening, even if it wasn't happening quickly. I started preparing myself for a holiday delivery thinking the babe would arrive at some point during the Jansen Family Christmas festivities. I was curious about how we were going to navigate a brand new baby and Christmas when I had been operating on the assumption that the babe wouldn't arrive until everyone had gone.


I had a chiropractor appointment followed by a midwife appointment. The midwife offered to do a vaginal exam and I was more curious than anticipated to see where we were at. I know labours all progress differently and dilation isn’t representative of how far you are or how close delivery is (until you’re there there), but I wanted to know if things were happening at all and how much more work I had cut out for me.

The midwife laughed and exclaimed, "there it is!" when her fingers were barely inside me. She was happy to inform us that I was already 3.5cm dilated and that my cervix was only 1cm long and thin. The midwife did a membrane sweep, which I hadn't anticipated wanting either, but things felt like they were progressing slowly and I was hoping some irritation would help it along.

I didn't have a single contraction all day and they came every 20-30 minutes through the night as they had the night before. I could tell my body was getting tired and I felt exhausted. I desperately tried to sleep on the exercise ball while leaning over the bed, but I couldn't find the right combination of pillows to make myself comfortable -- I felt like I was scrunching or stretching my belly and neither felt good.

I hardly slept that night despite my greatest efforts. I don't know what I thought about because I specifically noted being surprised by how nonchalant I was about my impending labour. I thought I would be excited or fixated on it, but I wasn't. At this point I thought I still had a week or so in me if need be. 

Next: Part Two.