Allison’s Birth Story: Part One

It all began on Tuesday, August 25th when I decided to go to coaching. I was 38 weeks + 2 days pregnant and my doctor had told me on Monday that I wasn’t dilated and it might be awhile before baby Allie arrives. She told me to live my normal life. So I did and I knew going to Fleet Feet to coach with CES would cheer me up. The other coaches and runners are like family to me and I wanted to see them at least one more time before I gave birth. Well, little did I know we would be meeting Allie so soon.

It was my turn to do the coaching announcements and once I was done coach Michel, Alex, Susie, Sam, and Chris gave me flowers, a present and two sweet cards that all the runners had signed. It meant the world to me to have so many people show their love and support.

After announcements and abs we went to the lake shore path for a ladder workout. I ran 3 miles and I felt really good. Around 8:00p.m. we arrived back at Fleet Feet and I was standing outside talking to a few of the coaches and all of sudden I felt something in my underwear. At first I thought it was more of my mucus plug coming out, but as soon as I started walking to the bathroom there was a gush of water that came down my legs. I made it to the toilet and the water wasn’t stopping so I ran around the store to get my stuff and told the other coaches what had happened. I was shaking when I told them.

I wasn’t having strong contractions at the time, but I knew I had to hurry home. A couple of the coaches tried to stop me because they didn’t want me driving home, but I didn’t want to leave my car in the city. Coach Michael walked me to my car and then I called Tony and my Mom to let them know my water had broke.

With nerves racing, I excitedly drove the 30 minutes home thinking “I’m going to meet my baby soon!”

I arrived home at 8:30p.m., Tony had everything to go and we jumped in his car to head to the hospital to have our baby. We arrived at the Highland Park Hospital at 9:00p.m. At this point I was uncomfortable, but not really in terrible pain. Just lots of cramping.

At 9:45p.m. my Mom and twin sister arrived to the hospital. The cramping was getting stronger and I was STARVING! My last meal had been at noon when I ate lunch. I ate a luna bar right before coaching, but I was so excited when my water broke I didn’t think to eat anything. The nurse said I could have clear food so I ate a couple of popsicles and jellos while waiting for the nurse to check me.

By 2:45a.m. I was only 2cm and 50% effaced, but the nurse said she was very low and could feel her head. Since I wasn’t making much progress we started the pitocin. This is when things got intense. The pain was getting bad enough where I couldn’t talk and the contractions began to feel closer and closer together. Going into labor, I was already comfortable with the decision to have an epidural if I felt like I needed it at some point, so when the nurse, my Mom and Tony brought up the option, I said yes.

At 7:30a.m. on Wednesday my favorite nurse, Violetta checked me and I was 5cm – yay progress! The bad news was that the pitocin made the contractions really strong and they were causing Allie’s heart rate to go down. This happened a couple of times that morning so they had to put me on oxygen.

Here’s the last photo of us being a family of two.

Part two coming soon…