Soon we saw the squad car's flashing lights behind us. Mike and I looked at each other and said, "Is this seriously happening?" And it was. As the female officer approached our window I felt another contraction. She started to say something cheeky about how it was a fairly obvious "no left turn" sign. I started laughing while tears streamed down my face. She must have thought I was mocking her because she glared at me until she noted my rather pregnant form and the pain on my face. Mike said, "I'm so sorry, my wife's in labor." Her only response was something to the effect of, "Of course she is! This will make a good story." And as she walked away, she patted the car and said "Be careful."
We went in through the after hours emergency entrance and walked up to the desk. The woman looked at me with an expression that said "why are you here bothering me?" I told her I was in labor and needed to check into the women's center. She shot off a barrage of questions to gauge if I was really in labor when I finally said, "I called my doctor and she said I needed to check in because my contractions are at 5-1-1." I was both annoyed and flattered by her disbelief. Apparently, I was holding it together better than I thought. It must have been the make-up. She buzzed us in the door and we walked up to yet another desk to be greeted by an all-women staff. They escorted me to our room and told me that a nurse would be in soon. All shreds of keeping it together were gone. I started shaking uncontrollably with each contraction. I thought my legs were going to give out. I sat in a chair hoping the shaking would stop but it didn't help. In fact it just made the contractions more painful. This was the moment that I realized this was a little more than I had bargained for. It was now the middle of the night and I was in an eerily quiet and dimly lit hospital room. Mike kept asking if he could help but I didn't know how he could help me. I felt completely alone and wished my Mom didn't happen to be out of town for just this one day. The nurse came in and Mike said to her (mostly just commenting because I think he felt helpless), "She's shaking so much." And then the nurse just looked at me with complete honesty and sympathy and said, "She's just scared, honey. She's never done this before. And it's just plain scary." That was a turning point for me. I needed to hear that in order to put words to my feelings. This was by no means something I knew how to do. And I was scared at the prospect that this was just the beginning.
She put a blanket over me and asked me about my birth plan. I said that I was intending to have an epidural but I would like to labor as long as I could without one. She asked me why and I didn't have the presence of mind to give her a good answer--or I just didn't have a good answer. Sensing that I was already completely overwhelmed (it was probably the tears rolling down my cheeks), she said "well, the only prize at the end of this is a baby whether you get it now or wait." Also good to hear. She hooked me up to the monitors and started my antibiotic drip. A few minutes later she popped her head to tell me the anesthesiologist was in the next room and could come in if I wanted him to. With contractions coming at one minute apart, and the prospect of 10 more hours of that, I decided to pull the trigger. And before I knew it I was bracing for a rather large needle to go into my back. He had to stick me twice but I didn't care at that point. Relief was nigh. And relief it was. It started to kick in before the doctor even left the room.
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