Lisa's Unexpected birth story of Meagan

Meagan is my second child.  After 3 days of gentle, hugging sensations coming every 5 minutes, not increasing in length or intensity, I visited my midwife (a 45 min drive).  

I was hooked up to an EFM for over an hour, during which time I had no contractions at all.  An internal exam revealed that I was less than 10% effaced, not very "ripe" or soft in the cervix and less than 2cm dilated.  I was told to go home, relax, and call in the morning to schedule my prenatal appointment for next week. 

I felt like a failure for driving 45 minutes on a false alarm and we returned home that night (after renting a movie and eating dinner) at about 9pm.  We watched the movie after putting my older daughter to bed and somewhere in the middle of the movie I found myself needing to have a bowel movement.  The bowel movement feeling never ended.

I was so frustrated.  An hour after the movie was over, it was still going on with sharp pains every 2 minutes.  I was logging the times on a notepad, not fully believing it could be labor.  At some point I filled the bathtub up and went in for relief but discovered the water was cold.  I collapsed on the floor crying (transition) and after a few minutes I realized that contractions had stopped. 

I ran into the living room to wake my husband.   I said "I think it's time".  I didn't want him to worry unnecessarily, and since we were told (less than 12 hours ago) that we had a long way to go- I had to convince him that it was real.  We got into the car and headed  for the midwife.  

Meagan was born in the car 10 minutes from our house.