The Forbes Family

Lickety split labor!

On Wednesday, April 28, around 9:00-9:15pm, Corey started noticing some more consistent contractions.  We didn’t know if they were Braxton Hicks like she had for many months prior.  I wrote a quick web software application to keep track of their duration and length.  After a couple hours of uncertainty and a bath at 11:00pm, Corey noticed they were definitely different (i.e. one’s you couldn’t sleep through).  The times were 5-6min between and 60-75sec in length.

It wasn’t until around 1:00am that we got concerned and decided to call the on-call doctor at our OB practice, and they suggested that we drive in to get checked out. We then called our doula.  She didn’t answer, and I left a message.  We figured we’d be sent back home for continued labor.  Around 2:30am we decided to head to the hospital because Corey was having the urge to push! We called our doula one more time before heading out and got a message machine again. We packed everything “just in case.”

The 40min drive to the hospital was a bit hectic with Corey going from freezing to sweating every contraction with added feelings of nausea. We arrived at the hospital with our “labor and delivery bag” in tote, got checked into triage at 3:50am, and went to a room for Corey to be assessed. The nurses checking her acted like they had seen this before: a first-time pregnancy they could take their time with or send us back home. Upon further examination, they announced that Corey was dialated to 7cm and in active labor! Things suddenly started moving faster.

Once in the labor & delivery room, they proceded to check Corey again. This was 15min after her first check, and she was now fully dialated to 10cm, her water had just broken and she was telling everyone, “I need to push!”  Within 30min, at 4:53am (and on her due date!), Sophia Margaux Forbes arrived via desired natural birth. She was 7lb 6oz, 20in and scored 9/10 on her APGAR test. Healthy! With such a short and intense labor, Corey felt great afterward with next to no labor fatigue. Given it was a natural birth, endorphins kicked in, and she felt like she could have picked up right where she left off, aside from soreness in obvious areas.

Recovery went well for two days, and we are now comfortably getting on track in our log home. Nursing is going really well, and Corey’s milk has already come in. Sophia is definitely happy about that. Cody arrives tomorow to meet his “sister.”