By This Time Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, I will be getting up bright and early, packing my bag into the car, dropping Ryan off at his grandparents’, and heading to the hospital with my husband to have a baby. What a strange thought that is!

How completely different this is from my son’s birth. Being a first baby, I assumed he’d be at least a few days late, if not more. So when I woke up at 2am a week and a half before he was due, having had no prior symptoms of labor, and realized that my water had just broken and I was having contractions, it came as a complete surprise. And I also assumed that, since it was my first baby and he was likely to be rather large, that my labor would go on for a good long time – instead, the whole shebang from first contraction to “here’s your baby” was a grand total of 10 hours. With this baby, I was convinced it would be early, I’ve been having contractions for weeks, and I’ve been pretty far dilated and effaced for a week, so I’ve definitely been expecting things to happen for quite a while now!

But at long last, tomorrow is the decreed day. I know that inductions can often take some time, but according to the nurse, “one whiff of Pitocin” and I should be right into full-fledged labor. The baby is ready, I’m ready, even my body is ready, but somehow the signals have gotten a bit stalled, so one quick jump-start and we should be cooking with gas!

It really is a completely different feeling this time. On one hand, I’m more confident because I’ve been through it before. I know I don’t need to worry about the epidural being painful. I know I don’t need to worry that it won’t work for me. I know that the nurses will coach me through everything I need to do and that Herb will be able to be by my side. But on the other hand, I know some unpleasant things, like the fact that I’m probably going to throw up during labor (a lot), and that I’ll also experience several other unpleasant physiological processes that I won’t share with the general public. But I also know that I can do this. I CAN DO THIS. I’ve done it before, and I can do it again.

And after I do it, we’ll have a beautiful new member of the family. That thought alone will get me through the day with no problem at all. Bring it on!