"It's time"

1:45 AM Active Phase of Stage 1 begins

I finally went to bed at 12:15 and was woken up by some pretty strong contractions around 1:45 AM. I monitored on my own for about an hour. Then I woke Brett up around 3:00 and told him it was time to start timing contractions. They were coming pretty quickly(from 2-5 minutes apart) and getting more intense. But still we just weren't sure. I did not want to call the doctor too soon. Brett timed and I breathed through the growing intensity of the contractions until about 4:15 when we finally called the doctor. (I didn't want Brett taking pictures during this process, but now looking back, I'm glad he did! )

The doc instructed us to get to the hospital. Here we go! We arrived at The Birthing Inn @ 4:45 AM. I was hooked up to a machine to monitor contractions and the baby's heartbeat and was examined by a nurse. She confirmed the intensity of the contractions I was experiencing but reported that I was not dilated at all. DOH! This got us nervous because we were told that if you are not at least 4 cm dilated, typically you are sent home. I could not go back home at this point. The pain was very intense. The nurse consulted with the doctor and we were given instructions to walk the halls for an hour to see if this helped us along any.

We walked from 5:30 to 6:30 AM with contractions still coming every 2-5 minutes. Needless to say, it was a looooong hour! Breathing through the pain was becoming much more difficult.

At 6:30, I was examined again only to be told zero progress had been made. DOUBLE DOH! The nurse informed the doctor that according to the readings on the monitor I was in true labor. We were admitted to the hospital @ 7:00 AM.