Laura's Page
In the early morning of October 4, 2001, I began to feel this odd pain in my stomach. The contractions began around 4am, but it wasn't until about 7am that I realized what was going on. At that time I called up to the ship and told somebody my contractions were 7 minutes apart and asked if they could they send Lane home.
This was me on the morning of October 4th.
I suffered through the contractions all day with each one getting more painful than the one before it. When I would call the hospital to see if I should come in yet, they kept telling me not until the contractions were at least five minutes apart.
Finally about 11pm, Lane took me to the hospital. All day long the contractions had been anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes apart.
After the examination, the OB said I was in labor, but he couldn't admit me. I wasn't dilating or efacing yet. They gave me a pill to help me sleep and suggested I take Tylenol for the pain. A nurse even said I'd probably be back in the morning ready to be admitted.
Neither the sleeping pill or the Tylenol helped as I was in so much pain all night. By morning the contractions were coming 5-15 minutes apart. The nurse still was telling me to not go in until the contractions were five minutes apart for an hour.
By 11am, Lane was tired of seeing me in so much pain, so we went back to the hospital. By the time we got there, the contractions were coming every few minutes, and YEP, I was 4 cm dilated and 75% efaced.
I was given an epidural almost immediately and as Lane went to the car to get my things, he called our family and friends. Now that I wasn't in any pain, we both were able to get some sleep. Lt. Ehle would come in every once in a while to check the progression and I also made a few more phone calls.
Once it was time to push, everything seemed to go very fast ... even though it took three hours. Finally, at 11:13pm, October 5 2001, Laura Celeste Ferguson was born.
This was taken about an hour after the birth.
Click HERE to see the most recent pictures of Laura...
Email: anoellef@yahoo.com
