Transition

***warning, Sam, it's still the labor story***

Dr. Duh came back, along with the attending on duty.  Luckily the attending, Dr. K, took control of the situation, because Dr. Duh still looked like he was half asleep.  Dr. K was a very funny man - he pretended to be offended that I still had my undies on (I put them back on after my first check because of the gown/heat issues.  I wasn't quite ready to walk around with my butt hanging out.)  I liked him right away.  After some discussion of what the problem was (I didn't want to stay in bed, but so long as my waters were intact, they didn't want me walking around) he suggested that we break the waters and make the whole point moot.  We mulled it over, and decided it was the best plan.  Note here that I did NOT enjoy the sensation of my water breaking.  Ugh.

Once we were okay'd to move around, I got up and wandered a little, but quickly made my way back to the bed and hunched over it.  This is where the contractions got suddenly a lot stronger and a lot closer, and this is where I suddenly started to check out.  I suddenly didn't want to walk around at all.  I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and die, actually.  I tried some water therapy in the shower, and while it helped I had no strength to stand and kneeling on the tile was uncomfortable.  I tried to continue hunching, but again my legs felt weak.  I don't think I ever got to the point to try squatting, for fear I wouldn't be able to get back up.  So I collapsed in a ball on the bed while our doula rubbed my back and SB held my hands.  Every once in a while I would roll over.  I almost broke one of SB's fingers squeezing his hand.  And while, yes, it's true that you do forget what the pain feels like exactly once it's all over, I will never, ever, ever forget screaming out for someone to please kill me.  So that is some indication that I probably won't be too excited to go there again. 

I really have no concept of time for this transition stage.  I'm sure they broke my waters maybe around 4 or 5 am?  I don't think it could have been before 4.  And within half an hour, the pain went from 3 to maybe 100.  Again, labor mind-eraser is in effect.  At some point, Nurse #2 left (we hardly knew ya!) and Nurse P came on shift.  Nurse P  was amazing!  She had had 3 natural births of her own, and seemed to totally know the right things to do and say.  And she had a good sense of humor, which I appreciated.  Probably around 6am, I heard Dr. K come in while I was in the middle of a contraction.  As I screamed he said in his funny sing-songy accent "Sounds like we're making some progress in here".  (some people would find his humor annoying, but I totally dug it, especially since his accent was so great)   They checked and I was at 7cm and totally effaced.  By 8am I was totally dilated, and they started setting up for delivery.