In honor of Labor Day, I thought I’d re-visit a post from way back in 2008. (Original post is here.)
And as you might guess (well, at least as you fellow moms might guess), it’s about labor, so any male readers should just go ahead and close their browser windows. There’s nothing gross or too detailed here, but still… I know this might not be your cup of tea.
Here we go:
How long were your labors?
L. (now age 5): 4 hours.
Don’t hate me because I have short labors.
For both, I’m counting labor as starting when it became clear that this was indeed going to be it. I fear if I had another one, I’d end up giving birth at home, since if the pattern continued, we’d be looking at a 2-hour labor. Yikes!
How did you know you were in labor?
For C. — I’d had a weird feeling all day, but that evening, contractions got “serious” and then my water broke and everything became incredibly painful. There was no longer any doubt; off to the hospital we went.
For L. — sharp pains woke me up around 11 p.m. I wasn’t sure if they were really contractions (they felt very different from the ones I’d had with C.) until I realized they were coming every 5 minutes. Yep, this was labor.
Where did you deliver?
Drugs?
Oh yes. Definitely.
In fact, if they made a “home epidural kit,” I would have started the drug flow myself before leaving home. There was never any question that I’d be an Epidural Girl. My tolerance for pain is what I would call, “Low.”
With L., things were happening so quickly that I was afraid we wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time to get things started. In fact, by the time I made it up to the Labor/Delivery area, I’m pretty sure all I was babbling saying was: “I’m in labor. I need an epidural. I’m in labor. I need an epidural. Excuse me, did you hear me? I need an epidural now.”
Fortunately, we made it, but we really were just in time. Whew!
C-section?
Who delivered?
My wonderful doctor. The same doctor delivered both of my boys, and he really is great. He has this ability to keep things light-hearted throughout the process while still bossing me around (“C’mon, Katrina. You need to push for real this time.” As if I was just practicing the other times.)
We also had fantastic nurses for both deliveries. I firmly believe that supportive, helpful, compassionate nurses make all the difference in a labor experience, and we were blessed to be surrounded by those kinds of nurses both times.
Feel like playing along? Share your story in the comments, or leave a link to your post in a comment so I can come check out your answers!


One of my most favorite parts of each morning is that special time when I turn on the Keurig, brew a mug of awesomeness, stir in the requisite amounts of cream and sugar, and sip my way into coffee delight. It doesn’t matter how hot it is outside — I still want my mug of warm coffee in the morning.






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