The Greatest Coach of All Time

Sunday morning about 9 am I started getting a little uncomfortable during church. After a little while I realized that my uncomfortable feeling was about every 8-10 minutes. I wasn't convinced that it was contractions because I wasn't feeling anything in my abdomen, only in my back. We went to Sunday School and the uncomfortable feeling continued about the same rate. We came home from church and ate lunch. Then I told EJ I was going to take a nap because Ensley might be coming today. I laid on my side and felt pains in my stomach and back...these were about every 6 minutes. So I told EJ I wanted to get in the tub for a while. I sat in the tub for quite a while EJ sat beside me recording my contractions, only we weren't sure they were contractions because they were not what I expected to feel. Then we decided to go for a walk to see if I felt anything different or faster. Bad idea! It was like 100 degrees outside so we just went to the end of the street and back. We came back in and I felt the same so I chilled on the couch for a little while and then decided we should at least go to the hospital to see what was going on since these uncomfortable pains were 4-5 minutes apart for the past few hours.

We got to the hospital about 5pm and they took my vitals and hooked me up to the monitors. I was indeed contracting about every 2 minutes but only feeling about every other one and only in my back. She checked me and I was 3-4 cm dilated and almost completely thinned out. I was relieved to know that the uncomfortable feeling in my back was indeed contractions but a little discouraged that I was at the hospital and only 3-4cm. Our original plan was to labor at home for a long time then go to the hospital when I was hopefully about 6-7cm. The nurse asked me to walk the halls for 30 minutes then she would check me again and call my doctor to see if I was going to be admitted...so we did. After walking I was 4-5cm and staying!! We knew we would see our baby girl in a matter of hours.

I stalled at 5cm so they started pitocin to augment labor. This worked and it seemed like no time I was at 7cm. By this time I was in my zone and EJ was helping me stay focused and relaxed. My water broke at 8cm and I remember thinking...Good! It will speed up, but oh my it's gonna start hurting now! Up to that point I was just super uncomfortable because of the practically constant back pain with no relief since the contractions were so close together.

EJ had done a great job all day staying calm and being supportive. He knew when to say the right thing and when to sit quietly. He had been putting counterpressure on my back and he made the whole process better. Once my water broke the contractions were so much stronger and I began to lose focus and my relaxation was for the birds is when EJ really stepped it up...he remained calm and coached me through each contraction breathing me through. I can remember in the middle of the worst contractions wanting so bad to stay focused on him because he was doing so great. Words can't say what a great job he did and I will never be able to describe how my love for him has grown over the past week. From laboring at home to the delivery and seeing his face when they laid Ensley on my tummy for the first time to his late nights with a fussy Ensley, watching him through this whole process has multiplied my love for him 100 times. I knew he was a great coach on the baseball and football fields but didn't know how he would do in the labor field and he far exceeded anything I could have hoped for and he is definitely coach of the century in my book.