On this day, four years ago, I woke up at about 4:00 am to some contractions. I moved to the couch with my phone for some timing action. Things were remotely uneventful for a while, but I knew it was time to take note. When Mr. Gray woke up, I filled him in on everything, and we decided to let Annie know what was going on, too (she was living over five hours away at the time).
Nothing was too serious yet, but it was definitely the “real thing.” We had a previously scheduled breakfast date with friends and decided to go ahead and go–it was between our house and the hospital, anyway. We checked and double-checked our hospital bags, then headed that way. We ate our breakfast, shopped for a new camera, browsed around, and eventually went back home to watch some football (it was a Saturday; we had a bye week; Baby Gray has always had his priorities straight) all plenty of contractions but no baby.
That evening, we headed to dinner, in our own car–just in case. I was still checking times of contractions with my iPhone, and I was beginning to take pause with each one instead of just breathing through them. We finished our supper and decided our next move needed to be toward the hospital.
We got checked into the hospital about 8:30 pm. Parents (grandparents), friends, and family filled the waiting room as we all settled in for what would turn in to quite a long night. Mr. Gray coached me through the night as contractions sped up and got more intense without much progress. We tried to sleep when we could and be awake when we needed to be, but exhaustion was setting in for both of us.
(to be continued…)
