Adam - Labor or food poisoning?

by Donyell

Mom's story It was February 20,1999, and at about 8:00 p.m., I had started to get these really bad pains. At first I thought that it was something I had eaten, because I thought that my water was going to break when I went into labor. The pains were about 30 minutes apart, so I really didn't think anything of them.

At about 9:30 p.m., I decided to walk over to my friend's house that was across the way from where I was living (an apartment complex), and she kept telling me that I was in labor. I didn't believe her at all. I finally arrived home at about 11:00 p.m. and went to lie down because I was tired. I was almost asleep when the pains started getting closer together.

I had told my mother and she told me to just relax and put my feet up, so I did. Everyone decided to go to bed, including me, but things changed -- I was in so much pain that I couldn't fall asleep at all. So I stayed up ALL night long in pain and nobody to talk to.

After about 4 hours of the pains getting closer together and longer I decided to wake up my mother and tell her that I wanted to go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at about 5:30 a.m. on the 21st, which was my due date, and I was told to change and get into bed. They put me on the fetal monitor to see how long my contractions were. Finally, they broke my water at about 7:00 a.m. when I was dilated to about 7 cm.

About 8:45 a.m., I got this urge to push, so I told my boyfriend to get the doctor because I was going to push. He went and got the doctor, and she said that if I felt I needed to push then go ahead and push, so I did.

After about 20 minutes of pushing his head came out, and the nurse asked if I wanted to feel his head, and I was going to at first, but I decided to wait until he was out. When the clock turned 9:15 a.m., the doctor looked up at me and said that I had a baby boy. I just started crying because I was so happy to see this little human being that had been growing inside me for so long. They asked what I was going to name him and I said "Adam James". He weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce and was 19 inches long.