Early First Stage:
This began for me on June 11- 12 days before Judah was born. In this stage, the cervix begins to soften and prepare for labor. Sometimes the mucus plug dislodges and the bag of waters leaks. For some women, this happens right before the birth. Some women (like my mom) never even experience the early first stage of labor. For others, the first stage of labor can last over several days or even weeks. This is one reason why I didn't want to have cervical exams at the end of the pregnancy. They are absolutely unnecessary. A doctor telling me how little or how much I am dilated/effaced is absolutely no indication of when I am about to go into labor. I know plenty of women who have had babies and they were dilated/effaced for weeks before the actual birth. I didn't feel like I needed to know...my body would tell me when it was time.
What I experienced in the first stage of labor:
I called my doula, Lisa on Wednesday, June 13. For a few days I had been having cramps in my abdomen and lower back that felt just like menstrual cramps. On Wednesday I noticed that I had a lot more fluid coming out than normal and thought I might be leaking amniotic fluid. This is completely normal and fine. The amniotic fluid can sometimes leak out from a small tear in the bag but it will often close itself back up. The only thing this did was get me excited and think that he would be coming very soon. I called Lisa and she said these were all good signs that my body was warming up to go into labor, which could happen any time over the next few days or weeks. There's really no way to predict it. But she told me that she wanted me to do 4 things: eat, walk, shower, and rest. That's all I need to be doing as my body is preparing to go into labor. Almost every day I would call her with updates and she would tell me to do those same 4 things every day.
Over the next week or so the cramps continued, the leaking fluid did not. Every day we would wonder if that would be the day. My mom had arrived on Tuesday, June 12 so we were all ready to go. It got to the point where we were focusing on it way too much and had to step back and reevaluate. I had to remind myself that my body and my baby know when the right time is. I will not try to force that time to come before the baby/my body is ready. They know what to do. So we all made a decision to completely let go on Monday, June 18. At church on Sunday, my mom felt like we needed to be reminded of the Bible verse that says "Be still and know that I am God." We all began to be more at peace. I also read a really good verse from Proverbs 16:9- "The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." So the pattern of mild labor warm-ups and patiently waiting for the baby continued for the next few days. In the meantime, my mom and I were able to do a lot of fun stuff around Seoul even though I was pretty uncomfortable.
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