Lucy wins!!
On Wednesday the 7th I woke up with contractions
at about 3am and was convinced I was in labor. I cleaned the house got all
packed up and then woke David up and told him to call into work. Around 5am the
contractions stopped completely. I wasn’t thrilled but I thought she must be
coming in the next few days and since David had already taken the day off we
went out to lunch.
Turns out over the next week I had false labor every other
day. Serious strong contractions that had me guessing every day whether or not
I was in labor. David had the long holiday weekend starting on the 9th
and his paternity leave officially started on the 13th so we were
taking advantage of every day getting errands done and going out to eat with
Lucy and Scotty in tow. We kept talking about how wonderful retired life would
be when we get to be together every day. When Tuesday rolled around I was
starting to get anxious as I thought about my post-partum time with him getting
shorter and shorter. I had a good cry on the morning of the 14th in
frustration. You see post baby David and I prefer to do it on our own. We have
a routine and he is so helpful that I don’t feel like we need Moms around. My
mom and Dad were planning on coming down mid-November for Thanksgiving and
Ashton’s baptism and I didn’t think I’d need them any sooner with all the time
David had scheduled off. But as I thought about David only being home for 7
days I started to wonder if I could do it. I talked to Mom that morning who
assured me she would come down the minute David went back to work if I needed
her and would stay as long as I wanted. I had a new resolve that we were going
to have the baby when we were supposed to and I needed to just be patient and
let it go.
The night of the 14th I felt contractions again as I fell
asleep but I didn’t think twice about it and at this point I had stopped
telling David when they were coming because I didn’t want to get him excited.
The morning of the 15th I woke up again surprised that I got a full night’s
sleep with no sign of baby. David woke the kids up for school and came into me
to do their hair and told me Mallie had pink eye. So we sent the oldest two off
to school and I spent a good amount of time in the morning trying to get Mallie
a doctor’s appointment on the airforce base to no avail. David and I had
planned to go to the commissary early enough for him to come home, exercise, I
could cut his hair all before he would go eat lunch at the school with Hannah
at 11. So we headed to the commissary at 8:15. As we were waiting in the
checkout line around 9am I felt some contractions that started to get more
painful so I told David for the fourth time this pregnancy I think today might
be the day. On the drive home David and I talked about how fun it would be to
have a daytime baby for once. While we were unloading the groceries around 9:40
my neighbor and best bud Jessica, also the on call labor babysitter, yelled
across the street “Do some jumping jacks!” and I said “they’re 12 minutes apart
I’m hopeful I’ll call you around 1pm to come watch the kids!” Just then the
nurse from the pediatrician’s office called me back and asked if I could come
in at 11 with Mallie. I told her I thought I was in early labor and she said
“Okay come in right now!” so I drove right back to the air force base where we
had just left. By 10:30 Mallie had been checked out and we were waiting at the
pharmacy for her eye drops. I texted David in the parking lot at 10:38am and
said, “This is it – if we go in now I’ll probably have time for the epidural.”
When I got home close to 11 I texted Jessica and asked her
to come over in the next 15 minutes and David and I got ready to go to the
hospital. The contractions were coming every 7 minutes or so and the minute
Jessica walked in I had a really strong long contraction so I knew we needed to
go into the hospital. But as soon as we got in the car they slowed down again.
The whole 25 minute drive down there I only had two mildish contractions. I
started to panic again wondering if we were going in way too early. I kept
saying to myself, I hope I’m at a 6 at least. Then as we were walking into the
hospital I had several strong contractions and felt confident this was not
false labor.
As we got up to L&D they had us wait for a few minutes
in the waiting room and the contractions had started again and were so strong I
couldn’t even sit down. Then they told me to come back into a pre check in room
by myself. As I walked in the little prenatal room the nurse who looked new
said, “Can you give a urine sample before I hook you up to the monitors?” and I
looked at her like she was crazy. I said, “Can’t you just check me? I promise
this is going to go fast.” She looked around like she didn’t know what to do
with me and then a second nurse came in and took charge and said, “this is her
6th kid let me just check her.” As she was checking me she had a shocked
look on her face and said, “Well there is the head and bulging bag of waters
and I can’t feel any cervix.” So she called to the real L&D unit and next
thing I know I’m in a wheel chair being rolled down the hallway. I see one of
the midwives I had seen at an appointment and she said, “I cannot believe you
are this happy and complete. I don’t believe you’re even in labor.”
She checks me again confirms I’m ready to go and says I have
to do all the paperwork to officially admit you but then let’s break your water
and have a baby. I say “yes” and then tell someone to grab David out of the
waiting room and a million people come in my room. Ft. Sam Houston is a
training hospital so there were several student nurses and a med student in the
room they all keep commenting that I’m so happy and normal and that they’ve
never seen this before. As I’m putting on the gown in the bathroom I hear a
nurse say to the other students, “You will never see a patient this calm and
far into labor like this ever again. This doesn’t happen.” I laugh and am still
shocked I’m at a 10 and contractions aren’t coming too often so I’m reminded of
Scotty’s birth that I stalled out on for an hour. I’m dreading that but
mentally I’m gearing up for another little while in labor.
I don’t know what
they had to do to actually get me checked in on the computers but it took a
good 20 minutes.David comes in and I’m so relieved to see him. Finally I
have a couple of strong contractions and lean against David’s chest as he rubs
my back. He brought in my phone and as
usual my mom has a knack for knowing when I’m in labor I see that I got a text
from her at 12:30 when I was in the check in room that said, “Just checking in
how are you?” I text her back at 12:42
and say “at the hospital and complete”. A few minutes later a new midwife comes
back and asks if I want my water broken. I say, “Yes” and she does. Then she
tells me I can push in whatever position I want. I told her I’d like to get on
my hands and knees and I steady myself and wait for a minute or so until I feel
a contraction. I didn’t make any noises or anything I just started to push and
reached down ready to grab her head that I felt coming. All the sudden I heard
a nurse ask me shocked, “Can you feel her coming out?” I half answered yes as I
felt her head slide out and I felt the energy in the room start to shift as
people realized she was coming now! Then her body came sliding right out from
my hands into the midwives at 12:56pm.
They held her behind me and awkwardly tried to cut the cord as I sat there on
my knees turned around watching. They put her immediately on my chest and gave
me the bulb to suck her out on my own. I looked at David shocked. Even for me
this delivery was incredibly fast. I feel like I had a mental break through on
how to push out a baby. That sounds so weird since I had already done it 5
times but I feel like I can truly identify the feeling of the exact moment she
was ready to be pushed out and boom it was done! It helped that she was little
but man oh man was I ready to just have her here after so many false labors.
All the nurses kept telling me that they’ve never seen anything like it. I
looked at David and said, “I am so so relieved to finally have her out!”
It’s hospital policy to give you a full hour from the birth
before they ever take a baby out of the mother’s arms. She was covered in
vernix so I wiped her down and just snuggled her for a good 30 minutes before I
handed her off to David so I could go to the bathroom. After an hour they came
in and weighed, measured and bathed her and she came in at 7lbs 4oz and 20
inches long. I felt bad I was so anxious for her to come early since she would
have not even broken 7lbs a week earlier. She came as soon as she could while
still being a healthy size. Because I had a full night’s sleep before I felt so
rested and awesome during the whole first day at the hospital. I always long to
be at home but for once the night in the hospital wasn’t painful and David got
to bring the kids down when she was just 5 hours old. Their reaction has truly
been a highlight of this whole process. They walked in and said and all said
“Mom!!” “Rachel!!” “Congratulations!!” It’s amazing the difference of just 20
months from Scotty’s birth on how excited and aware they were of Rachel’s birth.
They were thrilled. They each got to hold her and were truly in love. Even
Scotty kept holding his arms out to get another turn. Make me realize why
people don’t mind an age gap because it is magical to see older siblings dote
on their little baby siblings. It was the cutest thing ever. I’ll have to write
a post on Rachel’s name later. But there is the birth story finally written up!
