Once again at the end of this pregnancy I was experiencing loads of false labor at night. My friend Harmony texted me and said if you haven't had a baby by Thursday lets go out for pedicures and
lunch.
As we were at Chipotle discussing birth stories at lunch with a couple other friends Harmony brough up how she
loved birth and was fascinated by it. I half jokingly said “Harmony, I feel
like you should just come to my birth.” And she said, “Oh my gosh, really?” I
didn’t think she’d really be interested so when she responded with enthusiasm I
said, “Sure! You can take pictures!” She said she would LOVE to and that she’d
pack her camera bag up and be on call. Over the next few days I texted her
everyday asking if she was losing sleep over this and wondered if she was
serious enough that she didn’t mind if I called her in the middle of the night.
She kept reaffirming that this was so exciting for her and she was ready at any
time of day or night.
It seemed like every other night I would have contractions
for a couple hours usually from 12-2am and then they would die off. I was
losing sleep but gearing up that there was a possibility could be a week late
like Hattie. On Sunday night David and I
started to try and plan out how his rotations and schedule would be switched around
if his paternity leave didn’t start pretty quickly in April. We started to worry and thought it sure would be the most convenient for us if we could go ahead and have a baby before Tuesday.
Sunday night I was
up again with contractions for a couple hours so I woke up the next morning pretty tired. I had a midwife
appointment so I decided to let Ashton stay home to babysit so I didn't have to drag the little ones to the birth center. Over the last few school days I
had let each kid take a day off to spend with me before the baby arrived.
Monday happened to be Lucy’s day so she came to my midwife appointment with me.
I wasn’t feeling any contractions during the appointment so we set an appointment for 41 weeks
that I was really hoping to not make it to. We made a Sam's Club trip and headed home.
By the time I had fed everyone lunch and put Hattie down for
a nap at 12:15 I was ready to crash after being up the night before. As I laid
down for a nap I felt a decently strong
contraction almost the same moment my head hit the pillow. I said to
myself, “no way, not now, I need a nap”. I slept uninterrupted and woke up
feeling really rested around 1:30. Thank goodness for phones to be able to
document what would happen in the next 3.5 hours.
I Marco Polo’d Kim around 1:45pm and said still pregnant
nothing is really changing. At 2:15 I was talking to Mandy on the phone while I
was cleaning up upstairs and starting laundry. We chatted for about 20 minutes
and I noticed contractions picking up. She asked if I wanted her to time them
and I decided they weren’t painful
enough to really pay attention to timing them yet. We hung up the phone and pretty
quickly after that I realized that this was real labor and contractions were
getting more painful.
At 2:45 I texted David and Harmony and said this isn’t a
false alarm or an April Fool’s joke that we were having a baby this afternoon. Harmony
texted right back and said she was heading home from St Paul and to let her
know if/when I needed a ride. I told her to hang on while David and I figured
out how we were going to meet up. Meanwhile, Hannah and Mallie came home
from school and Hattie woke up from a nap. I told the kids I was going to have
a baby that night and started to get Ashton prepped for babysitting while we
would be gone through dinner time.
David was with a
patient and took a little while to call back. At 3:00pm he finally called and
said he was at the ortho clinic and that it would be awhile before he could get
to his car. We decided I better have Harmony come pick me up and he would meet
us straight at the birth center. We were worried by the time he drove 30
minutes home that we’d be caught in traffic heading back to the birth center. I
texted Harmony and asked her to come get me. She knocked on the door about 3:15. I opened
the door and told her I hadn’t quite decided if I should bring the girls or
not. I had talked to her about this at lunch on Thursday and she said that she
would help watch them and that she thought they would love it. So I asked the
three oldest girls if they wanted to come. They all nodded eagerly so I told
them to get jackets, shoes and kindles and we had better get going. They ran
around quickly gathering and poor Ashton said, “I want to come! Can I come?”
and I said, “Sorry Bud, we need you to babysit and you’ll never have to go
through this, so you better stay!” He was great about it and said, “Okay.” And
the 5 of us hopped in Harmony’s car.
We talked on the way to the birth center and Harmony and I
joked about how fun it was that she was coming and how randomly this all
started and that we would be bonded for life after this. We pulled up to the
birth center around 4ish and David was sitting in his car in the front. We all
walked in and I put my stuff in the birthing suite. I know I wasn’t acting like
I was in serious labor so no one was too concerned about me. The nurse told me
to make myself comfortable and that Rachel would be my midwife and that she was
finishing up an appointment but she’d be out in the next 20 minutes. I was
thrilled to hear it was Rachel out of all the midwives at the birth center she
was the one I was hoping would be there for delivery.
The girls were already getting restless and I didn’t want to
stay cooped up in a room so I said David and I were going to go for a walk and
Harmony said she would take the girls to the little café down the street. We
set off different directions and said we’d call when they should head back. David and I had walked one loop for about 10
minutes and I realized this was getting serious. Before we headed back in he
texted Harmony and said, “you should probably head back” “10-15 mins”. Poor
Harmony and the girls had just gotten their food and Harmony interpreted that
text as the baby is coming in 15 minutes. So she tossed her soup in the trash
and she and the girls ran the three blocks back to the birth center. I’m glad I
didn’t know this at the time or I would have felt bad!
At 4:15 I marco polo’d my sisters and mom and said I’m here
I’ll let you know when I’m checked. Pretty soon after that Rachel walked in and
checked me and said I was at 5cm but that my cervix was super stretchy so she
wouldn’t be shocked if I dilated to a 10 in no time. The girls and Harmony came in and I decided
contractions were painful enough that I had better hop in the birthing tub.
From there the contractions came every couple of minutes and in between I
remember laughing at the girls bouncing on yoga balls and David staying right
by my side rubbing my back. Hannah in particular would not take her eyes off me
and was fascinated by the whole thing. I didn’t want everyone just looking at
me and waiting so I asked Rachel to tell us why she got into midwifery. After
that when it got quiet I looked at her and said, “Are you afraid if you leave
the room I’ll have a baby?” And she laughed and said her appointments were
through and she had nowhere else to be.
It’s funny because after I said that
she did leave for a couple of minutes. And I remember looking up and telling
Harmony and David I was close and I could literally feel what felt like a water
balloon down there. With the next contraction I started to push and heard David
say pretty loudly… “RACHEL!” she came right back in right as I felt Sophie’s
head slip out IN her sac. So bizarre, I felt it finally rupture as her body
slid out and I pulled her out of the water. Rachel was right there and we both
realized the cord was around her neck. I remember it being tight enough that I
didn’t know what to do so I handed her right to Rachel. Rachel cleared the cord and put her on my chest and right
away I could tell she was just fine and she gave a little cry. I remember
laying back against the tub and saying, “I’m so glad that’s over.” I had
dreaded going through the pain of labor again and I was so glad to know that
this was the last time I had to experience that. She was born at 5:04pm about
an hour after we got to the birth center and just 2.5 hours after I realized I
was actually in labor. If there is any benefit to doing this 8x I’m glad it’s
FAST labors!
The girls gathered round and talked about how tiny she was
and what in the world was all the white goo she was covered in. She was completely
covered in vernix and it was pretty gross even to me. Then within a couple of
minutes of laying on my chest she started to open her little eyes. It was so
cute and we all felt like she knew there was a party going on and she wanted to
be a part of it. We showed the girls the umbilical cord and asked if Hannah
wanted to cut it because she had been into this whole process. She was really
excited as David helped her until she saw blood after she snipped it. She had a
minor freak out that she was hurting me and Sophie but was assured her it was
just fine. The pictures of that are some of David and I’s favorites.
After that was pretty textbook. David held her for awhile I
got out of the tub and then the girls all took turns. Then we sent them home
with Harmony and then I nursed her for a good while. David headed out the door
to grab some dinner around 6:15pm and they weighed and measured her while he
was still gone. She was 7lbs 7oz and 20.25 inches long. She looked so tiny we
were all surprised it was even that much. It’s amazing how my body grows 7lb
babies every time. David came in afterwards and we were thrilled to sit and eat
Chipotle while they did the newborn exam. I took a shower and then just 3 hours
later at 8pm David and I headed out the door to go home and it was glorious to
sleep in my bed that night!
