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| Thanksgiving bump. |
I had a feeling that baby would come early, and not a week or more late like his previous two siblings, but I really had no idea what to expect from this one. After all, his very existence was a surprise, and then I was pretty sure he was going to be a girl, so his gender was a surprise, too. Why wouldn't his entrance into the world be a surprise as well? It was.
Thursday, December 7th... I noticed that getting in and out of the car and moving around in general was more trouble than usual, but I just shrugged it off as "getting close." I had a midwife appointment that day, but didn't see my usual midwife (Lisa) because she had been sick with stomach flu. I went to the ECCHO monthly board meeting and got back home around 945pm. We got everyone ready for bed, and I chatted online with Amazon customer service because they had sent me the wrong Alexa cord replacement. I stood at Michael's computer and got really frustrated with them because they weren't understanding what I needed and tried to send me the wrong cord again. Once it was finally worked out, I laid down in bed next to Michael and felt something... odd. My water never broke on it's own with my first two babies, and with Josie it broke RIGHT before she was born, after I had been pushing for a long time... so my water breaking was new to me. But that's what it was I discovered - it happened at 1125pm. I was excited and nervous as I texted my birth team (midwife and two students) to let them know that my water broke but I wasn't even having contractions or any other sign of labor. I texted my mom so she would know what was going on, and Michael called his boss so he could be off work. When I didn't hear back from Lisa very quickly, I called her to see if she was still sick or what the plan would be regarding who would come for the birth. She said she was well and would be coming. She said it sounded like it would still be a while before delivery because I wasn't having contractions yet. She wanted everyone to try to get some rest before things heated up, so we all laid down and tried.
I could not get comfortable because almost instantly the contractions started up, and they were strong and intensified every few minutes. She had said to call her back when contractions were about 12 minutes apart, but they STARTED at 4 minutes apart. Michael fell asleep but I just laid there feeling the waves getting closer and stronger until I just wanted to get things ready. I called Lisa again around 1am and told her I would like her to come now because the contractions were strong and close. Also texted my mom and dad to head this way. Michael and I tried to start prepping labor stuff... gathering trashcans, towels, etc. I had most things gathered in the corner of my room. But pretty soon I couldn't take it and laid back down and tried not to cry. The contractions were so intense and close, I was already telling Michael that I couldn't do it, and that I was stupid for not wanting to pain medication because it HURT. I was so scared that it would be like Josie's birth and I would have to endure this pain for hours.
My contractions were right on top of each other when the senior student, Rachel, showed up at our house a little after 2am. She was like "oh!" when she saw me go right into another contractions after breathing through one. I said I would get up so they could prep the bed for delivery, and I made my way to the bathroom because I felt like I needed to go. I sat on the toilet and immediately felt like baby was coming, and I started screaming "HELP!" Rachel and Michael came running down the hall and I was like "I feel pushy!" Rachel started getting ready to deliver him right there... she called Lisa on speaker phone and we found out she was just minutes away, her GPS had gotten her turned around a bit! About then the other student, Emily, came running in and threw on some gloves. They asked if I wanted to deliver him there in the bathroom or try to make it to the bed. I decided to head for the bed between contractions. I made it into my bedroom and beside the bed and I was like "No, he's coming now!" Rachel said if I felt like pushing on the next contraction to go ahead, so I did - standing there beside my bed! As I started pushing, Lisa ran in the door and his head was born. I pushed again and he was out - Rachel caught him with a little assistance from Lisa who had just enough time to slip on some gloves! It all happened so fast, it was insane. After he was out, I turned around and laid on the bed and they tried to bring him up to my chest, but the umbilical cord was so short they just got him kind of on my lap. His head was really coned the first glimpse I got of him, but it returned to shape really quickly and he was just beautiful and perfect. From the moment my water broke (no contractions!) to him being born was a total of 3 hours! It was the absolute perfect birth I had been praying about (except the part where the midwife almost wasn't there!).
My mom and dad called as they were coming into town to see how I was, and that was when I was on the bed and Rachel had just got there. They asked if they had time to go to the store to get snacks in case we were all there a long time (because that's how the last one was, who knew!), and we had no idea at that point...so they went ahead and ran into Walmart for a few minutes. Because of that, they arrived at our house just a few minutes after he was born! When my mom walked in I said "I'm sorry, I couldn't wait!" Lol.
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| Hello World! |
Here are a few pictures we took for Christmas cards and such...
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| My 4 kids!!! |
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| This was MY Christmas outfit, 1980 |
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| Family of SIX on Christmas! |
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