Read Part 1 here.
After a week of no action, I was starting to feel down in the dumps. How could I be this far progressed and not go into labor on my own? I was starting to fear that it would never happen on its own and that I would ultimately have to succumb to interventions to get this baby out.
Thursday night was rough. I couldn't get comfortable in bed. I was contracting on and off. I had to go to the bathroom every five minutes. And for the real cherry on top, Katherine had one of the worst nights of her life. That meant neither Brian nor I got a good night's rest.
Friday morning I woke up groggy and got William off to school. My mom went for a run and Brian went to the basement to get some work done and take a few client calls. Because of her restless night, Katherine was sleeping in. So Lucy and I settled on the couch to watch the Today Show. As I was sitting there I started to feel regular contractions but still nothing intense enough to sound the alarms.
Katherine woke up a little after 9:00 and on my way upstairs to get her I made a pit stop at the bathroom. That's when things really started to pick up. I changed Katherine's diaper and got her in her seat for some breakfast. All the while I was having to pause every few minutes to get myself through a contraction.
I went down to the basement where Brian was speaking to a client on the phone. I pointed to my belly and mouthed, "You need to wrap things up!" He nodded and I headed upstairs to throw some things in my hospital bag. As I was in my room I had a massive contraction and had to brace myself over my dresser. After it was finished I yelled down to my mom, "Tell Brian we need to go now!"
Brian quickly told his client he would follow up with an email and basically hung up on him. Super funny!
He came upstairs, grabbed all our stuff and we were out the door in no time. We called the maternity floor on the way to the hospital. When we were discharged the weekend before, my midwife told me not to bother with the midwives answering service. I wouldn't have time. So she gave us the direct line. Brian explained our situation to the hospital staff that answered the phone and I was delighted to hear that the same midwife who discharged me last Sunday was on call again this day.
While we were still on the highway Brian made a phonecall to his coworker asking him to cover the rest of his calls that day. The call was timestamped at 10:06. This is important for realizing just how fast things went.
We arrived at the ER and had to wait for what seemed like an eternity for our escort. Once I got into my room the contractions did not let me rest. They were on top on each other. I asked to go in the bath but after my midwife checked me she said we didn't have time. She asked me to get on my hands and knees for two contractions to get baby's head in a better position. Brian later told me he could see a moving bump on my lower spine and that my midwife told him that was the baby's head. Seriously...the way a woman's body contorts to accommodate pregnancy and delivery is amazing.
After those two contractions I flipped back over where my midwife broke my water and promptly let me push. It took one push to get his head out and one more small push to get his shoulders out. At one point she even told me I needed to slow down. Coming out too fast is not good for babies.
Weeks before I went into labor I had told Brian that with this baby I wanted to find out the gender for myself instead of him calling out "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" like he had done with all the others. But when they threw that baby on my chest he couldn't help himself. He was so excited. "It's a boy! It's a boy!" He shouted through tears.
At 10:47 in the morning on December 21st, the first day of Winter and a day many thought the world would end, Bobby Nash was born.
I was so relieved. I wasn't pregnant any longer. The pains of labor were over. I did it. And it was a boy. Bookend boys. That's what I thought to myself.
All the nurses and especially my midwife were commenting on how big he was. So as they rolled the scale into my room we all threw out a few guesses. Nine pounds, two ounces. Nine pounds, seven ounces. But none were even close. I couldn't believe my eyes when the numbers 10 and 7 flashed on the scale. Bobby was a whole two pounds bigger than my next biggest baby. He was three and half pounds bigger than William was at birth. And he was only seven pounds lighter than Katherine currently weighs!
He was late. He was huge. But he was definitely ours.
Every time I pass the fireplace mantle and see four stockings hanging all in a row I just chuckle and shake my head. Four kids. How did we get here so fast? It feels so good. It feels so complete. It's where we've always wanted to be.
After a week of no action, I was starting to feel down in the dumps. How could I be this far progressed and not go into labor on my own? I was starting to fear that it would never happen on its own and that I would ultimately have to succumb to interventions to get this baby out.
Thursday night was rough. I couldn't get comfortable in bed. I was contracting on and off. I had to go to the bathroom every five minutes. And for the real cherry on top, Katherine had one of the worst nights of her life. That meant neither Brian nor I got a good night's rest.
Friday morning I woke up groggy and got William off to school. My mom went for a run and Brian went to the basement to get some work done and take a few client calls. Because of her restless night, Katherine was sleeping in. So Lucy and I settled on the couch to watch the Today Show. As I was sitting there I started to feel regular contractions but still nothing intense enough to sound the alarms.
Katherine woke up a little after 9:00 and on my way upstairs to get her I made a pit stop at the bathroom. That's when things really started to pick up. I changed Katherine's diaper and got her in her seat for some breakfast. All the while I was having to pause every few minutes to get myself through a contraction.
I went down to the basement where Brian was speaking to a client on the phone. I pointed to my belly and mouthed, "You need to wrap things up!" He nodded and I headed upstairs to throw some things in my hospital bag. As I was in my room I had a massive contraction and had to brace myself over my dresser. After it was finished I yelled down to my mom, "Tell Brian we need to go now!"
Brian quickly told his client he would follow up with an email and basically hung up on him. Super funny!
He came upstairs, grabbed all our stuff and we were out the door in no time. We called the maternity floor on the way to the hospital. When we were discharged the weekend before, my midwife told me not to bother with the midwives answering service. I wouldn't have time. So she gave us the direct line. Brian explained our situation to the hospital staff that answered the phone and I was delighted to hear that the same midwife who discharged me last Sunday was on call again this day.
While we were still on the highway Brian made a phonecall to his coworker asking him to cover the rest of his calls that day. The call was timestamped at 10:06. This is important for realizing just how fast things went.
We arrived at the ER and had to wait for what seemed like an eternity for our escort. Once I got into my room the contractions did not let me rest. They were on top on each other. I asked to go in the bath but after my midwife checked me she said we didn't have time. She asked me to get on my hands and knees for two contractions to get baby's head in a better position. Brian later told me he could see a moving bump on my lower spine and that my midwife told him that was the baby's head. Seriously...the way a woman's body contorts to accommodate pregnancy and delivery is amazing.
After those two contractions I flipped back over where my midwife broke my water and promptly let me push. It took one push to get his head out and one more small push to get his shoulders out. At one point she even told me I needed to slow down. Coming out too fast is not good for babies.
Weeks before I went into labor I had told Brian that with this baby I wanted to find out the gender for myself instead of him calling out "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" like he had done with all the others. But when they threw that baby on my chest he couldn't help himself. He was so excited. "It's a boy! It's a boy!" He shouted through tears.
At 10:47 in the morning on December 21st, the first day of Winter and a day many thought the world would end, Bobby Nash was born.
I was so relieved. I wasn't pregnant any longer. The pains of labor were over. I did it. And it was a boy. Bookend boys. That's what I thought to myself.
All the nurses and especially my midwife were commenting on how big he was. So as they rolled the scale into my room we all threw out a few guesses. Nine pounds, two ounces. Nine pounds, seven ounces. But none were even close. I couldn't believe my eyes when the numbers 10 and 7 flashed on the scale. Bobby was a whole two pounds bigger than my next biggest baby. He was three and half pounds bigger than William was at birth. And he was only seven pounds lighter than Katherine currently weighs!
He was late. He was huge. But he was definitely ours.
Every time I pass the fireplace mantle and see four stockings hanging all in a row I just chuckle and shake my head. Four kids. How did we get here so fast? It feels so good. It feels so complete. It's where we've always wanted to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment