5pm I'm driving home with a crib I just purchased in the bed of the truck talking on the phone to my friend Randa. All of the sudden I said...."hmm... I think I'm having a contraction, oh... maybe I should pull over." Soon after pulling over it was gone and I figured it was braxton-hicks.
I didn't know it then, but these contractions were going to increase all night long and lead to the birth of our baby girl that next day.
I must admit we were still pretty unprepared for what was about to happen, after all we were only at 35 weeks and here I am just now bringing home a crib.
By 3am my contractions were 3 minutes apart lasting about 1 minute. I first went to the computer to put in for a substitute (the joys and added stress of being a teacher.. with no sub plans.. ugh! oh well.. Planet Earth it is ;) I knew my students wouldn't mind)
I woke up Kelly at 3:30AM. He didn't believe me when I said I needed to go to the hospital (I think he was caught off guard and thought it was just a false alarm, after all it seemed too early and I had not had any signs of early labor) Well, he was a little reluctant and after I called the hospital and they said to come in he still thought they would just be sending us home. I started to get ready and quickly put a bag together. We grabbed the car seat and were off.
We arrived at the hospital and checked in around 4am. A nurse checked me and said I was dilated 4cm and 100% effaced. I was having this baby. Kelly called my mom letting her know what was going on so she could get on the next available flight from Denver. The nurse called the doctor who said she wanted to try and stop the labor since I was so early. The drugs they gave me caused my heart to race and my body to shake. My heart rate wouldn't go down enough for them to give me any more doses of the medication so there was no stopping the labor, she was coming! I had an ultra sound to make sure she was head down and once they got that all finished they took me down to our room.
My contractions had slowed down due to the attempts to stop the labor. I was crossing fingers that my Mom would be able to make it in time as her plane wasn't landing until 1pm. Once I was situated in our room and appeared pretty comfortable, Kelly asked if he could go home to shower and get his laptop. He thought I would want to nap since I had been up all night. When I let him know there was NO WAY I was napping in my un-medicated state, he realized he wasn't going anywhere. A down side to being unprepared was the fact that Kelly was pretty bored for the next few hours except for when they would let me unhook from the monitors and walk around.
I will spare the laboring details except to say showers were my best friend as they really helped relax my body in order to better deal with the contractions.
My Mom arrived and at 2pm I was feeling really close to the final moments. I was dilated to 9 but my water hadn't broke. I asked if any doctor at the hospital could come and break my water since my doctor wasn't there and we weren't sure when she would be arriving. They said there wasn't a doctor here who could do that. My nurse was convinced that after my water broke the baby would come out right away. I was starting to worry as the nurse tried to assure me that if the doctor isn't here at that point then the nurses would deliver the baby. Are you kidding me!?! Yeah that was definitely not comforting at all.
After 1.5 hours of contractions right on top of each other and constant vomiting from the pain it was really difficult that nothing was progressing because my dumb water wouldn't break!!! I felt like I was dealing with a stubborn water balloon that wouldn't break no matter how many times it gets tossed. With still no idea when the doctor was showing up I was getting pretty upset (to say the least).. after all what in the world is this doctor getting paid for?
In preparing to give birth, I had decided to make every attempt to birth naturally with no epidural, but at this point, I was fed up feeling there was no end in sight... a little bit of drama queen kicked in and everyone was a little surprised when I said "give me a c-section!"... sounds funny now but with my doctor still not showing up, I was sick of waiting and I was beyond ready to have this baby!
When the doctor decided to make her grand appearance I was both happy and mad. Happy she was finally HERE to break my water and mad that she was FINALLY here to break my water. She quickly broke my water which gave her a nice water bath (serves her right for making me wait so long!) I was then ready to push. After 3 pushes the head was out. She asked if I wanted to feel the head and I declined, I was so focused in finishing this process that I just wanted to be done. After one more push and another big gush of water that sprayed not only the doctor but also Kelly and my Mom who were supporting my legs, she was here!!! Grace Julieann Householder born at 4:05pm weighing 5lbs 9.5 ounces and 19.5 inches long. Kelly cut the umbilical cord which he was not interested in doing before, but in the moment he really got into it all and enjoyed being a part of encouraging me on as I pushed and taking pictures after she was born.
This is a favorite!
Both Kelly and I are so grateful for our wonderful mothers! Thanks to my Mom for coming out for the birth and staying a full 2 weeks to help with the transitioning of learning to be a new mom and thanks to Kelly's Mom for the delicious meals and help in transporting my Mom around. Love you both!
Grace is so lucky to have such loving Grandmothers! Grandma Householder is on the left and Nanna Chantry is on the right.
Kelly and I feel deeply blessed to have our family grow and to become parents.
