My Princess

My princess arrived early Saturday morning. It was a long process...kind of.

Beginning Wednesday evening my braxton hicks changed to what I thought was real contractions. They were coming every 20 minutes or so and sometimes closer together. I was due on Thurday and had an appointment scheduled for Thursday so I was excited and anxious thinking that she could be coming early. We called my mom and told her that she MAY need to make a trip so it was up to her to come early Wednesday night or else to possible come in the middle of the night. She decided to come down right away. I went to bed because I figured that either the contractions would go away or else they'd get worse and I'd be glad I got some rest. Well... they went away. I woke up a few times in the night and had them randomly but the next morning they were gone and I headed to work. That day at school was normal. No pains or cramping. Then, I had my appointment after school. On Monday, I had been 2cm and "thick" but by Thursday at 4:30 I was a tight 3cm and 70% effaced. I was excited that the contractions were doing something. The Dr. hooked me up to the monitor to watch her heartrate and she was fine. During that time I had a contraction like I'd had the night before and Dr. B confirmed that they were in fact contractions. After going home I began to have them more regularly around 6:00. They were eventually coming every 12-15 minutes. My mom was sure that she was coming so she called my sister to tell her to she might need to come down. Overly excited, her and her boyfriend made the trip. They got here a couple hours after I went to bed, around 12:00. Again, I woke up a few times in the night, more with bladder issues than from contractions I believe. But I would usually have one every time. The next morning, Friday, I woke up and started to get ready for work. It was a workday for School Improvement and I had about 3 contractions while I was getting ready so I called my principal and told him I wouldn't make it. Then they stopped. All morning and afternoon, I felt so guilty for not going to work because I wasn't having any more contractions. Then I decided that afternoon that I would do some walking. The dogs' bedding needed washed so I walked it down to the laundry mat and put it in the wash. Then I walked the 6 blocks home. After about 20 minutes I walked back to put it in the dryer, then walked home. After another 20 minutes I walked back to bring the laundry home. All this time, I was praying and talking to friends about my frustration. I really wanted to submit to God's timing but I was really ready to have this baby. It all helped.

That evening, for the first night, I didn't have regular contractions. I think I had a few sporadic ones but nothing like the last two nights. After some research online, I decided that what I'd been having was false labor and I gave all my expectations to God. I knew that he had perfect timing and a perfect plan. I went to bed around 10. One of the boys climbed into bed with us around 2:30 and around 3 I got up with contractions. These were coming much closer so I got up and came into the living room to deal with them and write down the times. They were about 4-5 minutes apart. After a 1/2 hour I decided to let my husband know what was going on. I told him we might need to go to the hospital tonight. I started calling my mom who'd gone to a friends house for the night. She didn't answer. After about 10 minutes of calling my mom, I went back in to my husband, who was back asleep and told him he HAD to get up. Eventually I got ahold of my mom as well. My husband started timing contractions and we were around 2:30 minutes apart. Mom and he both agreed that these were real, they could tell by the look on my face. So after one more contraction, 2:15 minutes after the last, he said we were going. We drove to the hospital, leaving at 4:15, and I decided to call our babysitter instead of waiting until getting checked at the hospital. We got to the ER and my husband dropped me off to get started while he parked. When he came back I told him, "I better be at least 7cm." because they were so close and intense. Finally, the nurse came down to get me and up we went to the family birth center. She wheeled me into the room and I felt the urge to go to the bathroom. In the back of my mind, I knew it COULD be baby, but I wasn't going to say anything, thinking it wasn't possible I was 9-10 cm. So I asked the nurse to check me so I could go potty. She hooked me up to monitor baby and then checked my cervix. After what seemed like a very long time, she said... "Well, I'd call you a 9cm stretchy but I'm going to have the other nurse check you to make sure." It was 4:45. The other nurse confirmed and the race was on. They called Dr. B. I told them to make sure they got out gloves since my last one had basically fallen out and Dr. B had to catch him with his gown because someone had forgotten to put out gloves. After about 8 minutes Dr. B arrived and he put on his gear. He wanted me to breathe through a couple contractions, he checked me and then they put up my legs and let me push. At the next contraction, I gave 3 good pushes and we had a head. One more good push and the shoulders were out. My husband fervently watched and announced, "IT'S A GIRL!" Our princess was born at 5:01am. She was 8 lb. 2 oz. and 2o inches long.