It was cold and ice was predicted that Friday. I was scheduled to be induced on Monday. Our neighbors were going to be out of town. Who cares about the neighbors? We did. If the baby came, they were second on our very short list of people to call to watch Rebekah. So we made the difficult decision to call William's parents and request they drive up on Fri.
His parents are GREAT people and very willingly did so. They arrived Fri evening if I recall. Saturday we all woke up and puttered around the house. I had been having contractions on and off but nothing regular or even remotely painful. At the very most, some of them had been a tad uncomfortable.
I still hadn't bought a coming home outfit for the baby. (We didn't officially know whether it was a boy or girl...although we had a hunch it was a boy from one of the ultrasounds. The doctor slipped!) We decided to hit the mall and do a little shopping. We ended up in JC Penney's in the midst of a big sale. I bought a few outfits, and so did William's mom (lovingly referred to as MIL - short for "mother-in-law").
We went home and I took a nice nap. I can recall wanting to sleep more but forced myself to get up. I felt like a bad hostess and didn't want to spend too much time sleeping. (I regret this decision...LOL! Lesson learned to listen to my body a little closer!)
I felt very much like a watched pot. It felt like all eyes were on me, watching my every move. It was very stifling for me so I came up with a semi-secret signal for William to notify him the start and stop of contractions. It was his job to check to see if there was any regularity to them. I would either tap his knee or squeeze his hand. That evening we were all curled up on the couch watching "Transformers". I had received it for Christmas. (If you haven't seen it and are a nerd like me you'll love it!) I was exhausted and considering going to bed. William's parents fell asleep on the couch about 5 minutes into the movie! Rebekah was safely tucked into bed. It was this point in time I realized my contractions were strong enough that I could not sleep through them.
Around 11:00 I called my doctor. I could not for the life of me remember when the rule of thumb was to go to the hospital. I tried googling it, but didn't find anything concrete. So I called my doctor. He told me to give it 30 min, and if the contractions intensified, to go ahead and go to the hospital. It took me longer than 30 min to decide whether or not that was the case. Around midnight, I could no longer talk through my contractions. We woke the ILs and told them we were going to the hospital.
I arrived at the hospital around 1:00 AM. They checked us in rather promptly and checked me out. The contractions were starting to get faster and harder. As soon as I got into a birthing room I began begging for an epidural! Every time that nurse walked in I asked about it. I asked the doctor on call as well. I believe the nurse was thoroughly annoyed with me.
What? Already?
Peter Daniel was born at 4:14 AM on Jan. 27th. He weighed in at 8 lbs 1 oz and 19.5 inches long. It was a quiet, picture-less birth. We had left our bag in the car, unsure of what to expect. (If we have more children, I will not ever make that mistake again!) No one answered the phone when we called to tell people the good news. I did text my friend, who ended up being the first to know because she doesn't sleep much anyway!
I slept until about 6:30 AM or so, but it was a restless sleep. I kept waking up, wondering if Peter was OK. (He was across the room in the warmer.) William napped in the chair next to me, and I woke him several times to walk over there and check to make sure Peter was still breathing!
Happy birthday my sweet little boy. You came into this world quietly, but you certainly have not remained that way. What a wild year! You certainly keep me on my toes, and I look forward to many more years of that!
1 comment:
Isn't it amazing how fast just one year goes by? I'm always amazed as well at how easily we remember all the details surrounding the birth of our children and yet we can't remember where our right arm is! LOL!
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