3 Years

Bill and I were reminiscing just the other night about the arrival of our first baby.  And in the spirit of sharing birth stories, here goes a summary of the first one:


Waiting, seemed like most of what I was doing, along with walking, spicy food, etc., to get this party started.  I think it was the night before I went into labor that Bill and I were out for a walk.  A man was watering his lawn, stopped, looked at us and yelled out:  you must be having twins!  No, but thanks for inquiring.  This could get me going on a whole other topic about what not to say to emotionally unstable, overdue pregnant women, but I'll save that for another time perhaps.  Anyway, later that night I did end up feeling some regular contractions, and by 3am they were actually somewhat painful.  Later in the morning there were definite signs that this could be it (which for the sake of not being gross - I'll leave out).  One of my favorite memories from that morning was telling Bill around 7am that I thought I was in labor.  His response was a calm ok, well I'll go to work and you call me if something happens.  Hello!?!?!?  I just told you I was in labor!!!!!  And you're going to work????  I didn't say any of that, I just thought it.  So he went to work, I called almost immediately and within an hour and a half of leaving he was home. :)


I  had an appointment scheduled that day for a non-stress test , so I called the doctor and told them I thought I was in labor and asked if I still needed to come in for the test.  They told me yes so they could check me just to make sure it was labor.  Why was no one believing me???


I was so excited to get to the doctor's office to see just how much progress I had made.  Up until this point I had been pretty much 0 cm dilated, and like 50% effaced.  I was just positively sure that after almost 12 hours of contractions, them getting closer together and becoming really painful, that I would have been at least 4 cm by the time we got to the doc's office.   On our way there we even dropped off a meal at a friend's house - i remember being extremely uncomfortable in the car!  Anyway, we got there, they hooked me up to the contraction machine (?) to confirm, that yes I was having painful contractions.  Then came the moment of finding out how much progress I had made (drum roll please)... = 1cm.  I was not a happy mama to be with that news.  1cm??


Because my contractions were in fact so strong, they sent us to the hospital.  My goal had been to do this thing naturally.  I even had a birth plan.  We read the Bradley book.   HA!  That was all thrown out the window.  After laboring naturally for most of the day and still making NOOOO progress (at one point the nurse told me I was at "1 and a wiggle" I cried.  All of this hard work and nothing was happening!  So it was time for the epidural and breaking my water.  This happened at night, and by the next morning I had fully dilated!  Other highlights from that evening - having a vein popped on my hand by a nurse trying to get the IV needle in, having an epidural was much less painful than contractions, and shaking all night from the IV flowing through me.  Not to mention zero sleep since 3am on Monday, and now it was Tuesday morning at 8am.  I felt good though.  I was ready to push!   2 hours of pushing and again no progress.  The doc told me I had to have a c-section.  Cried again.  50 minutes later Sophie was born via c-section.  The doctor then took out my uterus and said it was abnormal, showed it to other doctors there, said I would NEVER have delivered naturally.  I was very thankful to have had a c-section.  (Side note though - when I had my c-section with Claire I asked a different dr to check out my uterus to see if it was abnormal, and she said that it was perfectly normal, and the rest of the staff confirmed that it was the doctor who had delivered Sophie, who was in fact, abnormal).  :)

So there she was, this bloody, wrinkly, scrunched face, long fingered baby in my arms.  Mixed emotions.  I knew my life would be changed forever.  Having this child exposed so much of my sinful heart. Selfishness, impatience, anger...I could go on.  Having this child also brought so much joy, grace, and grew me in my love for God who gave up His precious, perfect son for me.   I had a friend whose sweet baby had died when she was just 18 days old, earlier that summer.  I remember when Sophie was 18 days, just holding her, crying and weeping, so thankful to have had her for that long.  Oh how I treasured having her for 18 days.  And now how I treasure having her for 3 years.   Happy birthday to my princess!