She's here!!

Our little luC has arrived.



And call me crazy...



But I love reading about peoples birth experiences. So I thought I'd share my own. Of course if you have no interest in hearing about it, I won't be offended if you just skip down to the end and look at the pictures.


So luC's due date was Dec. 16. However, at the beginning of my pregnancy(when ultrasound dating is most accurate), every time I got an ultrasound they said it was 4 or 5 days later. But they don't change the due date unless it's more than a weeks difference. Dec. 16 came and went, and even though I always said she'd be late, it was SOOOO hard to see the due date pass with out a baby to show for it. But according to those calculations in the beginning, she came just on time...


On Dec. 21 I had an appointment with the midwives in the morning. The midwife talked of stripping membranes, but basically said if the baby is ready, it would speed things up and if the baby wasn't ready it would make no difference. So I opted to not go that route. They did an ultrasound to make sure there was enough fluid, they set up an appointment for the 23rd for a nonstress test, and set up an appointment for me to be induced on the 27th. I really thought all of those appointments would occur.


After I got home from the midwives, juC had to go back to work and little jC was so upset. I ended up taking him for a drive to calm him down. I thought I would take the opportunity to go by a friends house and drop something off for her and hang out a bit. The whole time I was there she joked about my water breaking on her carpet, and it better not because it was new carpet. I assured her we were safe.



At about 11:30am little Judson and I were about to leave. He asked me to hold him, so I was standing there in her kitchen holding him in front of me when all of a sudden I felt something. I thought that with the way I was holding jC and the position of the baby I must have had a little accident....oops! That had never happened before! But I didn't want to ask to use her bathroom because I knew Judson would freak out. So with out saying anything, jC and I left her house and I got home as quickly as possible. My water breaking before labor started had never crossed my mind because I always assumed it would happen exactly the way it did with jC. After I got home I realized that there was a good chance that my water did break.

I called the nurse at the midwives office and told her what happened. She told me what to do to "test" it out and see if my water broke. When I called her back to tell her the results of the "test", she said "REALLY!?" Apparently she didn't expect it to have actually happened. But, my water broke for sure!

I immediately called juC. No answer. I called the babysitter who was supposed to come. No answer. I called juC again. No answer. I called the other babysitter. No answer. I called juC again. No answer.

Seriously...NOW?!?! Now is the time no one picks up?? I called the cell phone of the other babysitter. She finally answered and said she'd come as soon as she could. Called juC's work phone. No answer. Called his cell phone again. No answer. FINALLY got him and told him my water broke.

I quickly finished getting things together that I needed to. juC got home and a few minutes later the babysitter came. We headed to the midwives office because they said they had to do a test to be 100% sure my water broke and it was easier to do it at their office. Of course as soon as the midwife checked, she said we could go ahead to the hospital. When she told me that Margie was the midwife on call, I was excited because that was who delivered Judson and I liked her and it was familiar.

We got to the hospital around 1pm and I fully expected to be there for a looong time before luC was born. I was about 3 cm dilated and luC was still high. They hooked me up to the antibiotics I needed and did a round. After it was done and I could get up, I did. Up to that point my contractions weren't very painful and weren't regular. After I got up they started getting really painful.

The whole pregnancy I had planned to have a natural birth, but the whole time I was never convinced I could do it. As the contractions got more painful, I really started to doubt myself. I asked if I could sit in the tub, so the nurse and midwife got it ready for me. Before I got in, she checked to see how far along I was, but said she wouldn't tell me. It is most definitely a good thing she didn't. I was only 5 cm, and I'm pretty sure if she had told me that I would have asked for an epidural.

I was in the tub for about 20 minutes when things really started getting painful and uncomfortable. And I started feeling a lot of pressure and like I needed to push. juC went and got the midwife. Back in the room she checked me again. As she was checking I went from 8 to 9 cm. Soon after I was at 10 cm and it was time.

I'm not going to lie people. I was in PAIN. I was screaming. (I always said I wouldn't be one of those people screaming, but...) My body took over and I honestly felt like I had no control over what was happening. I pushed through 3 contractions and at 5:24pm....way earlier than I expected, luC arrived.

She was 7 lbs and 20 1/4 inches, and she, of course, was perfect. It's hard to believe it was two weeks ago tomorrow. She's a sweet baby and we are so happy to have her!!