I Had a Baby!!

Bitty Baby was born after 23 hours of slow motion labor (well... about 17 were slow motion. About 6 were pretty intense) at 1:35am on Friday. 

We actually initially went into the Birth Center (I have my babies with a midwife. The Birth Center is a renovated house, and is about like having a baby in a really nice AirBnb rather than a hospital) at 2am Thursday morning. I had some really weird runny discharge I thought was maybe a slow leak of my water, strong contractions, and some other weird stuff coming out. We got there, labor progressed for a bit...but then I fell asleep for 30 minutes. And contractions stopped. The midwife checked, turned out my water hadn't broke.

"It's probably just pre-labor stuff". My midwife said. "It'll probably be another week before you have the baby." 

So we went home. Little Boy was at school, and Little Girl was with my mom. My mom said she'd keep her for the day, "I'm pretty certain you're in labor. You need to rest." I wasn't so sure, but I appreciated the chance to nap (I guess after 9 kids, my mom has super human labor sensing abilities).  Chris went back to work. 

So the day went by. About every hour or so, I'd have another strong contraction-- the type I had to moan through. And I kept passing stuff. I drank a bunch of water, rested, and really hoped this wasn't my new normal for another week. 

I also took advantage of having a quiet house and wrote a 7 Quick Takes. Which means I have technically blogged during active labor, which either makes me committed to my art or crazy, not sure which. 

The kids and Chris got home, and we had supper. From that point on, things got interesting. The contractions got closer together, about ten minutes apart, and stronger. I was openly hollering now, and the kids were starting to get freaked out, "Is momma ok?" 

At one point, Little Girl came into the bedroom. 

"Momma, I hope you feel better." 

Me (feeling rather discouraged): "Honey, I think it's going to be a long time before I feel better. My body's getting ready to push out a baby." 

Little Girl (leaving the room, cheerful as can be): "Well, have fun!!" 

We got through bedtime routine and evening prayers. It'd been a couple hours at this point, and things were still 10-12 minutes apart. But it wasn't slowing down either. 

I finally bit the bullet and called the midwife. "I'm still having strong contractions. Do you think maybe I could be in labor?" 

She wasn't so sure, and really seemed to think it was still "practice". 

We chatted back and forth a bit, then I told her "Well, I've been having the type you yell through..."

"Wait. Right now?!" 

"Well, not right now, I'm on the phone..." 

She told me to chart every contraction, including the ones I wasn't yelling through, and call her back when they reached 5 min apart. I called her back after about an hour of timing, 

"Well, it's hard to tell, but I think they're about seven minutes...I can time longer.." 

She said, "I think you better come in and get checked." 

"I really don't want to come in and it be practice labor again and stall..." 

"If it is, it is. I think it'd be worth it to come in." 

So my mom came over to watch the kids, we went in...and it's a good thing we didn't wait until five minute contractions, because at that point I was in transition. I ended up laboring at 7 minutes apart for a few hours. 

Bitty Baby girl finally popped out after a lot of yelling on my part. We got home about 5am, passed out pretty much all day (I am so very thankful Little Boy had school and my parents were willing to do so much babysitting), and we've all been getting used to each other since. 

She is lovely. Well worth all the adventure it took to get her here. 

I don't usually like to put recognizable pictures of my kids on my blog, but I'll make an exception this once...

She's so very pretty. :)