A Birth Story about Number 4 almost born on the 4th

It was July 4th. My sister's birthday happens to be July 4th so she was lobbying for me to have the baby on the 4th.  I was overdue anyway.  Nothing exciting was going on that day so I decided to brave it and go to my Aunt's house for a party.

There was a bounce house and it was H-O-T, hot!  I thought about getting in the bounce house to get this labor started but decided against it.  The evening was fun.  The kids were worn out.  About 9 pm that night I decided to load the kids in the van.  As I was loading them I felt what could be my water breaking although it was only a trickle not a gush.  I had had so much false labor with this child that I wasn't counting on anything.

We took off for home and that was about half an hour away.  Once home I got those tired children in bed and I sat down to relax for a bit and wait on my husband to get home from work.  It was about 11 o'clock and by this time I had had two more trickles and thought this could be it so I called my Dad and T and told them they should come get the kids.

I was very hesitant to do this because a week before I had consistent contractions for 5 hours.  I waited till they were 3-4 minutes apart (I had clocked them on an app from my phone) and I called my stepmom (T) to come spend the night with the kids.  She came and guess what - the contractions slowed down but by this time I had packed up, taken a shower and was on the way to the hospital.  I arrived at the hospital and the contractions became also non existent.  They decided to go ahead and monitor me.  I already knew I was dialated to a 4 because I had been that the previous week.  Finally they decided to release me when I was only having a contraction every 20 minutes.  I could have maybe been induced but I did not want to do that so home I went.

Back to the present, I hadn't had any contractions as of yet but I knew they would be coming if indeed my water had broken.  My Dad and T showed up and we loaded the kids in the car.  In the meantime I called my sister and my mom and they came over and decided to get us all some food because I knew we wouldn't be eating for a while.  By this time my husband had arrived home.  It was midnight.

Part of my "team"

We got ready and went to the hospital.  I walked in and I still wasn't really having contractions and nothing had "gushed" yet so I was pretty calm.  They got me to the triage room.  This is where they like to observe you before you are admitted so that they can make sure you are in labor.  This is where they did two tests to confirm my water had broken.  They also checked me and I was at a 6!  But guess what - both of those tests came back inconclusive for amniotic fluid although the doctor said she could see it was amniotic fluid.  I was hoping this was the real deal and that I was not going to be sent home again!

Finally she did another one and it came back positive (duh I knew that by now).  I guess one of the microscopes wasn't working properly so she chose another one and that confirmed what I already knew.   I was being admitted.  We were going to have this baby girl after being two days overdue.  Did I mention I was early with all of my other kids?  You know this one is going to have a mind of her own.

One of the nurses told me she couldn't believe how calm I was.   She said she had never seen anyone dilated to a 6 and still in good spirits.  With my third son I had done natural labor - drug free and IV free as well so I knew this was nothing - the worst was yet to come.  Contractions with breaks I can handle.  Although because I had been through that once I didn't feel the need to do it again so I asked for my epidural please.

I did get my epidural but the old "needle in the back" seemed to hurt worse this time.  Anyway, I got the epidural and within the thirty minutes I had that ahhhhhhhh feeling.  Except there was a little problem it didn't quite take on my left side which was no big deal until towards the end.  It did give me some relief and made it more enjoyable.  I was at least able to watch HGTV for a while.

What was really "fun" was when I would have a hard contraction and my mom and my sister would be staring at the monitor telling me the number.  It was like, "Oh wow that one got to 100."  And I was like, "Yeah, I know."  I was having a lot of pain with the contractions on my left side so I called the nurse and begged for relief.  She pushed the button to release more medicine from my epidural (Duh, I forgot you could do that.)  It wasn't helping so she said, "Let me check you."  And guess what - I was complete.

So, she called my doctor and of course - my doctor was with another patient who was also delivering so I was told to "Not push".  Right, that sounds awesome.  I remember telling my husband to get down there and catch because I had to push.  My pushing time doesn't last long - two to three pushes and we are done.  I was begging the nurse just to grab any doctor out in the hall.  I really was close to just doing it myself.  Finally the doctor came in and put on her shoe covers and her mask and whatever else they have to put on and it was maybe three pushes and there she was!

With Daddy

The whole gang - we always do one of us on the hospital bed but I'm not sure anymore will fit:)

Mimi loves her:

Her older sister and brother love her:

 Our nurse took this of us before we left.  I look awkward but whatever.

Our precious little girl

She has dark, kind of curly hair and blue eyes.  I have always wanted a girl with dark hair and blue eyes - its just like her daddy's.

She has been the best baby.  Not too fussy, sleeping 5-6 hours a night at 3 weeks and just a blessing and a joy.  We love her sooooooooooo much!  All of the kids are crazy about her and want to hold her and kiss her everyday.

We feel very, very blessed and are very thankful to God for all of our children.