First of all, I have to say that Friday was my little girl’s 2nd birthday!!! I cannot believe she is 2 already. I love that my kiddos are almost exactly 2 years apart. They will have to share birthday parties…one year can be a princess theme; the next year will be cowboys. 😉

kidding… 🙂

Anyway, on to the birth story. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I guess I should probably start with Friday night when I took this picture with my ipod and uploaded it to facebook:

You remember how I said a while ago that I was probably not going to run anymore during this pregnancy? Yeah, well…that didn’t happen. I went out for a little run Friday night in hopes of bringing on baby. Nothin’ doin’ – I hardly had any contractions the whole night – not even while I was running. Boo.

The next day, Saturday, was my due date. I was a little bummed that my man had not made his arrival yet, but there was an arts and crafts fair I was planning to go to and my church had a fall festival in the afternoon, so I certainly wouldn’t be bored. Little did I know how much I wouldn’t be bored… 😛

My hubby went on a run with our little girl and I headed to the arts & crafts fair around 11. While I was there, an older lady was trying to get me to enter a raffle for a baby basket and asked if I knew whether I was having a boy or girl.

I said, “It’s a boy and I’m due today!”

She slowly backed away and said, “Ooookay, I’m leaving now.”

I wonder if she thought I was going to blow up. 😉

After I left the fair, I went on a walk. I had been having contractions off and on, so I thought I would walk to see if I could “help things along.” I only ended up walking for 15 minutes or so because it was close to 12:30 and I was hungry.

We had planned to go to Panera Bread that day just to have a little family time, so when I got home, we left for lunch. By the way, the baked potato soup in a bread bowl is fabulous. It’s a great meal to have before you go into labor. Ha.

It was almost 2 when we got home. Our little girl went down for a nap and I decided to hang out in bed and read a little before taking a nap myself.

I had been reading for 10-15 minutes when I heard and felt this weird, “thump, thump” sound in my lower belly. Wait – that sounds like I have multiple bellies. Well, you know what I mean…the lower part of my stomach. I thought it was strange and was a little concerned. Then I felt something … yep – my water had broken and a little bit was trickling out. I called to my hubby and he got a towel for me. (I’m not recommending this next course of action…just telling you what I did.) I was pretty tired, so I laid back in bed with the towel under me. Then I felt the contractions getting a bit stronger and more consistent.

At this point my hubby came in and announced he was going to go to the fall festival at our church. I couldn’t believe he was making such a ridiculous statement. ha! I didn’t remember exactly how I responded but he did.

“No, you’re not.”

Seeing that I don’t make a habit of telling him what he is/isn’t going to do (yeah – I did learn a few things from our marriage series 😉 ), he figured things were progressing pretty well. Our little girl was still taking a nap, but we had already pre-arranged with our dear neighbors to watch her if anything happened suddenly with my pregnancy. So while my hubs got everything situated with our daughter, I called the hospital to tell them I was coming in. The lady I talked to wasn’t my nurse, she was just an after hours nurse. So she didn’t know me or my history that well. As soon as I told her this was my 2nd baby, though, she took me a bit more seriously. gotta love it.

My hubby and I left for the hospital around 2:50. I had this big ol’ pink towel under me because my water was leaking a little bit at a time. When we got to the hospital and I stood up outside the car, I felt this nice little gush (is that too much? If so, you may want to stop reading now.) 😛 So I slung the towel between my legs and walked in the hospital like that. My hubby was reassuring.

“Don’t worry. It’s not noticeable. Really.

I’m serious. I’m serious.

I’m not serious.”

I started to laugh until the next contraction came and I had to focus on breathing through it.

Okay, so I have this thing about walking up the stairs (instead of using the elevator) to my 3rd floor prenatal appointments. Call me crazy – I just like to do it. My honey knows that, so we headed for the stairs. We’re prepared people, so of course we forgot where the labor and delivery floor was.

We went to the 3rd floor – nope.

4th – nope.

At this point, I was having some intense contractions. While my hubby was checking the 4th floor to see if L&D was there, I was in the stairwell thinking, “If I don’t get out of this place, this baby is gonna make an appearance in the stairwell.” As soon as my man came back, I said, “It’s on the 2nd floor. I’m sure of it.”

So on to the 2nd floor we went. Thankfully, L&D was there and I went in – pink towel still slung between my legs.

The nurses figured out my water had broken. Go figure.

When they checked me, I was dilated to an 8. It was 3:15. They called the doctor.

At this point, I wasn’t thinking, “I can’t do this” but “I don’t want to do this.”

There’s a big difference.

I think since this was my 2nd time going through labor, I was more aware of what lay ahead. Specifically – the pain that was lying ahead. Not cool. (I guess I should mention that I gave birth naturally without meds or an epidural…so, the pain was “kinda” significant) You know, at that point, there’s really nothing you can do. You know, it’s not like you can just decide not to have a baby all of the sudden or something. You’re going through with it whether you like it or not. Ouch.

My contractions slowed down a bit by the time the doctor came. (I don’t think he was too impressed by that.) 😉 So I kept walking around my little room and holding onto my hubby during the intense contractions. My nurse had the idea that my hubby should be fanning me during my contractions, but I was sweating and it just made me cold. Thankfully, he knows me better than she did and so he stopped fanning me. 😛

All at once, while I was walking around the room, I got this contraction and woah – that boy was comin’ out. I grabbed my husband and started leaning on him. As well as making some pleasant, calm noises. {go ahead and insert whatever imaginative words you would like to use in place of the ones in italics}

Suddenly my room was filled with the DR and several more nurses. {yeah – those pleasant, calm noises? not so much.}

My nurse kinda threw me in bed, they pulled up those lovely stirrup-deals, and told me to push during the next contraction.

I did and then my DR was like, “Okay, one more.”

I was not going to be fooled into thinking I only had to give 1 more push because I was sure I had a lot longer to go. Then I heard him say,

“I see some light brown hair.”

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!! He was serious!!!!!!! I gave 1 more push and then the most beautiful boy in the world was placed on me.

No words can accurately describe the flood of emotions at that moment. I just cried and held my baby boy – so thankful for him, for my husband’s support, for the help and strength the Lord provided … it is indescribable how wonderful I felt at that moment (despite feeling horrible at the same time) ;).

There was 1 verse I really focused on in the weeks prior to labor as well as during my actual labor and delivery:

“Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

There were many (many, many, many) times before I went into labor that I became fearful and started rehearsing the “what-ifs” to myself. Every time, I had to force myself to think through this verse and obey it.

“FEAR NOT.” Why?

Because my God is with me.

DON’T BE DISMAYED. Why?

Because the almighty God is my God.

And He promises to strengthen, help and uphold me with His hand.

That’s what got me through labor. And He’s the One Who is helping through these transitions at home too! I’m not having the intense physical strain of labor now, just the day to day struggles of being a new mommy again. It doesn’t matter what the struggle – I still need the same strength from the same God.

So that’s my little man’s birth story. I really enjoyed writing it – so many wonderful emotions and memories I never want to forget. Well, I don’t mind forgetting the painful part of it. 😉

Thanks for all your kind comments and advice for helping my little girl through the transition of being a big sister. She is adjusting…slowly but surely. 🙂