In anticipation of Abby’s first birthday, I have been reflecting on the events leading up to the day she arrived and our family grew to three (plus a dog). I haven’t written down our birth story in my words yet, so here goes.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I had been working from home all week, partly because I had my 39-week appointment on Tuesday, and partly because I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable. It was all I could do to shower for the day, but I only wanted to wear my comfy stretchy pants, a loose t-shirt, and flip flops. At my 39-week appointment I was 1 cm dilated; my doctor asked me if I wanted to schedule an induction for Monday, March 31. Of course, I jumped at that because I was ready to NOT be pregnant. So, I was told to call on Sunday morning to schedule the induction and we could head to the hospital at 7 a.m. on March 31. And in hindsight, I am extremely thankful that I was not induced.
Back to March 25…Nate and I settled in to watch the movie, Twilight, as a way to keep my mind off of my extremely swollen feet, my raucous heartburn, and my heavy belly. Sometime mid-movie, I began to feel contractions and we decided to time them. Our due date was Thursday, April 2, so we felt that the baby could come at any time. The contractions were somewhat rowdy, but were not coming with any sort of regularity. Nate suggested I take a warm bath (something I NEVER do) and I got in the tub and it felt wonderful. He lit candles and turned on music from the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack. We both went to bed at a reasonable hour. Nate decided to work from home the rest of the week because we felt that “Wadsworth” could come at any time.
Thursday, March 26, 7:14 a.m.
Just one minute before our alarm was set to go off…I heard a very loud “POP!” It sounded like someone smacked his hands together right in my ear. I leaned over, woke Nate, and told him what I heard. It was so weird. Nate usually doesn’t wake up very quickly, but he did this morning. He said, “Do you think that your water broke?” I hadn’t EVEN considered that! I immediately replied, “No…I don’t think so.” And then I realized that it had…and our day was set in motion!
I jumped out of bed to head to the bathroom and then started verbalizing our plan for the day. Nate laughed because I was incredibly concerned about him taking a shower. A few minutes after my water broke, one of my key concerns was for him to be clean and ready for our long day ahead. And I wasn’t thinking about me, I was thinking about him being comfortable. At my last appointment, my doctor told me that if I was one of the lucky 15% of women whose water breaks naturally, I should get to the hospital within an hour or so because of the risk of infection. While Nate showered, I called my parents and briefed them on the directions to the hospital. I also called my sister, forgetting that she was on Spring Break with her husband, in Arizona. This meant there was a two-hour time difference instead of one. Her phone wasn’t even on, so I had to call her husband’s phone; but they were not upset that I woke them up since I had good news!
We grabbed our bag, ready and packed over the preceding weekend, and dropped Riley off at the kennel. I’m glad the kennel was in our neighborhood and relatively on the way to the hospital. My contractions were getting stronger and I was getting nervous and just wanted to be in the hospital, under a doctor’s observation. Nate was excited because it was a beautifully overcast morning and he loves the rain. He was happy that our little Wadsworth would arrive on his favorite kind of day. He was also happy that Wadsworth would be a March baby (instead of coming on his/her April due date) and would get to share his birthday month.
Just two days before all this we both speculated on the gender of our child. We both thought it would be a boy, and on the way to the hospital we were debating our two choices for a middle name. We had our girl’s name picked out and had our boy’s first name ready. Today was the day we would meet our first child! I can’t even describe how excited we were. I think each of us was a little nervous because we didn’t know what to expect, but mostly we had a calm excitement surrounding us, if that makes sense. Everything seemed to be falling right into place and there were no roadblocks – much like my 39 weeks of pregnancy. What a blessing!
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