On May 27th at 10:27am we welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family. She's absolutely perfect and since we're overjoyed to have her in our lives I will proceed to bore you all with the story of her birth.
When I was about 36 weeks pregnant I finally got fed up with my military doctor and at the suggestion of several of my friends I switched to a civilian doctor. I absolutely loved my new doctor! In the three weeks I saw him I got four ultrasounds and turned down three offers to induce. Apparently my fluid levels were low enough to justify inducing that early but I needed to wait until my last mock trial at work before I had a baby. When we went in for my last appointment I was about 38 weeks and when he offered to induce the day after my trial we gladly accepted. It was so nice to arrange for one of my co-workers to come stay at my house to watch the kids while we would be in the hospital. I was also able to call my parents and let them know when we’d have the baby. They decided to drive over that weekend (12 hours one-way for them to stay one day!) so they could see the baby and help with the kids.
We arrived at the hospital at 5am on Friday and by 6:30am I had my first contraction. At 7:30am the doctor came in to check on me and break my water. That’s when he informed us that he had forgotten that his daughter had an awards ceremony that morning that he had promised to go to. He wanted to know if I thought I’d have the baby before he came back around 9:30am. I assured him he didn’t need to worry but to hurry back because if he wasn’t there Hubby would deliver the baby. He thought that was funny but I’m sure three hours later he understood that I was serious. As a precaution he told the nurse to stop increasing the meds while he was gone. A little after 9:30am he called and told them to increase the meds again since he was back. That’s when things got a little out of control. I jump from 4cm dilated to 8cm in about 30 minutes. At 8cm the room suddenly became a sauna. I literally thought I was going to die from heat exhaustion. Obviously the room really wasn’t that hot, it was just me. Thankfully Hubby had the nurse get a bucket of ice and several towels and he made some cold packs for me. Without those cold packs I wouldn’t have made it. Shortly after that I informed the nurse that I really needed to push. She paged my doctor and then we waited. And waited some more… I told her again that I had to push. She told me that the doctor wasn’t responding to his page and that I needed to do some breathing to keep from pushing. At that point I began telling Hubby to get ready because the baby was coming anyway. Thankfully before that happened the doctor came running in and immediately began putting his gown and gloves on. It felt like he took his sweet time too because the baby’s head had already crowned. When I was finally allowed to really push it only took four pushes before Hiccup was born. I believe the doctor was in the room for a total of 5 minutes. From first contraction to birth I was in labor for 4 hours, a new record for me! Hubby was very proud of himself too because he was the one who talked our doctor into letting us begin the induction at 5am instead of 1am like the doctor originally wanted. Hubby assured the doctor that I would have the baby before he ever showed up at the hospital if we started at 1am. It’s a good thing Hubby insisted on having it pushed back and the doctor actually listened!
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| Grandma holding Hiccup |
Once my parents arrived on Saturday afternoon they brought Crazy and Boo to see Hiccup. I was a little worried how Boo would react to having a baby in the family. The girl thinks she’s actually a boy and shows no maternal instinct at all. When they arrived though Boo immediately wanted to hold Hiccup. I believe her exact words were, “Give it to me!” She insisted on holding her at least five different times and barely let anyone else hold her. Crazy was less than impressed but did want to hold Hiccup at least once.
We stayed in the hospital for 48 hours before we were allowed to be discharged. We were apparently a big joke to the nurses. We never wanted or needed anything whenever one of the nurses came to check on us. I made a quick recovery and Hiccup was doing great so we didn’t need anything. Whenever there was a shift change the nurses would come in to introduce us to our new nurses and they would all get this grin on their faces and ask if we needed anything. Of course we said no and then they’d turn to the other nurse and they’d start chuckling. We even had one nurse come in and ask if we were sure we were okay because we were making it too easy on her. Being the easy patients on the floor paid off the last day though. Hiccup’s nurse brought us all sorts of free stuff and told us that we could skip the discharge class if we wanted. My nurse made sure that I was the first discharged when my doctor made the rounds that morning. By lunch we were on our way home. Overall delivering at a civilian hospital definitely beats the military hospital.
Since coming home and becoming a family of 5 everything’s been great! Crazy and Boo have been fantastic and show no jealousy at all. Boo helps out by informing me when Hiccups starts crying (like I can’t hear her) and giving a pacifier to Hiccup. Crazy did ask me though why God thought he needed another little sister instead of the little brother he wanted. I wasn't quite sure what to say to that, but after reassuring him that it was a good thing because that meant he’d get his own room he was fine with it.
Shortly after Boo was born a friend who had also just had a little girl remarked to me how great it was to have a boy and girl and that she felt like her family was complete. She asked me if I had the same feeling and I had to stop and think about it. I felt like a terrible mother because I honestly couldn’t say the same. Now that we have Hiccup though I realized one morning that I know exactly what my friend was talking about. We never planned on having three kids but honestly now our family of 5 feels complete. And it’s a really good feeling…
