Preston's Sudden Arrival

Since my older two kids were both born early I had high expectations that my third baby would also arrive early, but as many of you already know, that just wasn't the case. I visited my O.B. on my due date, which was June 14th. At that visit she checked me and told me that I was only dialated to a 2....I was beyond dissapointed. I asked her when I could be induced because I was in serious need of getting the baby out before I went crazy!!! Then my doctor gave me the worst news an over-due pregnant woman could get, "We won't induce you until you're 10 days over-due." Seriously?!! 10 days seemed a bit extreme! After my appointment I told myself that I was going to have to be ok with being pregnant for another 10 days, because I wasn't showing any signs of being ready to deliever any time soon. To say the least, I was pretty bummed out.

The next couple of days came and went without any contractions or any signs of on-coming labor. When Spencer and I were going to bed Saturday night we joked that it would be really great if the baby decided to come that night so we didn't have to go to church the next morning. We both laughed it off since we were already convinced that I was going to be induced.

Well what do you know, at 4:30 in the morning I woke up becasue I thought I felt a contraction. I stayed laying in my bed watching the clock. 7 minutes later another contraction came and 7 minutes after that another. I started to get excited! I woke Spencer up and told him that I was having contractions. Too excited to stay in bed I got up and decided to straighten my hair. Spencer started timing my contractions with an app he had on his phone. The contractions kept coming every 5-7 minutes and were actually pretty strong. A little after 5:00 I called my mom so she could come stay with Owen and Audrey. Over the next hour the contractions kept coming, stronger and closer together. By 6:00 the contractions were almost unbearable. Spencer and I got in the car and waited in the driveway for my parents to arrive. As soon as we saw their car coming down the street we pulled out of the driveway and yelled some instructions to them out the car window as we headed to the hospital.

Lucky for us the hospital is only a few miles from our house. Once we got there I managed to walk into the hosptial and get up to the 4th floor where we were admitted. Once the nurse brought us to our room it was a little after 6:30. The nurse tried to get a urine sample from me, but the contractions were so bad there was no way that was going to happen. The nurse was very calm and asked me to come lay down so she could check me. To my surprise she declared, "Um, you're a 10." Immediately the mood in the room changed and suddenly things seemed to turn into panic mode. Within minutes there were a team of people in my room getting ready for delievery. In my mind I thought I was going to get an epidural, but the doctor wasted no time informing me that there was no time for medication and that I was going to have to do this all natural. That's when I got scared.

From that point on things just started happening so fast. The doctor broke my water which had meconium in it. Immediately the Peditrician was called and he brought a team with him. (As a side note the Peditrician on-call happened to be our Peditrician. Spencer was thrilled to have him there, but I was a little hesitant about having him see me as the complete mess I was....not sure how I'm going to feel the next time I have to take my kids into see him, talk about embarassing!!) Then the Doctor realized that the baby was face-up and she told me that she was going to have to turn him. Let me tell you people: turning the baby was incredibly painful, but the Doctor was sucessful! Earlier in my pregnancy I had a positive strep test which means I was supposed to have 4 hours worth of medication pumped into me before delievery, but since there was no time for this we were told that we wouldn't get to hold the baby right away because the Peditrician and his team would need to thoroughly examine him first.

A lot happened within the time I arrived at the hospital until Preston was born at 7:38 a.m. The whole time I was in so much pain and feeling so much stress about the baby.....let's just say I was the crazy, screaming, lady trying to give birth. There was probably about 10 people in the room, there were so many that I couldn't even see my husband, he kind of got pushed aside. At one point I was pretty much having a full-on panic attatck and had a hard time concentrating on what I was supposed to be doing. Another nurse was called in just to try and keep me calm. After pushing through 4-5 sets of contractions the Doctor looked right at me and said, "the baby's heartrate is dropping. You need to get him out during this next set of contractions or I am going to have to do something drastic." I grit my teeth and gave it all I could and thankfully was able to push the baby out on my own. I can't describe the pain I felt, but I can tell you that I haven't ever felt that much relief in my entire life.

Preston cried a good 45 minutes straight after he was born as the doctors checked him and made sure he was ok. It was hard to just lay there and listen to him and see him getting poked at. After what seemed like FOREVER I was finally able to hold my baby. My Peditrician told me that the baby looked great and everything was fine. This was the first time I've cried after giving birth. I just held my new baby and sobbed. His birth was so quick, and so traumatic, I was just relived that he was healthy and absolutley perfect in every way. I loved him instantly.

After a difficult pregnancy and horrible birth I will say that it was all worth it.

We were released from the hospital the following afternoon. I couldn't wait to get home!! We have been home for 12 days now and Preston is doing great. We are all adjusting and I am getting used to having 3 kids and having to stay home a little bit more than what I have been used to. Having a baby at home is a lot of fun. We have really been enjoying a lot of family time.

The whole time I thought Preston was late, but as it turns out he came right on time. All three of my kids are exactly the same distance apart. They are 2 years, three months, and three days apart...crazy right?!