Reese's Arrival

As everyone knows, we had a scheduled c-section for Reese on March 29. Part of me had been hoping she'd come early, the other part of me was very content waiting. My mom had been insisting that she'd come early, either Thurs 3/17 or Fri 3/18. I said "No! If she's going to come early, it has to be on a Tuesday when my doctor is on call." Last weekend I started having contractions but they were so mild and far apart. I knew that weren't anything to immediately be concerned with, but at the same time I knew things were beginning. Thursday night my contractions kicked it into gear, coming every 6-8 minutes. (Side thought... what is it with my kids and holidays? I started labor with Elijah on Election Day and with Reese, St Patty's Day). Friday morning I told Adam to be ready should I call him. I spent the morning getting things ready just in case, taking a shower, getting all my paperwork together, getting hospital stuff ready, etc). Shelbie came over and I called the Dr. I asked if I went to the hospital and wasn't far enough along in labor, would they really send me home? I mean, come on, I'm having a c-section anyway. Do I really need to go through a long labor process when the end result is going to be the same? Dr told me to wait and go to the hospital once my contractions were 5 minutes apart. Ugh. Good news though! I was told my doctor was on call all weekend. Hooray! As I said, Shelbie was over and kept telling me to go to the hospital. The contractions might not be bad now but they can get real bad real fast. Adam came home early and tried to get Elijah down for a nap. While he was doing that my contractions did just as Shelbie said they would. All of a sudden they were every 1-2 minutes. For a good 10 minute stretch I felt no relief. I called Adam's grandmother to come over, got Adam and we went to the hospital. During the ride there my contractions got better. Great. They're going to send me home. We didn't call anyone and tell them because we weren't sure if they'd keep us and we didn't want to get everyone excited for nothing.

Once we arrived at triage we waited. And waited. And waited and waited and waited. My doctor and nurse told me to tell them I was a repeat c-section and I'd get a bed quicker. Ha. I think it was the opposite. 3 women came after us and were seen before us. Finally after an hour we were called back. They hooked me up to monitor contractions. When they checked they said I was in labor but contractions were inconsistent so they'd leave it up to my doctor. Please, oh please, oh please don't send me home. Thankfully the doctor said to go ahead. Woo hoo!

We started calling and telling everyone Reese would be born that day. Since there was no emergency, both baby and I were fine, they didn't know how long it would take to get us in. We told everyone we'd call them back once we were in pre-op and knew more. Once in pre-op though, there was no time to call or think about anything. They did a physical on me, asked us a ton of questions and then said they were coming to put in my epidural. What? Already? Oh yeah, doc's on his way, you're going in at 5:00 pm. There was no cell service in the pre-op wing so no one even found out when she was coming until she was here.


5:15 on Friday, March 18 our little girl was born. I remember the uncontrollable joy I felt when I heard her first cry (something I don't remember from Elijah's birth). When I saw her I just couldn't believe she was here, she was ours, and she was a 'she'! :) A little girl. Our daughter.

It's been love ever since.