The Story

The house is quiet.  The Big Kids are at Home Depot with Dad, Boden is taking a nap and Natalie is asleep on my bed.  Given the choice to do a few chores, take a nap, or try to blog about Natalie's arrival, I think I will try to do a bit of all three!  A few of you have requested to hear "the story" of little Natalie's arrival.  I will try to get it down while I can still remember it!

My due date was September 19th-- Sarah's eleventh birthday!  Since I was two weeks late with Boden, I wasn't at all concerned about the first few weeks of September flying by.  I figured I still had plenty of time to plan, clean, pack, etc...

My doctor is in Fredericksburg.  This is a three hour drive from our home in Del Rio but again, I have had four v e r y slow labors and always have PLENTY of warning that baby is on the way, so I wasn't worried that once labor did start I would miss getting to the hospital or anything.

I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Wednesday, September 14th.  Ryan was working midnights so the plan was for him to get home at 9AM on Wednesday from work and drive with me to Fredericksburg for my doctor's appointment.  I was planning on taking bags for all of us "just in case" something had been going on "down there".   But, I was pretty much expecting to come home for another week.  I even had school planned for the kids for that week.  Ryan's leave was to start on the 18th.

Monday, September 12th, the kids and I did school like usual.  We headed to the grocery store for the basics we would need for the week-- fruit, veggies, eggs, and milk mostly.  I got all the laundry done for the week-- folded and put away!  I made a plan for school again on Tuesday, then packing and cleaning the house (bathrooms and floors) in order to leave town first thing Wednesday morning.  The last thing I did before bed was to put some oats on the stove to soak overnight so we could have a quick breakfast Tuesday morning.

Monday, about 10:30 PM, as I am getting undressed to crawl into the shower I notice lots of bloody discharge and mucus-- was this my mucus plug?
Almost immediately I started having contractions about 10-12 minutes apart.  Ryan's shift at work didn't even start until 11PM so I was indecisive as to whether or not I should call him for a "heads up". I still wasn't worried about being thrown into labor quickly...that's just not usual for me but it was unusual that I had lost my mucus plug.  That usually doesn't happen until several days of contractions have gone by and birth is within 12 hours or so away.

I went ahead and took a shower and decided I would just lay down and see what happened.  I had been asleep for about an hour when I suddenly woke up.  I lay there trying to decide why I had woken up...was I hurting?  No.  Was I still having contractions?  Yes but nothing major.  Then I felt the strangest sensation inside...literally like a balloon popping.  I even felt some relief in my extended stomach.  I just lay there for a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on.  I realized I had to go to the bathroom so I got up and someone had opened the floodgates!  Apparently my water had broken and when I stood up it gushed down my leg.  This is VERY unusual for me.  My water has never broken until I am actually very close to delivery.  In fact, several children have actually broken my bag of waters as their head came through the birth canal!

Now I started to get a little panicky about making it to Fredericksburg on time!  I cleaned up and lay back down.  My contractions were still coming at about 10 minutes apart.  I timed them and rested for an hour.  I called Ryan for a "head's up".  He suggested I try to rest another hour and then call him back.  I did but this time my brain wouldn't let me rest.  What if this time is different?  I am here all by myself-- what if I do all of a sudden shoot out a baby?  What if.....what if......Finally at three AM I called Ryan to ask him to please just come home so we could go.  I had decided I would rather suffer through a three hour drive with contractions ten minutes apart then wait and have to rush when my contractions were closer together.  And, it did seem like since my water had broken, delivery would be sooner rather than later.  When I called him, he said he had just clocked out and was already on his way home.  I got up and proceeded to pack up everyone and do a little light cleaning of the house.  I had to look up online what I should pack in my hospital bag... oh, and what I should remember to take for the baby.  I was really so totally unprepared.  Had you been watching you wouldn't have known I have done this a few times before!  We got the kids up, put them in the van, gassed up, and finally left Del Rio at about 4:30 AM....

And now, it's time for a nap!  TO BE CONTINUED!!!