I Am Wonderfully Made!

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Now......the REST of the Story!

For those of you nail-biters who have been hanging on to the edge of your seat to find out whether or not we actually made it to hospital in time, this ending is going to seem a little anti-climatic I am afraid.  For the rest of you....here's the rest of the story...

By the time we left Del Rio early Tuesday morning, I had been having regular contractions about ten minutes apart for a good four hours or so.  My water had broken, I had lost my mucus plug...all signs were that we would be delivering a baby...and possibly sooner than we really wanted.  But, by about 5:30-- an hour and a half into our three hour trip-- my contractions had COMPLETELY stopped!  In fact, I took a good long nap until the sun came up while my faithful hubby drove carefully through the darkness to get us to Fredericksburg.  As a side note, I literally woke as the sun was coming up and it was a magnificent morning!  We had made it to I-10 by this point and for any of you who know Texas at all, the vast difference between where I live on the Mexico border and the beautiful Hill Country is literally like entering a different country.  The beautiful, misty hills as the sun was rising were breathtaking.  All the kids were also slowly waking up and it was fun to be driving along at sunrise on such a beautiful morning on such an exciting errand.  I was completely filled up with God's goodness and the way His glory is revealed in His creation-- including all the little blessings in my car and in my womb!

We got to my parent's house just as Mom was pulling breakfast from the oven...another wonderful blessing!  Everyone was excited to be at "The Ranch" as it has always been a favorite place for all of us!  My contractions still hadn't re-appeared and I was thinking I was probably going to just have to wait it out like I had for Boden (did I mention he was two weeks late?)  I called a friend of mine who uses a mid-wife and asked her opinion on the whole situation.  I also called the nurse at my doctor's office to see what she thought.  The nurse was very quick to encourage me to rush to the ER as quickly as possible!  My friend also encouraged me to go ahead and go to the doctor to make sure it was in fact amniotic fluid I was leaking and not something else.  In any case, I had strict orders NOT to try something dumb like a trip to Wal-Mart since the chance of infection seems to severely worsen once your water has broken!  I doodled along as slowly as I could, hoping my contractions would start again soon.  I took a shower, got the kids settled, took a little walk, did everything I could to put off going to the hospital...I HATE hospitals and my anxiety level rises about 100% once I am inside one so in my mind I was thinking..."it is NOT my plan to be in the hospital BEFORE I am having any good contractions!  I want to go into the hospital dilated to about a seven or eight....NOT at a zero or one!"  Finally, we slowly told everyone good-bye (I even mentioned that I would probably be seeing them in an hour or two as I thought I would get to the hospital and they would let me come home until I was progressing more quickly! ), slowly got in the car, and slowly drove into town.   Ryan drove about 40 miles an hour trying to help me out with my stalling-- such an understanding guy!

When we got there, I was shocked to learn that they were NOT going to let me go home again!  I said, "But I haven't even had any contractions for several hours....I could be here for days!"  Their response?  "No.  You won't be here for days."  By the time they did all their checking and question-asking, my water had been broken for about twelve hours.  So, they informed me that I really needed to deliver within the next six to twelve hours.  If I wasn't showing progress soon, they were going to put me on Pitocin.  Now, for those of you who know me well, know my response to this!  I was like, "Oh, no!  You are NOT going to put me on Pitocin!  I will do everything I know to do BEFORE you even try something like that!"  In my mind, Pitocin was the evil drug that makes labor so much harder and increases the risk of C-section substantially.  I would do EVERYTHING I could to avoid it.  And in fact, had done EVERYTHING I could to avoid it with four other births, including staying in labor for many many many hours longer than the nurses thought were necessary.  Thankfully, I have a wise husband and an understanding nurse.  The nurse was so great to work with me for several hours to do all the natural stuff we could to try to get my labor going.  (She is also a doula on the side so she was really an answer to prayer!)  After several hours with absolutely no progress, she told me my doctor really wanted to start me on Pitocin.  I was adamant.  No!  I will not take that evil juice!  Ryan, sat down and had a good talk with me and by the time it was all over, we decided I would start the Pitocin on the lowest level possible to see if it would get my body started doing what it should be doing so that I could deliver a baby sooner rather than later.   I finally came to the realization that I could cooperate and start on a smaller dosage now or be uncooperative and have more of an extreme situation later as my "time ran out."  Within about two hours I had dilated from a 1.5 (what I was at when I came into the hospital) to a 5!  But, these were not the contractions I remembered from days past!!!  "Oh my goodness!"  I kept saying, "These contractions feel like what I remember from when I am at an 8 or 9..."
I asked to get in the shower.  Which my nurse let me do--even with the Pitocin drip.  I stayed there for an hour and had an amazing hour of rest....by the time I got out of the shower I had dilated another 2 centimeters and was well on my way to having this baby!

I cannot say enough good things about this birth experience.  My nurse was knowledgeable, patient, kind, and willing to do things "my way" for the most part.  It also helped out that she is the only nurse I had as I came in on her shift and had the baby before she left.  I was also the only patient she had all day so she was able to devote herself entirely to me.  My husband was calm and understanding-- which is a huge answer to prayer after our last experience!  When I was dilated to a nine, my doctor came in and sat on the edge of the bed and waited and talked to Ryan.  Then, when I was ready to push, he, Ryan and my nurse helped me deliver the baby right onto the bed.  This was a first and wonderful experience for me!  Usually, when it is "show time", the sterile, shiny equipment comes out, the end of the bed gets dropped for a sterile table, the "show lights" come on hot and bright, the doctor rushes in (I have usually never seen him up to this point) catches the baby and rushes out again!  This time it was so different.  It was calm and quiet, the room was dimly lit, there was laughter....we were talking about Psalm 8 between contractions..."from the mouths of infants and nursing babes, You have established strength..."  When Natalie was born at 7:45 that evening, the doctor rubbed and rubbed her and let the cord stop pulsing before Ryan cut it.   Then I was able to immediately hold and nurse her....no rushing her off for weight checks and eye-stuff and heel pricks.  It was really awesome and such an answer to so many prayers-- especially after my last experience with Boden.

One funny thing that happened:  Ryan and I were absolutely sure that this baby was a boy.  Before I even found out I was pregnant, and thought I could be, I asked God to speak to me about being pregnant again.  (After having an ectopic pregnancy and losing a tube and ovary and a baby, I am usually fearful when I first think I am pregnant so I was looking for "provision" for this fear.) He gave me the verse in Luke 1 that says, "And you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus."  Now, before you start thinking "blasphemy",  I obviously knew the part about naming him Jesus and he saving people from their sins wasn't for me... so I thought "Wow!  God is telling me I am pregnant and it's okay to be excited about it and I am going to have a son!"  So, the whole time, even though we never looked at a sonogram, I was certain this was a son.  When Natalie was born, Ryan's first words were, "It's a girl!"  I stared at him and said, "WHAT?  It's A GIRL???"  Then I looked at my doctor and said, "It's a GIRL???"  We were both absolutely shocked!  Sometimes I still refer to her as a he....in my mind,  I was just so certain.  When people would ask us what we were having I would always reply, "A surprise!"  Little did I know the extent of the truth I was speaking! 

                                It's A Girl???

Natalie Adele....September 13, 2011....7lbs, 1oz....7:45 PM
Natalie "gift of joy"
Adele "noble and kind"

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!!!