A Year Ago Tonight

A year ago tonight, my mom and I were on our way home from a soccer game. The Farmer's team (he coaches high school boys' soccer) played an early game because the girls' team played afterward. I remember this because the Farmer called to ask if he could stay to watch some of the girls' game. I said, "Yes" but then added, "but I think we might be having a baby tonight." The Farmer told me later he thought, "Aww, I hope not. I'm too tired." HA! His team played that exact same team tonight, so Sweet P and I made an appearance.

When the Farmer got home we had dinner (Boca burgers and asparagus, which just so happens to be exactly what we had tonight, too! (not on purpose!)). My mom had been timing my contractions and around 9:30pm she told me to call my midwife. I didn't want to go to the hospital before showering (and my mom said, "well you better hurry up") so I hopped in the shower before calling my midwife. I'm pretty sure that while I was in the shower shaving my legs (what I could reach) and washing my hair (if I was having this baby tonight, I wanted clean hair!), I was in denial. I didn't really think it was happening. After getting out of the shower, my mom handed me the phone, Auntie Rosita was on the line. No offense to Auntie Rosita, but sometimes in hectic situations (and I'd say labor is pretty hectic), Auntie Rosita can stress me out. I hung up with her and called the Farmer into the bathroom where I promptly started to panic.

I called the midwife after I laid on the bed and felt a POP! and my first painful contraction (I'd had Braxton Hicks since 28 wks). She told me to try to relax and get some sleep (uh huh, riiight). So we popped in a movie (Nacho Libre to be exact) and I sat on the exercise ball. About 10 minutes into the movie I realized my water was breaking and made it to the bathroom in time. We left for the hospital 10 minutes later.

The hospital was F-U-L-L full so we were put into a C-section room. We later learned it was the very last room available. Oh my stars, I don't know what I would have done without a private room (there were women laboring together in triage). After we were settled, the Farmer and I walked up and down the hall looking at the babies in the nursery. We were both SO tired and I started to have really painful contractions. About 5am, I broke down and asked for pain medicine. I started with Fentanyl...uhm, just felt drunk and still felt contractions so I opted for an epidural. I was really sad because I didn't want one and I'd wanted to badly to go natural...I went to sleep right after the epidural kicked in and woke up about an hour or so later. They wanted to check me to see if they needed to start pitocin (also, didn't want to go there). Luckily, I was dilated to a 9! and they started to prepare for pushing.

Here is where I tell you that as soon as I started pushing, that nice little epidural of mine wore off and they even tried to fix it. No luck. So I felt all 3.5 hours of pushing and while it hurt like heck, I'd do it all over again. And I'm glad I know what it feels like, because people tell me they didn't feel anything when they pushed the baby out. What the? At least I know what's coming next time.

Those 3.5 hours were ppppaaaaiiinnnfuuull. I even tried to bite the Farmer once. Sweet P's head just wouldn't stay in the birth canal. She kept sliding back up when I stopped pushing. So my midwife, after 3 hours, told me my options (because our hospital only lets ya push for about 3 hours). They could try to vac her out OR we could do a C-section. At that point, I don't think I really cared what they did, but I'm pretty sure I knew I didn't want a C-section. So the vac it was. So at 12:49pm after one pull and a push, out came Sweet P with that gorgeous head of hers. They immediately laid her on my chest and I remember looking at those big blue eyes. And we cried. The Farmer, my mom and me.
So that's how Sweet P came into the world, as I remember it today. She was born on her due date and weighed 8 lbs 11.9 oz. I thank the Lord for her and all she's brought into our lives. What a Joy she is to us and an amazing little girl.

Happy Birthday Sweet P.