Please excuse the typos, run on sentences, and outright mess this blog post consists of! The bean is currently having nursing issues so we are exhausted. I wanted to get this all down before I forget due to lack of sleep and passing time.
On Friday morning, March 11th, I got up at 6:30, to the normal routine of getting 2 of the boys out the door to school, one more boy tagging along, and Carl off to work. Canyon and I took Rory to school, picked up our car-pool friends along the way, and dropped everyone off at school at 8:30. Afterward, I had a chiropractic appointment, and was a little early, so I decided to sit in the car reading with Canyon for a while. While we were sitting there, I realized how tired I was, so I called into the office, and let them know I wasn’t feeling great, and was going to cancel the appointment, I was actually falling asleep in the drive waiting.
I got home around 9:30, did a few dishes, made some snacks for Canyon and then my father showed up. He lives 6 hours away, but decided to drop by on his way home from a visit to my grandparents in Illinois. After he left, I decided to take a nap while Canyon watched a movie. At 12 on the nose, Canyon woke me up wanting lunch, so we made him PBJ and pickles, (who knew, but apparently, this makes you the “best mommy ever”).
After going to the bathroom, answering a few phone calls, and laying back down, I realized that I had some bloody mucus here and there since I had woken at 6:30, and that it was continuing. I decided to text the doctor, David, to let him have a heads up, just in case something happened (I have never had bloody mucus before, so I figured it might be a sign). I don’t know why, but I felt uneasy so I called and asked Carl to go get Rory from school and to come home. I started filling the birth tub, although I didn’t have a reason to, there were no signs of pending labor, and nothing was happening.
When Carl got home, I realized I was having a few contractions here and there, nothing much. Rory didn’t understand why we had gotten him from school until I told him we thought that today might be the baby’s birthday. At 1:45 or so I realized the contractions were consistent, so I sent out a text to let people know not to call me and that this might be time.
At 2:15 I started to throw a fit because the birth tub was cold, and I needed in… in hindsight, I realize that I was in labor at that point, but in the moment, I wasn’t thinking clearly and must have looked like a lunatic, lol.
Carl offered right there to call David, and I told him no, that I wasn’t in labor yet, that I wanted to wait and see. Being the wonderful husband that he is, Carl just raised his eyebrows at me and said ok. I decided to get into the cold tub anyhow, and Rory staked his claim on the bed next to the tub. Canyon decided a bit later to get on the bed too and to sit and watch mom. In the meantime, Carl began boiling water and adding it to the tub.
At 2:30 Carl decided that he was going to call David, whether or not I agreed, which at that point I decided that maybe he should start making his way to us. It didn’t take long after that call for the contractions to start stacking, and we realized this birth wasn’t going to be as lengthy as the others. I called my photographer friend to come, but she couldn’t until her DH came home from work.
At about 3, things were getting intense; Carl, who was boiling water between contractions, and holding me during them, decided to call David again and said, “Hey David, how about coming to catch a baby? I think you should get here, pretty soon.”
At 3:30, my neighbor Tracy brought Arden home from school, and thankfully took Canyon to her house. Labor had gotten intense and Canyon’s energy (and jumping on the bed/being loud) was not allowing me to relax or concentrate like I needed to.
The contractions were stacking on top of each other, Rory had been laying in the bed trying to time them, but was having a hard time since I wasn’t telling him to start and stop, lol. He kept asking when to hit the button, and I finally told him it didn’t matter, that once they were this close, they didn’t need to be timed.
At 3:45 David arrives, and much to my pleasure (and surprise), he brings Ann, one of my midwives from my last birth, in with him! She had been in his office for an appointment and when she found out it was me, was delighted to come out to the birth. When she came in, I told her "this is a lot more intense than last time!"
The contractions were no longer giving space between them, and I am going to leave out a few of the grosser parts of what happened here, but things were really progressing and intense. I do have to say, that while I gave Rory and Arden every detail I could think of in an attempt to prepare them, I had left out a few
At just about 4, I started to push. First her head came out into my hand, and then I remember feeling her slide gently through my hands, and at 4:17 my beautiful little girl, Everleigh Pearl, was born into my hands, underwater, while her brothers watched from the bed and her father supported me.
My water didn’t break right away, and broke on my last push, so when she came out of the water, she didn’t have the “clean” look her brother had, she was white and slimy. The boys thought this was interesting and had a lot of questions.
She cried about 30 seconds later, and was perfect. She pinked up quickly, and was beautiful.
This is a photo from about 12:30 that day: My last belly shot that I took on a whim:
This shot is during the last minutes of labor, Rory and Arden were sitting on the bed watching:
