Welcome Baby Rebecca!

The birth of a baby is truly amazing, no matter how it arrives. My sweet Rebecca chose to make her appearance early morning on the 21st and I am still basking in her speedy arrival. Here is my birth story . . .

As I have mentioned before, I had some false labor Sunday morning. I knew labor was some time in the next few days, but the false starts are still annoying. With each of my babies, I think "get it over, already!" But they have their purposes in making the actual event much easier on your body, so I grudgingly accept them.

Monday 8:00 pm. Some strong short contractions started up again. Since they were only 15-30 seconds long, I dismissed them as Braxton-Hicks and excused myself from putting the kids to bed. I'll just lay down and these will go away, I thought to myself. Chad came to our room some time after 9:00 and I puttered around a little, feeling a little frantic to get everything in its place then decided to rest again. Hmm.

10:28 pm. Chad decided to start timing the contractions, which were waking me up violently, lasting for less than 30 seconds, and coming every 3-5 minutes. I would lapse back into sleep between them, so I wasn't really aware of time passing. Finally, I decided we should call Jeanean and see what we could do to make these things stop. Duhhhhh. Less than a minute of talking with Jeanean and she announced I was in labor, should try to take a shower to encourage the contractions to last longer, then head to the hospital. Chad called Mom to tell her to come on. Then I stood up. Whoa, Nelly! "I'm further along than I thought," I said to Chad. "Call Donna!" Donna is our dear friend in town who arrived in about five minutes so we didn't have to wait for Mom to drive 40 minutes to us. A few minutes after Donna arrived, off we went. Once we got to the Interstate, Chad turned on the flashers and hit about 90 the whole way. Our 35 minute trip to the hospital took 20 minutes!

11:40 pm. After checking in at the ER and talking with Dumb and Dumber (okay, not kind, but that's my pregnant memory's recollection), I was wheeled to my room, poked, prodded, and checked. "You're at 7 centimeters." What??? They assured me Jeanean was on her way and I told them she better hurry. True to her word, Jeanean arrived within 30 minutes and took charge, allowing me to get off the monitors and walk around the room. I sat on my birthing ball all of two or three contractions and decided that was a bad place to be. So I got back on the bed on my left side.

12:40 pm. I had about five contractions on the bed before my water broke. I almost popped open one eye to look at the clock, but forgot all about it when the next contraction slammed into me. Next thing I know, I am hollering that I am pushing and I have this sinking sensation that everyone has left me. Sure enough, Chad has disappeared from his post, Jeanean calls from across the room that it's okay, and nurses are scurrying around the room. Hello, does anyone remember that I'm over here with a head popping out?? Turns out they did. My sweet husband had decided to take the plunge and "catch the baby" so he was putting on his gown. Everyone else was, of course, doing their jobs!

12:53 pm. After pushing for just a few minutes, out came this beautiful little girl and her daddy softly laid her on my chest. There are just no words to describe that moment that don't bring tears to my cheeks. After that quiet moment, she let out a holler and announced her presence.

Of the three, this was the best delivery. She caused me the least pain both before and during delivery. After the delivery is a whole other topic. Those who have had multiple births know what I'm talking about! It was such a joy to have the same incredible woman deliver all of my big beautiful babies. If you don't know about Certified Nurse Midwives, let me just tell you that the experience is totally awesome - all of the wonderful aspects of a midwife but in the safety of a hospital.

So now I close a chapter of my life and open a new one. Goodbye to birthing babies (yes, that was our last) and hello to the wild and exciting life as the mother of three under the age of four!