Welcome Flash! and Mamavation Monday
If I thought that the week before this last was exciting, it holds no candle to this beautiful last week that I’ve had. I felt like Mamavation Monday was the best day to share the exciting news that Flash decided to join us 3 days early on April 24. We are in love.
WARNING: I’m going to share the story. It’s longer than usual posts, but I hope you will read and rejoice with us!
Crazy Week Continues
I shared last week that Miss Sassy Pants had fallen off the monkey bars and broken her wrist. We got a cast on her, and she began learning how to deal with only “one” hand. On Monday morning, I warned her to be very careful at school so she wouldn’t re-injure her hand.
Aaron and I went to our 39 week check-up and Dr. M found that Flash was a bit lower (still not engaged), but she was willing to help me with a membrane sweep. We also went ahead and scheduled an induction for Thursday just in case. Aaron and I left the doctor’s office and went walking at a couple of stores to encourage labor to start. With the Animal, I went into labor within a few hours of the same procedure, so we were certain we’d be at the hospital that night.
When we got home, we found Miss Sassy Pants laid up on the couch — she’d fallen at school after “galloping” with a friend during recess. One knee had a decent scrape. The other was missing a chunk. Yes, I got all over her for horsing around (pun intended) when I’d fully warned her before school. But, she was legitimately hurt.
Contractions began coming every eight minutes or so. They weren’t intense, but I thought this was the beginning since with baby #2, it had moved so quickly. We went about our business while also doing several things around the house to get ourselves ready in case we were leaving. I even got the rest of my stuff together for the suitcase.
We went to bed, and I was shocked to wake up the next morning NOT in the hospital.
Labor Begins
Tuesday went almost too slowly because I kept waiting for something to become real. I spent most of the day with virtually no contractions. Made dinner like normal, played outside, took a walk with Aaron. Didn’t seem like anything exciting was going to happen.
After the kids went to bed, however, things changed. I decided to just sit and relax on the couch while Aaron got himself caught up on online work. Contractions started up, and they were pretty good. There were even a couple that I had to really breathe to get through. But then, I got up to get ice cream (of course), and they sort of stopped. We watched a couple of DVRd shows and finally, around 11:30, got ourselves to bed. I had decided at this point that we weren’t going on our own to the hospital and would instead end up with the induction on Thursday.
That all changed when, around 12:55 am on Wednesday morning, I woke up with intense contractions. I started timing them, and they were hitting every 5 or so minutes. And, as I said, they hurt. It’s funny how leading up to the moment you go in to labor that you can feel like you aren’t sure — those Braxton Hicks can be deceiving. But once that real labor starts, there is absolutely no question.
I still wasn’t sure, so I told Aaron I was going to walk around the house and see if they went away. I got online and found that my younger brother’s radio show in Juneau, Alaska, was on just then. We texted back and forth, and I started listening. When he gave me a shout out on the air, I lost it and started sobbing. Hearing his voice was just wonderful.
But, he got me to stop crying when he dedicated a song to me. He had texted, “the song after the weather is for you,” and you can imagine my reaction when I heard Salt and Pepa’s “Push It” start playing. I was laughing so hard I almost forgot I was in labor. After the song was over, I went to get Aaron to tell him it was time. I also called my mom so she could come here and wait for the kids to wake up.
Mom walked over, and Aaron and I headed to the hospital. About 2 minutes down the road, I started thinking that I couldn’t feel contractions anymore, and I was really annoyed. As soon as I told Aaron that I hadn’t felt one for a while, sure enough, one hit. They kept getting harder, and I was having trouble breathing through.
At the hospital
As soon as we got up to the labor and delivery area, we found that I was 5 cm. It was about 2:30. The nurse assured me that we were having this baby, so I calmed down. She ordered the epidural, the IVs, and my antibiotics. They took me to my labor and delivery room, and all the busy work started.
Contractions were getting so good that my toes were LITERALLY curling. We had to get the IVs and antibiotics in, but the nurses were having a little trouble with the needle as my veins do a little rolling (with the Animal, they tried 5 times – this time only took 2 sticks). Getting an IV in the midst of contractions is NOT my favorite way to spend a few minutes.
The anesthesiologist finally joined us and the pain started to ease. That was somewhere near 6 am. Dr M. would be coming on call at 7 am, and so I was excited that she would most likely be the one delivering Flash (I’d been hoping to have her but thought I’d have a different doctor who would go OFF call at 7 am — she had been tied up in a c-section and never got to me thus giving Dr. M a chance to get there).
When the nurse checked me around 6:30 am, I was already 8 cm. She knew Flash was definitely engaged, and I was effaced. She said that once Dr. M came in to see me, all it would take would be a rupture of membranes.
Baby Time!
We kept waiting for Dr. M. Another nurse let us know that she was now tied up in an operation and would get to my room as soon as she could. Finally, around 9 am, she showed up. She checked me, and sure enough I was ready to go.
The nursing staff did their pit-crew thing, and the room was set up for us to have a baby. Dr. M took care of rupturing membranes and was SHOCKED at how fast Flash was coming. They hurried to get all the final things in line, Aaron grabbed the camera, she told me to push and there he was. ONE PUSH. (I felt like Wonder Woman.)
Aaron snapped pictures, cut the cord, and then followed the nurses around as they did what they needed to do to get Flash cleaned up so I could hold him. Within 30 minutes, he was cleaned up and checked, and in my arms.
Not really anything too exciting except that Dr. M was amazed how quickly I delivered. I had told her multiple times that I’m a quick labor and delivery. It was why we kept making sure no one ruptured my membranes before everything else was ready.
We are at home, now, and Flash is so precious. Miss Sassy Pants is in love with him, and the Animal is slowly gathering that this new “thing” isn’t going away any time soon.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for indulging me! I hope you have a wonderful week.
One thought on “Welcome Flash! and Mamavation Monday”