It was December 21st. Doomsday. The Mayan Apocalypse. A Friday. Three days from baby number three's due date. I woke up at 5:30 am worked out and got ready for my last day at work before maternity leave. The day went on just like any other. No signs that I might go into labor. I still couldn't believe that I hadn't had the baby yet. After eating supper we hung out and watched a re-run of Blake Shelton's Christmas Special. I took this picture of my belly.
Mr. Bin talked to the baby and told it we were ready for it to come out. What I didn't tell him was that I'd been having contractions every five minutes for an hour. I didn't want to get everyone all riled up for nothing.
We put the boys to bed and decided to go to bed ourselves. I decided that if I could sleep through the contractions then I wasn't really in labor. I started really timing the contractions about 10:00 pm. Contraction were already 3 minutes apart and lasting a minute. I let Mr. Bin sleep for an hour before I woke him up and said " I THINK IT'S TIME!" He jumped up and started getting dressed. I told him to relax. I needed to call my parents and let them know we needed my dad to come stay with the boys while my mom went with us to the hospital.
A week earlier I had contractions that stopped when we were ready to go the hospital so I was worried the same thing was going to happen. We finally left town and midnight. The roads were awful. We just had a blizzard and there were still cars all over in the ditches. Mr. Bin was worried about the 45 minute trip to the hospital. I kept telling him I was fine and to drive as slowly as he needed to. Contractions were getting more intense, but still about 3 minutes apart. We finally arrived at the hospital at 1:15 am. Mr. Bin could finally relax. He hadn't realized how tense he had been while driving.
We check into triage to be monitored. I was 3 cm dilated at my office visit earlier in the week and was now 5 cm so they moved me to a room. I learned that my OB was not on call, but the other OB I really liked was. Happy Dance.
Once I was in my own room, I let the nurse know that I wanted to go all natural, with as little intervention as possible. She just said okay, and that was that. I even convinced her to just put a Hep Lock in instead of starting an IV. I sat on the birthing ball and was talking and joking between contractions. Once the contractions started getting more intense my mantra became - I can do anything for 30 seconds.
When the nurses changed shifts at 3:00 am I asked to be checked. I just wanted to know I was making progress. At 3:15 I was checked and was 7 cm dilated with my water bulging. The nurse said it would break at any moment. I decided I'd like to get in the tub and try to relax a little. Once the tub was filled I got in. No sooner than I let my body relax my water broke. Within minutes my contractions were right on top of each other and I felt the need to push.
The nurse wanted me to get out of the tub so she could check me, but I couldn't move. My body was pushing. The nurse kept telling me to blow out the candle on the other side of the room. I just remember looking up and the nurse, my mom, and Mr. Bin all trying to convince me to move. Finally I just decided I had to get to the bed. I got up and blew past them all standing there with towels and robes for me and hightailed it to the bed. Once I got there I was in so much pain I got one knee up on the bed and couldn't move. The nurse checked me just like that. One knee on the bed and one foot on the floor. 9.5 cm.
What a sight I must have been. Buck naked. Paralyzed with pain. Mr. Bin not knowing what to do.
Finally I just yelled I'm pushing. All the nurses came running in. They convinced me to get my other leg up on the bed. So there I was on all fours pushing out my baby. The OB ran in just in time to catch my baby. The OB asked if I was okay and I just remember saying, " It's a GIRL right?!" They passed her up between my legs and laid her on the bed under me. She looked so little and blue-ish purple. She was perfect. I couldn't believe that she was here and I had done it all natural and all by myself. After I delivered the placenta they cut the cord and I could finally relax. WOW! I DID IT!
Miss C was born 12/22/12 at 3:49 am
She looked so much like K1.
They took her over to check her vitals and get her stats.
She seemed so tiny. They asked what our guesses were for her weight. My mom and Mr. Bin were guessing in the 7 lb range. I knew she had to be bigger than that. My guess was 8 lbs 10 oz.
She was a whopping 9 lbs 0.06 oz and 21 inches long.
We still didn't know what to name her. She didn't seem like a sweet little princess. She seemed more rough and tumble. I don't really know how to explain it. Maybe it's because she looked so much like her big brother. At 5:00 Mr. Bin went to get us some breakfast and when he left he called her Miss C. After he came back we still tossed around names. Some of them were Sutton, Karis, Kingsley, and Hadley.
Finally at lunch time the boys got to come meet their little sister. They knew as soon as they woke up that morning that because Grandpa was there it meant I was having the baby. It was so special having them at the hospital. K2 was born at the height of the H1N1 outbreak and children weren't allowed at the hospital. So K1 didn't meet his brother until we left the hospital.
She had the longest nails and kept scratching her face.
We left the hospital after one night. We were ready to go home and get ready for Christmas.
