Friday, November 14th, was just the same as pretty much every other Friday. We hung out at home, ran some errands, and went on a long walk. The only thing that was different about that day was that I was expecting a baby. And he didn't come. My whole pregnancy I told people that I was due on the 24th but that I was going to have the baby on the 14th. People laughed but I was pretty serious about the whole thing. Mya had come 6 days early, Owen had come 9 days early, and I really didn't think it was too much to ask for this baby to come 10 days early. But apparently it was. I went to bed that night a little disappointed and anxious about when I was going to have this baby. I was ready to have him and I was going crazy wondering when he was going to be ready to come.
In the early morning of Saturday, November 15th, I woke up and got up to go to the bathroom. This wasn't anything out of the ordinary as I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant. I stumbled to the bathroom in a haze, took care of business and then climbed back in bed. But as I was climbing into bed I realized my pants were a little bit wet. The thought occurred to me that my water might have broken, but in the dreamy state I was in I didn't think much of it. I changed my clothes and got back into bed. I wasn't having any contractions and was back to sleep within a few minutes. A few hours later the same thing repeated. This time I started to get my hopes up that the baby I had expected to come the day before just might be making his appearance that day.
When I finally pulled myself out of bed to start the day I was more than a little disappointed to find that everything was completely dry and I was having fewer contractions than I had been having for the past few weeks. I tried to come up with other explanations of what could have happened during the night other than my water breaking but I was coming up empty. I was almost positive that that was what had happened.
I was nervous about going to the hospital without being in active labor. Because I had a C-section with Mya, I knew that the doctors didn't want to use pitocin if they could avoid it and that I was more likely to have another C-section if I wasn't laboring on my own. I had also heard that they want you to have your baby within 24 hours of your water breaking so I figured I had a few hours to get things going. We got the kids dressed, ate breakfast, and then headed out on another long walk to try and get the contractions going.
Unfortunately, it was a cold morning and the kids were not too happy about riding in the stroller for very long. I wanted to keep going until this labor started, but that didn't seem to be happening very soon. I think I had one contraction over the course of our one hour walk. Instead of making everyone miserable we decided to head home, put the kids down for naps and let things take their natural course.
Meanwhile, I got a call from my brother Spencer. Apparently my mom had told him that my water had broken and he was calling to see how things were going. While we were on the phone he mentioned that if your water has been broken for more than 4 hours they will put you on antibiotics during delivery because your risk of infection goes up. He kindly suggested that I should probably call my doctor, even if I was worried about having another C-Section. He's going to med school right now, so while not officially a doctor I felt like I should probably get a little bit more serious about things. I gave my doctor a call and all he said was, "You need to go the hospital. If you think your water might have broken, you better go to the hospital to get it checked out."
So that's when things started rolling. I grabbed my packing list (see below) which had been written a week or two earlier, but never actually put into action. Thankfully I could still read it, even with all of Mya's added decoration. :) We packed the bags, grabbed the kids and headed over to my mom's house.
By this time it was about 5/5:30. When we got to my mom's house she offered Duncan a bowl of stew and refused to give me any in case I had to have a surgery. So I sat around and waited for Duncan to eat. Once I talked to my doctor and realized that this was the real deal I was getting antsy to get things going and get on up to the hospital so sitting there watching Duncan eat his stew so leisurely was pretty much torture. While we were sitting there, my water started to leak a little bit every time I moved. When he finally finished and we stood up I realized this was definitely the real deal! I grabbed a towel and we headed into the other room where Dunc, my dad, and my brother Jason gave me a priesthood blessing. I was so nervous for this delivery because of the C-section with Mya and then the long and hard recovery after Owen was born. I was just planning on it being hard, but I was still really scared. In the blessing, Duncan promised me that I would have a smooth delivery and a fast recovery. I had faith that what he said was true, but I also had a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that I could actually have a fast recovery.
Once the blessing was over we finally jumped in the car and headed to the hospital. I was pretty much soaked by the time we got to the hospital so I changed clothes real quick and we hurried up to L&D.
If I remember right, it was about 6:30 when we got to the hospital. I thought the nurses would send me to a triage room where they would check to see if my water had broken, but instead they sent me right into a delivery room. They came in and confirmed that my water had broken, I was dilated to a 4, and I would definitely be having this baby before I would be going home.
I was so excited to meet this baby but still really nervous for the delivery! My contractions had finally started on the way to the hospital but were still 7 minutes or so apart. When my doctor got there he seemed eager to get things moving along. I thought they would let me just labor on my own for a bit, but he wanted to jump right in and told the nurses to get the pitocin and antibiotics started. I wasn't too excited about that, having all my fears about another C-section but decided to let the doctor do his job. He told me it would take a few hours for the pitocin to really kick in and that he thought we would have the baby around 1 or 2 a.m.
My contractions had gotten to about 5 minutes apart and I swear it was less than 10 minutes after they started the pitocin that I noticed the contractions getting stronger and closer together. Everything sort of became a blur at this point and I don't remember the exact timing of it all. At some point I was ready for the epidural and was thankful when they didn't wait too long to come in and give it to me. I told the anesthesiologist that I couldn't feel a thing during my last delivery and that I would like to avoid that if at all possible. She told me she would give me a lower dose and that if I wasn't in too much pain, don't push the button to get any drugs.
The nurse came in to check me after that and I was dilated to an 8 and shaking like crazy. I asked her if the epidural or the pitocin was causing the shaking but she said it was probably just adrenaline because I was dilating so quickly. The doctor told the nurse to turn off the pitocin completely and the nurse also turned off the epidural since my one leg was completely numb even though I hadn't pushed the button once. Ten minutes later the nurse came in and checked me again and I was full dilated and ready to push. The doctor suited up and two sets of pushing later little Mack was born at 9:18 p.m.
The whole thing was so fast and went so smoothly, just like Duncan had said in the blessing he gave me. It was such a spiritual experience for me this time, not really something I had experienced with my other babies. When the doctor told me that I didn't have any tearing or lascerations I almost didn't believe him. It just added to the miracle of this whole delivery.
Mack was born a perfectly healthy, screaming loudly, little 5 pound 12 ounce, 18 1/2 inches long baby boy.
I was on cloud 9 and felt like I was dreaming. I was so grateful for that little baby!
I'll take the rest of my babies in the sub 6 pound category if it means the delivery will be as good as Mack's.
He came out looking like a grumpy old man, just like his brother Owen.
I just love this picture! I think Duncan was on just as much of a high as I was. We were thrilled that Mack was here and that everything had gone so well with the delivery!
I'm pretty sure Mack has a longer than normal tongue because he is always sticking it out. Looks like that started almost from the moment he was born.
As he was crowning the nurse said, "Wow! He has a lot of hair!" and I told her that I wasn't too surprised since our other babies had a lot of hair too. It wasn't until Mack was born that I fully appreciated what she meant when she said that he had a lot of hair. This baby has some long hair! It was over his ears and over his collar from the day he was born and I just love it. It's his signature feature.
Having babies is always such an incredible experience but this one was even more so. It was truly a testimony to me of the power of the priesthood and the fact that God is looking out for me. I was able to get out of bed and walk around just fine as soon as my epidural wore off. My pain was so minimal after the delivery that I only had to take tylenol for the after-birth cramping. It was truly a miracle and I am so grateful for that tender mercy from my Heavenly Father. I can't put into words how different this was from my recovery last time and I know it was a gift and something for which I am so grateful.
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