I have always been SO anxious at the end of pregnancy to finally have the baby. This time I wasn't quite so ready. The nursery still isn't ready, my house wasn't ready, and I was sure that we had a little more time.
On Monday, March 29th I went to the doctor for my weekly check-up. I was dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced. I wasn't too worried because I was at a 4 with Julia for weeks before she was born.
I went through the week working on getting everything else moved out of the baby's room, working on the ward newsletter, calling our soccer team to schedule practice, and endless other little errands that needed to be done before the baby came.
Luckily I did manage to pick up some stuff for Easter "just in case."
39 weeks pregnant
(Last picture of me pregnant.) Chase's birth story:
On Thursday morning Derek went into work-- these days he works from home a lot so it was the first time all week that he wasn't home during the day. After I took the kids to school I noticed a stronger contraction. And ten minutes later there was another. I decided I needed to hurry and finish up a few things just in case I actually was going into labor. I had 3 orders that I had to make and ship so that was first on the list. I half expected the contractions to stop while I was was working on jewelry but they kept coming. Derek called home and I mentioned to him that I was having contractions. He asked if he should come home but I told him they were still 10 minutes apart so he should stay. I finally had orders ready to ship around 1:00 so I quickly showered and then got half the house picked up and finished getting everything out of the baby's room before I had to pick Ethan up from school (Julia stayed at school for her 4H club). The contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart by that time and I had to breathe through a couple while waiting for Ethan. We stopped by the post office on our way home so I could drop off the orders that needed to ship and luckily the only contraction on the way home came when we were at the drive-through at the post office. At home I continued cleaning because I knew I didn't want to come home from the hospital to a messy house. At 4:30 Derek came home and took Ethan to his soccer game. Julia was dropped off from 4H after 5:00 (thanks Jeanie!). I had originally planned on going to Ethan's game as soon as Julia was home from 4H but I opted to stay home. It was freezing outside, and I didn't want to sit through the soccer game in labor thinking about everything I needed to get done before going to the hospital. I managed to get the bathrooms cleaned and I got the car seat ready. Derek and Ethan came home after his soccer game with pizza and everyone ate while I tried to finish up my cleaning. Contractions were about 5 minutes apart at this point and Derek told me that we needed to finish packing my bag and go to the hospital. I think he was worried about not making it to the hospital after listening to me stop every 5 minutes moaning in pain. We got the kids' bags packed and my family came to pick them up. I then finished packing my bag and we headed to the hospital. I had finished up most of my cleaning but hadn't finished the dishes or sweeping and mopping yet. (Thanks to my awesome sister Kristen for coming over and finishing up while I was still in the hospital!!) We checked in at the hospital and found out that I was at a 5 and 100% effaced. Contractions were about 3 minutes apart, and SO much harder to get through while laying in a hospital bed! They had us move to our permanent room and Derek brought in my bag. They gave me my epidural pretty quickly and then my doctor came in and broke my water. I was at a 5 1/2. Since I was comfortable and we had a few minutes of spare time Derek pulled out his laptop and we started compiling a list of names. We had such a hard time figuring out a name this time!!! Soon I started noticing the baby's heart rate slow way down with contractions-- scared me to death! The nurse noticed too and she came in and checked me again. I was at an 8. We kept watching the clock at this point because we didn't want him to have an April Fool's Day birthday and it was almost midnight. Luckily we made it! About 10 minutes later I was checked again and at a 10. The doctor came in and they had me do a couple of "test" pushes because he was still a tiny bit high and they decided to wait 10 minutes to let the contractions help him move down lower. They came back 10 minutes later and I started pushing for real. I pushed for less than 5 minutes, he came quickly! The cord was around his neck but the doctor promptly took care of that. The doctor and nurse both remarked on how big he was. The doctor guessed that he'd be around 9 lbs. He ended up being 8 lbs, 6 oz, and 21.5 inches long. They had another doctor come in to check him and they were worried about the little grunts he was making-- it can indicate respiratory distress, so they took him to the nursery to make sure he was OK. Thankfully he was OK and got to come back pretty quickly. Ethan and Julia got to come visit in the morning before school and they were so excited to get to see and hold him.
Chase is such a sweet little guy. He sleeps a lot, except from about midnight to 5am, lol. But we are absolutely in love with him and are so grateful for him to be here safe and sound.
He is so sleepy-- during the day anyway
Family of 5! (OK, I almost didn't post this pic because I look so awful,
but it is the only one of the 5 of us so far.)
