September was a super busy month. Besides the fact that I grew to an enormous size, I was incredibly busy with work preparing for my leave time. I spent many evenings/weekends working from my couch. Craig had class every Saturday in September so I was challenged to keep up with Max and Evie on my own. Evie started a new session in dance class and immediately got moved up a level to a more structured class. She also finished up her first session in private swim lessons. We will be going back to that after Christmas as we saw huge improvements in her swimming after the private lessons. She continued on in gymnastics as well.
9/1/08 - The neighborhood babies and mommies.
At 8 months pregnant.
.JPG)
At 9 months pregnant.
I really felt pretty good right up until the last week or so of the month. Baby number 3 was due the 26th. Popular opinion was that I would deliver early given my large size and the fact that it was my third child. I, on the other hand, figured this child would follow the same pattern as my other two and show up late. Before I get to when baby #3 arrived I have to talk about the new parental leave policy at my employer. On September 26th (yes, my due date), the board of directors approved a new parental leave policy that would allow for the second 6 weeks of leave (the bonding time) to be fully paid. The first six weeks is covered by sick time/vacation time. The only problem was that the leave is for babies born on or after October 1st. At this point I decided that other than going to work I was doing nothing but lying on the couch. On September 29th (a Monday) I arrived at work, to everyone’s surprise. I worked the whole day leaving a little early to get Evie to dance class by 4:30. I did have a doctor’s appointment earlier that day. I believe (and my memory is a little off here) that I was about 1 cm and maybe 50% effaced at that time. So at this point I’m thinking “one more day – this baby can wait that long”. I have to admit that I did feel “off” all day that Monday. Slower and more uncomfortable than the days before. However, when I sat down on the couch to rest after Evie’s dance class I didn’t think too much of the contractions I was feeling. After all, I had experienced contractions every evening for weeks. They were never worth much of my attention. I also didn’t believe that this baby would come exactly like the other two (labor beginning the evening of the third day past my due date with the baby being born the next am). The contractions began to pick up, but still didn’t hurt at 8pm.
By 9:45pm the kids were sound asleep in bed and I decided to go take a bath and see if that would make me feel better. While in the bath, it became obvious that we may be having a baby soon so I had Craig call my parents and tell them to head over. I still wasn’t sure at that point I was for sure in labor, but we did decide to time them. Things went quick from there by 10:30 or 11 I was breathing through them. By 11:30 pm we noted they had been intense enough and consistent enough that we better get things packed up.
We arrived at the hospital at 12:15 am. I was having very painful one on top of the next contractions when standing so the walk from the parking garage to the reception area was l-o-n-g. I refused to be “dropped off” at the door knowing that walking would progress things. On the way into the hospital I saw a black cat and commented – “is this an omen?” My mom and Craig pointed out the cat had enough white on it that it didn’t count. As I walked up to the check-in desk, the lady on duty asked if I needed help (or something like that). She quickly laughed as my reason for being there was obvious. I couldn’t resist the urge to tell her I needed treatment for a cut on my toe. HAHA! After a contraction (witnessed by the Roly Poly delivery guy) a nice lady arrived with a wheelchair to take me to my epidural…I mean delivery room. Also, while I was checking in an elderly gentleman named Leo was being wheeled somewhere. At that point I wondered if we were having a boy since Leo was one of our short list boy names.
I arrived in the awesome corner delivery room (where our good friends had delivered their first baby a few weeks before) and got changed into the gown. Timing from here on out is fuzzy. I believe the epidural was in around 2 or 2:30 am. I was 4 cm at arrival and a little while later was 8cm. At this point the on-call OB broke my water. At 3 or 3:30 they called the 2nd on-call OB to come in to deliver me as one of the other two women in labor was ready to go at the same time. As my mother says, we won the OB lottery. The doctor who delivered me was great! He just seemed very pleased to be there and worked wonderfully with all the nurses. After a lot of pushing (baby’s head was sideways and therefore harder to deliver) baby #3 was born at 4:31 am on 9/30 (19.5 hours before the qualifying time for paid parental leave - HA). As soon as she was out the whole room said “it’s a girl.” Our little Lizzie (Elizabeth Ann) had arrived…pink, screaming, and completely beautiful. A full 8lbs 2oz and 19”, my biggest baby so far. Here are some pics to enjoy!
Meeting Lizzie for the first time.
Daddy Checking Out His Sweet Girl! (Always my favorite pic.)
Our new family!
No comments:
Post a Comment