Seth is at home taking care of the older girls and getting one night of uninterrupted sleep before Miriam and I come home from the hospital tomorrow. And it's going to be a test of patience for me to type this on the laptop's keyboard, but I just watched my last episode of ANTM and the baby's resting, so it's as good as time as any to get this all down.
I suspected that Miriam would come a little early. She had been sitting low for a long time, and when I went to the doctor's office last Tuesday, she told me that I was already dilated to a 5. (When my nurse at the hospital heard that, she thought my doctor was crazy for sending me home.) So I had been trying to keep up on the laundry and dishes all week so that all the little things would be in order when the time came to make a dash for the hospital.
Friday night, Seth and I went to an Elders' Quorum activity at the church. We semi-joked with the other couples there about us having a baby any day now. Little did we know it was less than a day away.
Saturday morning, I woke up before 2 a.m. with contractions. For the past week I would have a bout of contractions about 5 minutes apart that would last for 30 minutes and then suddenly stop, so thinking this would be another such instance, I stayed in bed for a while. When they persisted, I starting checking the time on the alarm clock. Then I turned on the lamp and read for a while. Then I went downstairs and got on the computer. Then I turned on the TV and watched the Cosby show. Seth came down after my second episode and asked for the details.
I told him that I'd been contracting for almost two hours, but sometimes the contractions were six minutes apart, and sometimes they were eight minutes apart. Being the eager person he is, he wanted me to get in the van and go immediately to the hospital. But I didn't want to wake up his parents to come over and be with the girls if it was a false alarm. So I called the hospital, and the nurse suggested I try a warm bath; if the contractions persisted and got to 4-5 minutes apart, I should come in.
In the end, Seth was right. The bath didn't stop the contractions, so we called his parents and got our bags.
You'd think I would have been more confident in identifying the signs of labor. This is, after our, our third child. But with Bekah, I was induced. And with Ana, the doctor checked me on a routine visit and told me to get right to the hospital because I was dilating but not contracting. So with both other girls, I had to get a healthy dose of Pitocin to get things started.
But it turned out to be the real deal. We got to the hospital before 5 a.m., got checked in, and had the nurses start looking me over. By the time I was set up in my bed and had answered all the nurse's questions, my contractions were coming much closer together and were much stronger. Thank heavens for epidurals.
But the epidural, as heavenly as it was, really slowed down my contractions. The nurse had to hook up a bag of Pitocin to my IV and keep dialing it up higher and higher. And while I was receiving the Pitocin, I wasn't dilating any more.
All that changed when the doctor showed up and broke my water. Soon after she left, I told the nurse that I was feeling the contractions a lot lower. She checked me and laughed in disbelief. In the time since the doctor had broken my water, I had gone from a six to a 10. I swear it took about 10 minutes.
So she got the doctor back in my room, and I pushed through one contraction. Because of some complications with previous pregnancies, my doctor didn't want me pushing too hard or for too long. Even knowing that, it was weird to hear her tell me to "push gently" and "stop pushing now." Miriam was crowning with that one push, and during my next contraction, the doctor eased her out.
One push! I couldn't believe it! This was the easiest labor and delivery I've had by far. And after the nurse checked her out and got her back to me, Miriam proved to be a voracious eater. Bekah and I had a lot of problems figuring out how to get her fed during her first couple of days, so we (especially Seth) are anxious when it comes to starting breastfeeding.
So Miriam, as already stated, was born yesterday. She weighed exactly the same as Rebekah, and came nine days before her due date like Analee. As far as hair color and length, it falls right between her two sisters--darker and shorter than Bekah's at first, and lighter and longer than Ana's. Time will tell is she turns out to be a blonde or brunette, but Bekah's hoping she'll have blond hair and blue eyes like herself, while Analee's hoping she'll have purple hair and purple eyes. I tried explaining that neither was likely, but it's hard for a two-year-old to understand why her baby sister would have to be part alien in order to fit that bill.
A lot of loving family members have come to see this sweet new addition to our family; everyone seems to agree that she's beautiful. And despite all the nice visits and the wonderful care of the hospital staff, I'm eager to go home tomorrow and be together as a family. It's great having nurses around to bring me food, get me pain meds and take my baby for a few hours while I sleep, but I'll be even more glad to sleep in my own bed and spend time with all my girls.
Sigh ... we're a family of five now. I'm a mom of three. Three girls, no less! I can't help but think how wonderfully blessed I am to be so fortunate.