A Birth Story in Two Parts: Part I

August 4, 2013

I didn't sleep much last night. My stomach was churning and uncomfortable, the baby unusually still. I can still feel that extra dinner I suddenly had the urge to eat last night at 11pm. I tell Eric to take Wyatt to church, I will stay behind. My back hurts a bit, but this is nothing new at this stage.

About 10:30am I start to look at the clock and realize my abdomen has been tightening in a regular pattern. Even though I am almost 41 weeks pregnant, this is nothing knew, I have been having patterned contractions that come and go since about 35 weeks. Frustrated, I tell them to leave me alone unless they really mean business.

I decide I should probably text Eric, just to give him a heads up. “No rush, but I am having contractions. AGAIN.”

“Should I come home?” he replies.

“Not yet,” I say, “Just stand by.” We don't yet know whether we are having a boy or girl. It all seems so unreal.

Eric tells a friend at church who texts me excitedly to ask if I am in labor. “Probably not,” I reply. “I doubt that,” she says, “You're going to have that baby sooner or later!”

An hour and a half goes by with me timing contractions and laying on my side to see if they will dissipate. They don't, and are starting to get stronger, four minutes apart. I'm still in denial because my last labor was long and very strenuous, so this still seems like it should be the beginning.

I finally text Eric to come home home, but I make sure to add, “No rush”, as if I am inconveniencing him by asking him to leave early. My mom gets home before they do and starts talking to me. She notices I am not paying attention, and I tell her I am in labor. Just then, I get another contraction and have to lean over on the wood stove. When it is over we continue talking, as she stands at the sink washing dishes. She asks me a question and when I don't answer she realizes that I am in the hallway on my hands and knees and cannot speak.

By the time Eric and Wyatt get home I am laying in bed, trying to slow things down. I am afraid to walk around and get things really going. I ask what took him so long; he had to put gas in the car, he thought it wasn't urgent.

It seems urgent now. I put on a cute and comfortable black dress.  This seems important.  He calls the midwife who wants to talk to me and asks if I think I need to come to the hospital, which is an hour away. This slightly annoys me, I just want her to tell me to come in or stay home. I say I'm not sure, and she says to come on in then.

Hurriedly, we throw the rest of my hospital things into an overnight bag and I slowly walk out the door and eventually manage to make it into the car, stopping every little bit on the walk there.

My contractions are 4 minutes apart. It is 1:28pm.

To be continued...

What I'm Listening to Now #1

I'd like to take the time periodically to link to some music I've come across and enjoyed, so here's my first nod to that. If you like top 40, but also like old school stylings from the '20's through '80's, you need to hear Postmodern Jukebox. They combine modern songs with swing, jazz, rockabilly, Gatsby, and other stylings to create amazingly fun and unique compilations. Here are a few selections, but by all means, go check out more. They are addictive!

A picture (with a couple words on it) is worth a thousand words.

This is making me laugh.  All day.  Probably because it so accurately depicts my crafting skills.  I have a few friends that are extraordinarily crafty, but that is not me.  

My friend Amy who blogs over at One Artsy Mama likes to claim that anyone can craft beautiful things, but I think for me, the best I can do when following her tutorials is to create something with slightly less SUCK then it would normally have.  Still, she does have some great ideas and easy instructions, so if you too want to create pretty things that don't look like the above, check her out!

I'll just be over here drinking my coffee and laughing at Pinterest fails that make me feel better about my (lack of) talent.  :)

Hodge Podge

Still trying to gain access to my old blog...apparently I had used two different emails to post to it, and they were both emails I have long since abandoned.  I finally gained access to one, but the main one is still in limbo and I'm waiting to hear back as to whether I provided enough correct info about it to gain access to the blog.  Fingers crossed!  I will be SO sad if its lost to me forever!

Meanwhile, my first wakeful "baby" who is almost nine (!!) is having a friend stay overnight for the first time.  He's been to this friend's house overnight a couple times, but his friend hasn't stayed here until tonight.  They've had so much fun and are finally snoozing away.  The second wakeful baby has already woken up a couple times due to teething, while I've been sitting here troubleshooting for the last few hours.  Hoping for a better night from here on out so I can be semi-functional tomorrow!

That's all for now, because I am EXHAUSTED, hence the brevity of this post.

G'night!

Happy New Year!

It's been a while since I left the blogging life, for many reasons, none good enough...and now seems like a perfect time to return. New Year, new start right? I plan on using this space as a continuation of my previous blog, The Wakeful Baby, and once I am able to regain access to all of that I will move it over. I had to start a new one since it has been so long I have forgotten the access info!

I'd been planning (for the last two years!  I knooooooow.) to change it's name to "The Wakeful Babies", and continue on from there, since in my looooooong hiatus, I had another (wakeful!) baby...cause that's how I do! She is now almost two years and five months, and currently STILL wakeful due to cutting her last (hoorah!!!) two year molar. I can't WAIT to be done with the teething stage! I keep joking about throwing a party after that!  With lots of champagne.  ALL the champagne.  With the tiny bubbles.

Anyhow, I'll probably talk a lot about my kids, but also about a lot of other random things too, so I didn't want the title to be too reductionistic.  And also because our life is crazy beautiful and I need to remember that.  LIFE is crazy and beautiful, and sometimes, as a good friend says, brutiful, even.  It just IS.  Everything.  All of it.  SO MUCH.

I know it's cliche to make New Year's resolutions which will be likely broken by February, so I'm just going to say Happy New Year, and call this a return to my love of writing, no resolutions whatsoever, except to do the things that bring me joy.  So, here I go.

Stay tuned!