the appearance of Cala Grace

I feel like I've lost most of November.  We thought we were going to have an October baby, so we spent weeks preparing and waiting for our second little girl to make her appearance.  But she decided she wanted to do things on her own time table, so we kept waiting.  At a week past her due date, we had a non-stress test to make sure she was still doing pretty well.  Everything looked good, so we went home to wait a little longer.  I'd been having steady contractions 10 minutes apart for 5 long days, so I was growing pretty weary of the waiting.  Shortly after we got home that afternoon, the contractions let up for the first time in days.  Since I was pretty sure that wouldn't last, I decided to take advantage of the reprieve so I went to bed at about 7 o'clock Saturday night, Nov 5. 

I woke up with a pretty strong contraction shortly after 1 (or was it 2? I can't figure out how the whole daylight savings time change thing works) Sunday morning.  Glad I had gotten some rest, I tried to get comfortable for another long night of contractions.  The next one came about 10 minutes later, just like before, but PAINFUL! And then I was wet.  At that time of night, I wasn't thinking too clearly and I wasn't that wet, so  I figured I must have peed my pants.  Crazy, right?  So I changed and got back into bed only to find myself wet again.  The next contraction came just a couple minutes later, and I suddenly realized my water had probably broken and these contractions had gone from 10 minutes apart to 3 or 4 minutes.  I yelled for Kevin to call his mom so she could come stay with the kids, and it is time to go NOW!

We called the midwife on the way in to town so she could meet us at the hospital.  Since it was the middle of the night, we had to be triaged in the ER.  The nurse asked if my water had broken and I thought so, but I wasn't sure.  She kind of scoffed at me and said I would know if it had.  Apparently, this little girl wanted to be different, because I was now completely dry, but it was definitely time for her to show up.  We finally got up to labor and delivery at about 2:30.  The nurses asked me a bunch of questions while Amy put in my IV and then they ushered me into the tub.  I really didn't want to mess with any drugs because my pattern seems to be that I labor so fast, they never even get a chance to work before the baby comes. 

The tub was wonderful!  The contractions were coming pretty quickly, but I still had a minute or so to rest between them for a while.  But then, out of the blue, I was hot and I wanted out of that tub! Amy kinda shoved me back down and told me to wait for that contraction to pass when here comes another one!

I have to push!

Somebody called for Kevin to come in before he missed his baby being born.

Reach down and feel your baby's head.  Here she is.  Cala Grace.

The tub was great.  The waterbirth was totally unintended.  It's not actually allowed at that hospital and it was the first time in 20 years our nurse had ever seen a baby born in the water.  But I think it was awesome.  No ring of fire, the pain was there and gone so fast.  And like I said before, this little one had to be different.

She was born so fast, we were there less than an hour.  Kevin said he was pacing around the room so the nurse had just told him to sit down and turn on the tv when they all jumped into action.  He did get to see her born, but just from the back of the room.  Poor guy can't remember what hospital our other kids were born in, but he won't soon forget little Cala's birth. 

I'm so thankful she's finally here, and I can't believe it's been a month already.  My sweet girl, my unexpected blessing. The little one I didn't know I longed for.