I decided to title my post the way I did instead of "Grace's Birth Story" because this way sounded WAY more exciting. I think you'd agree.
I know many of you have lots of questions about the birth of sweet baby Grace..... such as... "Did she try to do it that way?" "WHAT DID THEY DO ABOUT THE CORD?" "How did she not know to go to the hospital?" "Who cleaned up the mess?" "What was Caleb doing?"
I will attempt to answer all of these questions and more. And, if I don't answer some question that's been on your mind, go ahead and ask me.... but I can't guarantee I'll remember.... it happened very fast.
Let's start at 37 weeks pregnant. The day I turned 37 weeks I started experiencing contractions... a lot. I had a ton each day. The first few days I thought, "The baby will be here in no time!" BUT, as the weeks went on, I started getting used to the tightening feeling, and would only get excited when the contractions would start in my back and wrap around to the front.... but soon those only led me to discouragement too.
The Friday before Grace was born, I was up in the middle of the night for 2 hours with contractions, and I thought that it was the real thing FOR SURE. But, eventually I went back to bed and figured it wasn't labor. You can't sleep through labor right?
Wednesday night, (June 26) I went to our church picnic at 5:30, where we took second place in the church egg toss. (Ben had a bad throw... what can I say? But he's reading over my shoulder saying "dude get rid of that, you dropped my AWESOME throw" We're still not over our loss...) I was having my normal contractions during the church picnic and thought nothing of it. They weren't painful and no one knew I was even having them. When we got home, we hung around the house and played a game. We didn't go to bed until 11. Around midnight I woke up to a contraction. It was a bit stronger than the ones I was used to having but still pretty bearable. I went back to sleep and woke up around 12:30 with another one of those contractions. I got a little excited thinking "Maybe tonight is the night!" I got out of bed and started walking around to see if the contractions would keep coming. I tried to time them, but they were pretty irregular. Just before 1 am I had a BIG contraction. It almost knocked the wind out of me. I was told to go to the hospital when my contractions were 7 minutes apart, 60 seconds long, and stay that way for an hour. After that big contraction, I didn't think I could handle that for an hour... SO, I decided to wake up Ben and tell him that it was time to go to the hospital. I was even a little hesitant because I hadn't been having contractions for very long yet.
I had another contraction soon after the first one, and I started to get a little panicky since they were really strong and REALLY close together. I needed to call my dad to come and stay with Caleb, so I did.... but as soon as it connected, I had another contraction. I threw the phone to Ben and said "Talk to my dad!"
Ben said to my dad, calmly "Hi dad. Melanie is having a contraction and will talk to you in a minute." At this point, I almost EXPLODED because I was starting to realize that things were progressing very very quickly... so in my head I screamed "YOU IDIOT, JUST TELL HIM TO GET HERE!!!!!!!!" But, in real life, (and thankfully) I waited until the contraction had passed and then said "Dad, it's time to come, we need to go to the hospital." Poor Ben didn't really have a clue that this was becoming an emergency..... and I didn't inform him because I hardly even knew what was happening.
After we called my dad, my contractions were pretty much coming on top of each other. During each break, I was frantically running around filling my hospital bag. You know, you can't pack your toothbrush weeks in advance....
Anyway, I had the most wretched contraction of my life on the bed and at that moment thought..... "I NEVER am having another child again" followed by..."This is NOT good." ....followed by "I can't possibly endure this for an hour".... followed by "Can I get an epidural??".... followed by "I have to go to the bathroom.." followed by...."this reminds me of when I had the urge to push with Caleb... PLEASE let me just have to go to the bathroom."
Meanwhile....Ben still didn't know what was happening. (and how could he?) I think he just noticed that I got crabby REALLY fast. ;) He was trying to find the midwife's number that I said was on the fridge... even though it wasn't. He came back upstairs telling me so, and then I remembered I had it saved in my phone. Genius. (How can you forget something like that?!) Anyway, he was calling the answering service who would page the midwife to tell her that we were on our way to the hospital... while I was running to the toliet hoping that I was just cleaning out before having a baby. Is this getting too graphic?? ;)
The urge to push came over me, and so I did.... And then I put my hand down to check and see what was going on.... and I felt a head (but it was squishy I guess because the amniotic sac was still hanging around..). Then I yelled "BEN! It's TOO LATE, I CAN FEEL HER HEAD!" THAT's when Ben realized what was going on and at this point, he started saying to the answering service lady...
"I NEED AN AMBULANCE!!!" To which she responded. "We can't call an ambulance, YOU have to" To which Ben responded... "What am I talking to you for?!" He hung up and quickly called 911. We have a tape of this, which is kind of fun... in hind sight of course. He said we needed an ambulance and while he was talking to her, I hollered from the bathroom..
"BEN, You've got to catch her!"
And, so, he ran into the bathroom, I hit speaker phone, he threw the phone on the ground, and very shortly after, caught sweet baby Grace in his arms. WOO HOO! Go Ben!
He handed her to me immediatly hoping I could get her to breathe. When he caught her, she was in fluid. BUT, it's not what you're picturing-- it's not the massive amniotic sac where the baby is like still in the womb but not. We're thinking the bag must have been leaking out and had a hole in it because when he handed her to me, only her head had something on it because the water leaked out while he was holding her. I remember pulling something away from her face-- which apparently was a membrane. Anyway, I pulled that away, stuck my dirty finger in her mouth and wiped it out (HA! no time to wash hands...) and blew in her face. I actually don't remember blowing in her face, but Ben says I did. It makes me feel like a genius ;). She started crying pretty much right away...and then Ben and I both started bawling. She was born at 1:12 am... yes, 11 honking minutes after I called my dad to come over.
I held Grace in front of me staring at her in disbelief-- like, "did this really just happen??" I, of course, was holding her out in the cold instead of wrapping her in something. (DUH!) but a police officer came to our house within minutes and asked for a towel to wrap her in. Ben handed him one of my nice bathroom towels, and I said "AH! THAT towel?" Ben looked at me in utter disgust and said "MELANIE, we can BUY new towels."
I'm so ashamed. DUH. What was I thinking???
At this point I told Ben to call my dad to tell him what happened. You know, I thought it might be kind of traumatic to pull up to a house that had a million cop cars and 2 ambulances with the lights on outside the house. (My neighbor thought it was lightning). Ben called my mom at 1:15 am and said "Mom, I just delivered your granddaughter on the bathroom floor" She called my dad and told him....and then didn't sleep the rest of the night....
ANYWAY, the paramedics came shortly after the police man and tended to me while I was sitting on the toliet surrounded by what looked like a murder scene. Talk about uncomfortable... not to mention they were mostly men. At one point I saw some of the mess drifting towards my nice bathroom rug. I asked the paramedic woman to please move the rug out of the way. She did it but kind of looked at me like I was nuts. I like to think I saved my rug. Why have more mess than you need?? They clamped the cord and Ben even got to cut it. (But that's TOTALLY lame compared to actually delivering your child right??)
They lifted me onto their chair thing and carried me past Caleb's room (who was still sleeping) and down the stairs while some young man who had never held a baby before carried my newborn. I got into the ambulance just as my dad was pulling in... and I waved from the ambulance and said "Hi dad!" But, he didn't hear me.
I got to the hospital just as their computers went down... AND sat there waiting for the doctor to get out of bed and come deliver my placenta. Isn't that something you'd want to do at 2:00 am? I had the shakes REALLY bad, and everyone kept asking me if I was cold. When the doctor came, he delivered the placenta, stitched me up, and then I had some extra bleeding apparently and was put on pitocin for the next MILLION hours. (well, that's what it seemed like.)
Grace had to be under the warmer for a while since her stupid parents left her out in the cold so long. But, I was able to hold and nurse her pretty quickly after she was born. I sent Ben home around 5 am when things were settling down so he could get some sleep. But, I asked him if he would clean up the bathroom before he went to bed. He did.. but after taking a picture. Isn't he sweet?
When I was brought to the room where I'd be for the next couple of days, I laid on my bed and wept. It was an overwhelming experience, and I was so thankful that I was ok and so was Grace....and Ben for that matter. My mom came around 7 am because I couldn't sleep (and she was up anyway), and when she walked in, we both shed a few more tears.
We are SO SO SO thankful for God's protection and the amount of grace he poured on us June 27, and I'm so pleased with the name we picked because it seems VERY appropriate. Don't you think?
So there's the story you've all been waiting for. I had what they call a "Precipitous labor" and was informed that if it happens once, it's likely to happen again. So, next time (Lord willing there will be one), I will probably camp out at the hospital a few weeks in advance because Ben has informed me he is unwilling to do that again ;)
