And Then There Were FOUR

Here's the birth story for those that have been asking! But, WARNING...LONG post. Sorry :)

All day Monday I kept telling Paul that I was feeling a bit "strange", but I really couldn't describe it. We went on as usual and I got to spend some quality time with Micah-to which I am very thankful. We took him to a park, read books, played ball, played with all his toys, etc...little did we know this would be the last day as a family of three.

At 8:30pm that evening, Paul was putting Micah down for bed, so I leaned down to kiss him goodnight. And as soon as I stood up...yup, my water broke. I definitely went into immediate panic mode. I couldn't think straight and Paul told me to calm down. :) This was definitely the moment we had been waiting for, but at the same time I was in shock and couldn't take it all in. Let me also say, I am SOOOOO thankful this happened while I was home and NOT out in public-completely embarrassing and uncontrollable. Haha.

I called our friends who were going to take us to the hospital and told them what was going on. They relayed the message to our other friends who were going to be watching Micah for the next couple of days while we were in the hospital. The last local call I made was to my two friends who were going to come take pictures and video during labor and delivery-we decided they should stay home for now, but when I was 5-6cm I would call so they could come to the hospital. No contractions had started yet, so I took a quick shower, we called our families via skype, Paul packed his bag, we got Micah out of bed to take one last family pic, and then we were off. I got teary eyed leaving Micah knowing our family was about to change forever.

We arrived to the hospital at 9:30pm and the doctor immediately checked the fluid around the baby. Everything looked great, but I was ONLY 1cm dilated...which made me think this was going to be one LONG night. I still wasn't having contractions, so they sent me to an observation floor to see if the contractions would begin by themselves in the next hour or two. If not, they had planned to send me to the L&D floor and start me on Pitocin.

Our friends stayed with us in our observation room to keep us company. Over the next 2 hours, I had really mild contractions, but nothing too serious. Around 11:30pm the doctor came and told me that he was moving me up to the L&D floor, would start the Pitocin, and that he was going home to sleep and would be back at 7am unless needed earlier for delivery.

At 12am I was transferred floors, they checked me again and I was only 2cm. They started the Pitocin and our friends decided to leave so I could try to get some sleep while my contractions were mild. The nurse told me she would be back to check me at around 3:30am-which seemed forever away!

My room was really big and nice, but had NO place for Paul to sit or lay down...except for two small, circular, swivel doctor's chairs. The nurse told us that they weren't allowed to bring any other furniture in the room, but that right next door was a waiting area with big couches for Paul to sleep on. This frustrated me a little, because I definitely wanted Paul in the room with me-even if nothing was happening. However, I encouraged him to go sleep while he could and promised to call his cell phone if I needed anything.

I tried sleeping/resting, but was really unsuccessful as my mind just wouldn't turn off. My contractions began to get really bad around 2:30am and I was having major back pain. By 3am, I called Paul into my room and asked for the nurse to check me again. I already felt like pushing, so I was sure I'd be at least 6-7cm (ha)...and was oh so frustrated when the nurse told me I was just 3-4cm. Ughhhhh. The nurse reminded me that my contractions would be more painful since my water had already broken. Great! Many of them were already off the charts and extremely lonnnggggg. I couldn't imagine them getting much worse! At this point I figured we still had many hours to go and I wanted to be able to rest, so I asked for an epidural. The nurse told me it would be about 40 minutes or so as the doctor was at home sleeping. :)

PTL the doctor arrived around about 3:40am and the epidural was in by 4am. What a wonderful relief it was! My left leg was completely numb but I still had movement in my right leg...which was pretty strange. The important part was that I couldn't feel my contractions anymore, and for that, I was a happy camper :) Funny side story-While getting my epidural, Paul almost passed out. The delivery room was pretty warm, plus, they make everyone wear a hat, gown, and shoe covers. Between being overheated and me squeezing the heck out of his hands during contractions, he got really dizzy and the anesthesiologist saw he was about to faint and made him sit down. It took Paul several minutes to recover. I'm just thankful he didn't drop to the floor and make me jerk while receiving my epidural-that would have been bad!

Anyway, once the epidural was in the nurse checked me again at 4:15am. She asked me what I thought I was now and I bitterly said "5cm". She said, "No, you're at 8, and I better call the doctor now." Basically I went from being 3cm-8cm in an hour-which would explain why my contractions were so intense pre-epidural. I immediately called my friends who were going to come take pictures and told them to hurry.

The doctor arrived around 4:50am, checked me and told me that the head was already crowning and that she would be here in a matter of minutes. He rushed to get scrubbed in and I jokingly asked if the delivery could wait until my friends arrived...to which he said, "No." :) My friends (Angela and Sara) arrived at 4:55am-pretty much just in time for delivery. Paul was in the bathroom (in my room) putting his contacts back in when Angela yelled for him to get out here because they could see a full head of dark hair. Paul rushed out, and at 5am on the dot our precious JORDAN KATE was born :)

Later, I asked the doctor if I ever even pushed. He told me that I didn't and that it was an extremely fast delivery, and since I couldn't feel anything it could have been rather dangerous if he hadn't been right there. Thankfully, he WAS there and everyone made it just in time!

For the most part, giving birth overseas was a wonderful experience. There definitely was a communication barrier at times-which made it rather frustrating, but I felt completely comfortable in my care. The nurses definitely don't have as big of a role as they do in the States, BUT you get a lot more attention from the doctor-which is so nice! Everything went great and we thank the Lord for blessing us with a beautiful and healthy baby girl.

My sweet friends, Sara and Angela-who completely spoiled us!

Yes, the old man is my doctor! Let me just say that he has YEARS of experience (literally. ha) and an incredible bedside manner!

We love you Jordan.