a REAL Labor Day

***WARNING***long post to follow. If you want a play by play of our Labor Day please read below. If not...here are the basics:

1. I got pregnant
2. I was pregnant during the hottest summer on record in the NATION (yes I'll brag and wear that badge of honor forever).
3. I was in Labor on Labor Day
4. I had the most beautiful baby girl that I've ever laid eyes on and we fell madly in love.

See, I told ya.

Ok, now for the longer story for those who are interested...

Last Thursday, I waddled to my appointment to see my OBGYN praying to God that it wouldn't be much longer. The number one reason I didn't one to go much longer?

Let me introduce you to my ankle roll.

 

And yes, it was as painful as it looked and I had a flip flop indentation long after I took them off. One particular night I asked Nolan if he could do me a big favor and get in his jammies and brush his teeth by himself because my feet were so swollen. Nolan innocently asked, "Where are your ankles, Mommy?" Exactly, my son.

My sonogram showed that Landry was looking great with her big noggin' and was 8 lbs!  So my doctor said that with all my other issues of being on blood thinners, my platelets dropping near the level where I couldn't have an epidural, and her size, that it was time to deliver a baby soon. So the next Tuesday (the day after Labor Day) was the plan. Plus the fact that I was 3 cm, 70% effaced told her that Landry was ready. And it made my heart rest easy knowing that my blood thinner shots would be timed perfectly to optimize being able to get an epidural. Now, if only my platelets would cooperate. Two weeks before delivery I found out that my platelet levels were dipping too low into the range where it wasn't safe to get an epidural. I was so convinced that I was destined to have this little girl in agony with all the odds stacked against me.

I couldn't have been more relieved to have a plan in place. Knowing that an end was in sight made it bearable the last few days but then I realized that I sure did have a lot that I needed to get done. Like pack a bag for the hospital, get the play pen set up for our room, install car seats, and the list goes on and on...

Some of the list got accomplished, but not all. Labor Day was going to be our day to clean house and get everything finalized. So Sunday night we took it easy and watched a movie in bed. We even snuck in a last supper meal with just Justin and me while a sweet friend of mine watched the boys. She's a mother of three and knows those quiet dinners are few and far between. I even managed to get in one last pregnancy shot the night before I went into labor.

Justin was rubbing my back and feet during the movie but I just couldn't get comfortable. I decided to take a Tylenol PM to help me feel more comfortable. Normally just taking one helps me fall asleep within 30 minutes but it wasn't helping. And if I fell asleep, it would only be for 15 minutes. I wouldn't exactly call them contractions more like a constant cramp.

We finally decided to call the doctor on call since my doctor was out of town until my induction date. Knowing it was my third and all my other complications she said, "Looks like you're going to have a Labor Day baby!" We called my parents and they rushed over to watch the boys. Panic was starting to set in because I had taken my heparin shot at 9:30 pm and since it was only 4:30 a.m. this was really going to mess up my epidual plans since there's a 12 hour waiting period. For the first time ever going into labor, I was wishing I wasn't dilated too much.

They checked me in triage and I was still only a 3, but I gotta say I was a little relieved but my contractions were anywhere from 3-7 minutes apart. The on-call doctor came in and checked me about an hour later and said that I was a 4! Things were moving and then they officially checked me in. All the while, we hear a lady screaming down the hall about to give birth and the terror only grips me more knowing that could be me if this whole epidural thing doesn't work out. Turns out she barely made it to the hospital and had her baby 10 minutes after her screaming entrance.

The next step was doing lots of blood work and checking my platelets.

After getting a room, they told me that my platelet levels were 109,000. The cutoff for an epidural is 100,000 but there are other factors that they keep into account before they could let me know for sure if I would be able to get one. For the next hour and a half, I was sweating profusely mostly out of fear of the unknown of whether I could really do this if drugs weren't an option.

Finally, I got the relieving news that I could have an epidural. The build up of all that fear escaped me like a ton of bricks. From that point on, my anxiety completely lifted. I really wasn't in much pain just slight discomfort but decided that since I was already a 4, I didn't want to start feeling some major pain and have to be really still during my epidural, so I asked for one. I'm glad I did because it seemed like it took forever to get it started. Around 2:00 pm, I finally got one.

With both boys after I got my epidural, I went from a 5 to a 10 in 30-45 minutes. So everyone told me that your third baby always comes the fastest so I was thinking that within the next hour it would be show time. An hour later I was still a 4, an hour after that I was finally a 5, then a 5 again after that. Ugh! Finally I moved to a 6 by about 5:00 pm. At this point, I'm just getting pretty bummed out that everyone is waiting and I thought I'd have her by now. I kept feeling pressure during contractions and I was just so sure that I was a 10...nope, still a 6.

The interest and excitement of the hospital was wearing on everyone quickly, especially my boys. The entertainment bag was not nearly as exciting as the beginning of the day.

We decided that with this snails pace that we should send everyone to dinner and that the boys would get to meet Landry the next day since it was a school night. The doctor came in an I asked her what's up with me not dilating. All that talk from people saying that with your third you sneeze them out had me thinking that was all for the birds. She said that some times that just happens but she would bet it would be happening soon.

I was beginning to feel a lot of pressure with each contractions so they upped my "happy juice". It was just enough to make me relax more and sure enough within another 45 minutes I went from a 6 to a 10. Justin called all the grandparents around 7:25 to let them know she was coming soon.

 

 This is just after finding out I was dilated to a 10 and everyone is prepping the delivery room.

Finally, it was time. The doctor said that her bet was two pushes and she was out. Well, she lied. It was actually three, but I'll take it! Within 10 minutes, Landry made her way into the world with a head full of dark hair. This was quite the shocker since my boys were bald and then blondies.

They put her immediately to my chest so I could see her and she was purple. No one was saying much and I'm sure that it was only a matter of 5 seconds but it seemed to go on for minutes. Finally I asked, "Is she ok?" because my boys came out screaming. They suctioned her out really well and sister let out the biggest scream ever. She couldn't be outdone by her loud brothers. And suddenly the tears came pouring from my face. I've never been so relieved, so thrilled, so thankful.

You think with every pregnancy that it would just be a routine by the time it's your third, but this pregnancy just about did me in.

From the scare of the miscarriages, the daily injections of blood thinners, the twice a week appointments, being in my third trimester during the Never Ending Story Summer of triple digit heat, to my ankle rolls, there were numerous times that I truly thought I couldn't make it. And worry just consumed me.

I was plagued more times than I can count with ideas of how can this work out three times in a row and we be blessed with three beautiful children. It seemed as if we were rolling the dice.

My parents were the in the waiting room anxiously waiting to be called back. Justin called his parents who were getting the boys ready for bed. We knew that they wouldn't be able to wait another day to come see her so we called up a close church friend to watch the boys and she graciously came to be with the boys while Gram and Pop came up to meet Landry.  The next hours and day the grandparents passed her around and just smiled and stared. It melted my heart to see so much love already given to our daughter.

I love my boys so much and in a way that scares me because I worry about them so much and want the world for them. But to have this precious little girl, to experience a different side of motherhood, just makes me weep that this is MY life.


That I'm so undeserving but that God chose for this to be my life and be the mother to these amazing and beautiful children and to share it with the perfect partner for me in life.

All I can say is God is truly great.