A Baby Story

Sunday night I went to sleep on the wrong side of the bed...literally. We have a co-sleeper and thought it might be logistically easier if it were on the side of the bed opposite the door for easier coming and going in our room. Unfortunately that is Aaron's side of the bed. I thought we could give swapping a try for a night and see how it went. I warned him, before I went to bed, that if I couldn't sleep I was waking him up to switch. After some weird dreams, a drooling incident (that's a whole post of it's own) and waking up at 4:30am with my back killing me, I decided I had had enough with HIS side of the bed. I grabbed my pillows (which is like 100 when you're 9 months pregnant), got up, grumbled to him to scoot over and nestled happily into the right side of our bed.

Eight minutes later I had my first contraction. This was no false alarm, no pre-labor. This was what I remembered from the last time. How had I mistaken my 5 hours of fakers on the 14th for this?? As I laid there through the first few, I smiled. It was time. I was finally going to have this baby!!! I waited until 6:00am to wake Aaron and let him know. At that point the contractions were 5-6 minutes apart and getting stronger. I decided I'd better eat and get a quick shower before we had to leave for the hospital. At 7 I woke Natey up and grabbed the last of our stuff and put it in the car. As I watched my handsome little boy run around in his jammies I began to tear up. This was the last time he would be an only child. All of our worlds were about to change forever. We snapped one last picture as we left the house. It was a gloomy day out as we left our house. We had planned to drop Natey off and then go to the hospital, but by the time we left the house at 7:30 my contractions had sped up to 3-4 minutes apart. I figured it would be a better bet to take me first.

I got to the hospital at 7:40, got settled into triage and waited for my midwife. When she arrived 15 minutes later, she checked me and I was dilated to 5cm. They were getting my room ready so I stayed in triage and waited for Aaron to arrive. He got there, my contractions started getting stronger and I was moved up to my labor and delivery room at 8:55am. My midwife checked me again and I was dilated to 8cm. It all seemed a little surreal this time. I was more in control. I knew what I was doing. I trusted my body and the fact that I had done this once before without drugs. There was only one point during the last 2 contractions before I started pushing when I looked at Aaron and said, "I'm scared". He smiled at me and said I was doing a great job and we'd have this baby out in no time. At 10:31 am I delivered my beautiful baby girl, Arielle Lorraine. To say it was amazingly fast would be an understatement. I could not believe it only took 6 hours from start to finish. As they laid her on me, I though she seemed so small. After carrying 35 pound Natey around, I couldn't fathom that she was 9 and a half freaking pounds!!! What?? I just delivered a gigantic baby, with no drugs, and I didn't so much as tear. How, on earth, is that possible??

For those of you who played the game, I wanted to show proof that she was, in fact, born the morning after the last guess!! Between my blog contest and the pool from my baby shower we raised 76 dollars. Since no one got the date right, it will all be donated to the MS society. What is even better is my work has a matching gift program, so a total of $150 will be donated in my mom's name!

My midwife was amazing, yet again. I loved the experience I had when I was pregnant and delivering Natey and this time was no different. I even followed her to a new practice and delivered at a different hospital than I preferred to have her. Truth be told, I would have a baby in a Walmart if she would deliver me!

Aaron was the best partner yet again. He has such a quiet calm about him that it always helps to calm my nerves. I know he truly believes in me and it reassured me all the way through.

Natey came to visit us that evening. He is the proudest big brother I have ever seen. He loved holding her and is always wanting to touch her face. He was so gentle with her and seeing them together melts my heart!

I felt surprisingly great after having her (obviously since I was tweeting and updating Facebook, via my beloved BlackBerry, 45 min after she was born). I feel a lot calmer this time. Maybe it's because I feel like I know what I'm doing. I'm not all panicky and freaking out over every detail. I let them take her to the nursery so I could get some rest (which I didn't do when Nate was born) and I felt like I was ready to go home the next day. They did her 24 hour check and said we were free to go!

Now we're home and she is the best baby. She sleeps well, is feeding well and I'm even getting rest when she sleeps. Keep your fingers crossed that it stays this way and I will update more as the days and weeks go by!

I know you want to squeeze those cheeks. How could you not??!!