With
just less than three weeks left of pregnancy I had a lot to do. Friday, July 6th, Daniel went on a
hike with my dad and brothers to the top of Ben Lomond Peak. I spent the day with my mom and Chris. We ate lunch at Javier’s and spent the
afternoon walking around Ikea, which is probably me favorite store. The boys returned home really late, around
10:30 pm. Daniel was exhausted from
spending all day on the mountain, in the sun, and he had to work early in the
morning. I went to bed with a to-do list in my head for Saturday. My mom was throwing me a baby shower Saturday
evening and I planned on picking up my nursing garments, a package of newborn
diapers, and pad for the changing table before going over to help her set up
for the shower.
I
was having trouble getting to sleep in our hot bedroom, regardless of the three
fans we had going. Suddenly I felt a
trickling and thought I had peed my pants.
I laid there stunned for a few minutes and decided I better go check and
change my underwear. I got to the
bathroom, noting there was still liquid running down my legs. I sat there for a
good 15 minutes thinking, “This can’t be my water breaking. I haven’t even felt
any contractions! The baby shower is tomorrow. Is this really happening?!”
Once
I realized it was real I decided I better wake my exhausted husband. It was
about 12:30 in the morning. I shook him awake and told him I thought my water
broke. “What do you need me to do? I’m calling your mom.” He said. She didn’t
answer when he called, so I tried calling. She told me to call the doctor, who
told me to go up to the hospital, and call her back. My doctor also told me she was on vacation,
but was in town till morning. I couldn’t stop laughing on the way to hospital.
This wasn’t really happening; I still had three weeks to go…
By
the time we got to the hospital and all settled our room it was about 1:30 in
the morning and I still hadn’t felt any contractions. The nurse hooked me up
and said, “You are having a contraction, can you feel it?” It barely felt like
a tense muscle. I was dilated to a 3 and they decided to give me pitocin to
help labor progress. By the time they
got back with the medicine (about 2:30) the contractions were strong enough I
wanted my epidural.
It
took about an hour for the epidural to work on both sides, at first only my
right side was numb. I thought it was
pretty cool that I could hear on the monitor when a contraction was starting
and not feel anything! About 4 o’clock when I was finally all numb the nurse
checked and I was now dilated to a 5. Thinking I had a ways to go I decided to
take a nap. About 20 minutes later I was about to call the nurse because I
stopped hearing the baby’s heartbeat on the monitor. I heard running footsteps
and the nurse burst into my room. She
tried moving the monitor to find the baby and then started to check. Her next
words were, “We have a head, don’t move, don’t do anything, I’m going to call
the doctor.”
Since
I was numb the nurse had to tell me when to push. Two contractions and 5 pushes
later little Jeremiah was here to greet us. The placed him on my belly while
Daniel cut the cord. I couldn’t believe it! This little baby I had been waiting
just over eight months for was here, and he was so beautiful!
At
4:39 am on July 7, 2012, we welcomed Jeremiah Daniel Matthews to our family.
Weighing just 6 pounds and 3 ounces and 18 inches long, he was to most
beautiful thing I had ever seen. We are so blessed to have this little guy in
our lives.
