The first weekend of March, we were ready for Baby Punkin's arrival. The closing on the sale of my company (and celebration) had occurred on Friday, 3/2 so it was good timing for a last day of work.
However, that weekend I did come down with a bad cold so I was hoping the cold would pass or the baby would wait a few days because going through labor with a bad cold did not sound fun. I spent most of the Saturday in bed and sleeping, since there's really no drugs a pregnant lady can take for a cold. I did have a few contractions on and off throughout the day, but at night while watching TV, they became more consistent. They were about 10min apart for almost 2 hours. After those 2hrs I was going to start actually tracking the time (writing it down) - and then POOF! they were gone.
On Sunday, I was still feeling sick, but antsy so wanted to get out of the house and try and get this baby on the move. It was cold and windy, so we took Addison to Stratford Square Mall. Tim took her glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing and I walked around for a good hour or so. I experienced contractions here and there, nothing very painful and not at all consistent so I knew it wasn't the real deal.
That entire week at work, both Tim and I were constantly asked by coworkers, "you're still here?" or "No baby yet?" - so of course that just added to our own impatience. I approached each day at work as it could be my last - which lead to very boring days since I wasn't about to start any projects and I had worked ahead for the several weeks leading up to my due date, so I didn't have anything due either.
Yet, each day passed and there was no baby. Didn't really have any promising contractions to note and so we set our sites on the upcoming weekend.
Due Date is Here
Armed with the knowledge (myth) that 2nd babies tend to arrive early, Tim and I couldn't believe we had made it to the weekend before my due date and Baby Punkin was still not here. With Addison, I was 4 days early so that would by Sunday, March 10 for Baby Punkin. That entire weekend there was very little activity from Baby Punkin. I went for 3 walks that weekend, totally about 4 hours of walking. My body ached, but just from the activity, not signs of labor. It began to feel as though Baby Punkin was never going to come. On Sunday night, we sat in disbelief that we'd both be returning to work the next day - and I had the awful feeling that I would finish out that whole week at work! At work, I had March 12 (Monday) on my calendar as the first day of my maternity leave so I could plan my work load around that and provide coworkers with the estimate of when I'd probably be gone. So it was hard to be at work on that day. On Tuesday, March 13 - I started feeling mild contractions after lunch. I didn't pay much attention for the first hour, but around 2pm I started to keep track. By the end of the day, the contractions were only about 5-7min apart. They weren't too strong, but definitely tightening. I texted Tim to warn him and he mentioned it to Lorie when he picked up Addison - that we may be dropping her off in a couple hours before bedtime. I got home, ate dinner while having a few more contractions, but then by 7pm - they were gone. This false alarm made it even harder to be at work the next day on my due date. I was honestly shocked that I was seeing "March 14" on the calendar without Baby Punkin already in my arms.
I began preparing myself for the possibility of needing to be induced. Even though I had made some progress at my 40-week check-up, I had false alarms before so didn't want to get my hopes up.
Fashionably Late?
The night of my due date, I fell asleep wishing that I'd wake up in pain. But, no dice. My alarm went off and I got ready for work just like any other day. Finally, on my way to work, I started feeling contractions. Without paying close attention, they seemed to be about 5-7 minutes apart again. But of course I'd been fooled before. I had some contractions through the morning, but it wasn't until around 11am when I was helping to set up our St. Patty's Day pot luck lunch that the contractions became more painful. I could still speak through them so no one was the wiser. After lunch - around 12:30 the contractions were more painful to the point where I was uncomfortable and I had to take deep breaths through them. I started timing the contractions around 1:30pm and they were 5 minutes apart, lasting about :30 seconds. It was 80 degrees that day so the office was very stuffy, adding to my discomfort.
I was 90% sure these contractions were the real thing. They had been fairly consistent and getting stronger since 8:30am - so a good 5-6hrs at this point. At 2:30, as one final test, I went for a walk with a coworker. I continued to have the contractions about every 5 minutes during the walk but they were not as painful. But once we got back to the office a little after 3pm, the contractions were much stronger - to the point where I would have to stop what I was doing and breath.
At this point I decided to call it a day - even if this was just a false alarm. I textedtexted Tim that I was on my way - that was a little before 4pm so he was on his way too. The contractions became much stronger on the 20min drive home to the point where I was gripping the steering wheel and turning up the radio to distract myself.
I got home and took a nice shower and finished packing the hospital bag. At this point, I knew this was the real deal. While I was getting ready, I had to stop what I was doing every time a contraction hit and lean against the wall or hold on to something.
Tim got home at 5:15 and he quickly ate, changed and packed up Addison's bag. In this time, he was tracking my contractions which were now 2-3 minutes apart. We were waiting for Lorie to drop Addison off around 5:45 to tell her we were headed to the hospital. So when they got here we told Addison we were going to meet Baby Punkin and that she was gonna have a sleep over with her cousins! She was very excited and so were the kids. We gave her a hug and kiss and then grabbed our bags and headed to the hospital.
Power Hour
I didn't think that when we arrived at the hospital, that Baby Punkin would arrive just over an hour later! We were admitted just before 7pm and at that point I could still talk between contractions, though during them, I could not. I was examined right away and was at 6-7cm, which is how far along I was when we checked in with Addison. This time, I was doing much better at that point, most likely because I had only been in labor for about 11hrs vs. 30hrs+ with Addison.
The contractions were getting bad, but I wanted to hold off on getting an epidural, hoping I'd be able to go drug-free. Well, thankfully, it turned out that the anesthesiologist was heading into surgery, so it was a "now or never" situation to get the epidural, but it worked out perfectly! They still got me hooked up with an IV for fluids and the "just in case" there was an emergency and I'd need to receive drugs quickly. This was the worst part of labor because I am NOT a needle person and they had to stick me 2x in one wrist and once in the other before they could get it to work. That was agony! They tried to do it in between contractions but they were coming one after another at that point so it was just terrible!Once that was done, the nurses left us alone for 20min or so. Tim was going in between holding my hand through contractions and getting the phone calls/texts out to our family letting them know Baby Punkin was on the way!
I started to feel a lot of pressure and felt like I was ready to push and told Tim to get a nurse to come check my progress - right then a nurse walked in anyway to check me. I was 9cm and right after the nurse checked me, my water broke. It was 8pm at this point and the doctor was not even in the room yet.
The pain spiked and I felt the urge to push. I had to use all my might to breath through the contractions and not push since I still had that 1cm to go. A couple minutes later the doctor came in and began to prepare for delivery. He checked me and I was at 10cm, so it was Go Time!
The big difference this time, with not having an epidural, is that there was no controlled pushing. With Addison, the nurse would watch the monitor and I would feel pressure so they'd tell me to push 3 times, count to 10. Then I'd rest for 20-30 seconds and then I'd push again. This time, my body was doing the pushing on its own, I couldn't control it - just help the process along. There was really no down time in between the pushing, and minutes later, after about 4 pushes at 8:14pm, Baby Punkin was here!
It IS a Girl!
We were both surprised that Baby Punkin turned out to be a girl! With Addison, I was surprised I was right that she was a girl, with Baby Punkin I was surprised I was wrong. But of course, none of that matters when we saw our new little girl for the first time.
While she was getting checked out on the exam table, she looked identical to Addison. Later that night in the Mother/Baby room, however, she only resembled Addison, yet already had her own look. Each day since we've been home with her she's looked less and less like Addison and just more and more her own pretty little Eden self :)
All that anxiety, depression and impatience brought on by waiting for Eden to arrive, washed away immediately. Looking back, to say she was only one day late is really nothing! I can already laugh at how much I had overreacted. Now we've been home with her for 10 days already and I can't believe it's been that long!
Infant care came back to us like riding a bike and we're already so used to being a family of four. Addison has adjusted wonderfully and is nothing but in love with her baby sister, and so are we!
