We had a great job opportunity for Tyler in North Carolina, and then we didn’t. Long story. We’ve wanted to be there for so long, so not making this move has given us a lot of heartache over it this week.

But there’s always Reese. I’m so thankful that no matter what is happening, we will always have joy because of our child. That there’s always at least one thing that keeps our head above water and our thoughts on more than just ourselves.

Once it started, it rolled quickly. Here are the series of events (I’m keeping it clean):

10 a.m. Something happens that doesn’t necessarily signal the start of labor, but it could.

10:15 a.m. Called 3 nurse friends of mine just to make sure. No one answers.

10:25 a.m. Aubrey (nurse friend #1) finally calls back and I tell her I’m sure it’s nothing because symptom number 2 hasn’t happened. While on the phone, symptom number 2 happens. She said go to the hospital.

10:26 a.m. Try to get a hold of Tyler but can’t. Try to call over and over and still nothing.

10:30 a.m. Call friend and coworker Sarah to come pick me up. 5 times and no answer. 

10:45 a.m.  Jamie (nurse friend #2) texts me and says “You know what happened to the boy that cried wolf?” I call her crying saying I’m really scared and need someone to be there. She says she’ll come asap, but not to worry because I’ll be in labor all day so I might as well spend some time at home. (I’ve heard this before so I believe her and take comfort in that.)

10:50 a.m. Sarah calls back and I scream “Where the hell have you been?” She comes over to take me.

11:00 a.m. I get in touch with Tyler by calling his boss. He says “pack a bag I’m coming!”

11:13 a.m. Tyler gets to the house and I’m putting clean clothes away, straightening up the house, etc. He asks Sarah how far apart my contractions are and we realize they’ve been 3 minutes apart. Tyler yells “WHAT!? We gotta go!”

11:30 a.m. On the road to the hospital.

12:00 p.m. In assessment room at the hospital and she says I can’t be admitted because I’m 2 cm dilated, not 3. She says I may not be in labor so we’ll just have to wait until I’m at 3 cm or my water breaks. I say “if this isn’t labor, I don’t want to be in labor! I’m NOT going home.” At this point I’m in extreme pain. The thing that sucks with contractions is that you can’t scream or cry (the only thing you think would give you relief) because your stomach is completely hard and hurting.

12:30 p.m. I beg her to check me because I’m almost positive my water has been slowly but surely “breaking” (you know only 10% of women have their water break on their own) she said “YEP!” and rushes me to labor and delivery. THANK YOU JESUS.

1:00 p.m. I get an epidural and feel a lot better. However, because of how low he, I feel ALL the pressure and it’s extremely painful. So I can still tell when I have contractions and they are BAD and very close together. Tyler is really really great in this time. He watches the monitor and tells me when the contractions are on the downhill. He reminds me to relax my whole body and breathe. Though the contractions are, again, extremely painful, I realize they’re coming anyway, so I should relax and not fight it. 

2:30 p.m. I’m now 4 cm dilated. The nurse says they usually expect 1 cm per hour, but that I’ll probably be closer than that because of how quickly things are going.

3:30 p.m. I get checked again and they say “9.” Nine what!? I’m 9 cm dilated.  From a 4 to a 9 in an hour! (For those of you that don’t know, you start pushing at 10 cm).  So they say they’ll be back in 30 minutes to check again. My contractions get worse and worse and about a minute apart.

3:50 p.m. I tell them they need to bring everyone in because he is COMING!

From this point on, everyone rushes in and starts getting ready. I scream “never mind I’m not ready!” and they just laugh. I push 3 times, it takes about 6 minutes, and REESE IS HERE! Tyler cut the cord and hung out with him while they cleaned him up. They said the had to take him to the nursery and give him antibiotics… since the labor was so quick, I wasn’t on antibiotics as long as I should have been. But it’s not big deal and I should see him in 2 hours. 

Basically, the labor was amazing. Sure it was painful, but there was no waiting around and I didn’t have to push for hours like many people do. Many people said later that I was made to make babies.

Reese is 8 lbs, 1 oz. My doctor was shocked. He said I was hiding him well. I told everyone I couldn’t hold him in and he would be early, but no one believed me! He was 2 1/2 weeks early. If I’d gone to 40 weeks, he seriously might have been a 10 lb baby. WOW. God was gracious and good in this seamless labor.

If I wasn’t so exhausted, I would spontaneously paint my bedroom a color Tyler wouldn’t approve of. You win this time babe.

According to pregnancy standards, I have 4 weeks left, but I really don’t think I’ll last that long. Maybe all first-time moms say that. Guess we’ll see. Anyone want to place a bet? 

5 seconds left. 4… 3… 2… 1…

Okay now that you’ve got your money on it, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I’m on my way to the hospital at this moment. Who guessed right?

JUST KIDDING.

Ok but really, I’m trying to distract myself from the pain I’m currently in. On one hand, I hope this is the early sign of labor because I don’t want to feel like this for weeks. On the other hand, I haven’t finished my laundry and I want to be on maternity leave when it’s nice and cool and the leaves are falling outside. What to do, what to do? Ride it out I guess.

Moving on.

We’ve now reached the stage where the only question I get is “how are you feeling?” Such a caring question, but I’ve never been able to answer it well. What am I supposed to say? I don’t exactly feel like crap and I don’t hate my life, but I am getting closer and closer to having a human being come out of me. How would you feel? So really, help me out. We’ll vote on what I should say:

“Good!”
“Pregnant”
“I feel really great in the morning and like s*** at the end of the day and I can’t get off the couch without help and I don’t sleep and gosh my back is killing me but I can’t wait to meet this amazing little baby.”

The last is my default, but it’s a little wordy. I’m open to suggestions.

Moving on.

The belly has dropped. Or is still dropping. Not sure. But I do know that I can breathe, eat a little more, and sometimes need Tyler to hold my belly up to get a little relief on my back. He’s so sweet.

I’ve never heard of this but: I think there’s some relationship between pregnancy and loss of hand function. I have been dropping things like crazy. They just fall out of my hands without me even knowing it until it hits the ground. Last week in childbirth class I dropped my water bottle 4 times. Tyler was embarrassed and took it away from me.

Speaking of childbirth class… my thoughts:

• I’m terrified of labor. 
• Why do I need to watch a video of what’s happening? I won’t be on that end so I really don’t want to see it. 
• I’m not an auditory listener, so I’m not remembering anything she’s saying (good thing Tyler will). 
• I ask Tyler a lot of questions during class and he tells me to be quiet because she’ll probably answer them in due time. But she never does. So I keep talking.
• What if I go into labor before finishing the rest of the classes? Do I get half of my money back? Will she email me the powerpoint so I can catch up on the way to the hospital? These are the things that keep me up at night. Well, and having to pee so much. 

Moving on.

Actually, that’s all I can think of for now. Tyler had a booth at the Cooper-Young Festival yesterday to show off his amazingly beautiful furniture. That will be my next blog- promised in the next couple of days. Things are going really well for him and it’s so exciting! Also- since preparation for that is over, he can start building the crib this week! It’s going to be beautiful.