Miriam was born via c-section (breech) and Eliza was born all-natural, no pain relief, 20 hours of labor. Both times my water broke to signal the beginning of labor.
So when I started having some contractions Saturday morning without my water breaking, I wasn't sure if "this was it." Then I got out of bed, went to the bathroom and the contractions stopped. This was the first time I had false labor. This made me anxious for the next several days, wondering when labor would really begin.
When I went to see my doctor on Wednesday he said the baby was really low and I was dilated to 3 cm.
The baby would surely come soon.
And he did.
Around 1:00 the following morning I began having contractions again. I couldn't go back to sleep, so after awhile I finally started timing them. At first they were 10 minutes apart, 1 minute long. By 5 a.m. they were 6-7 minutes apart. At 6 a.m. everyone was awake. I told Stan I had been having contractions and I was going to get out of bed and walk around and see what happened. With Eliza we had gone to the hospital before I ever had any contractions and it made for a long day. This time I had wanted to labor at home longer before going in to the hospital.
Since my water hadn't broken, I wanted to make sure it wasn't more false labor. Once I got up and started walking around the contractions got closer together (2-3 minutes apart) but shorter (30 seconds long). I wasn't sure what to make of that. But after 30 more minutes of it I knew it was time to go. They were much more intense and I couldn't move or talk through them. Stan quickly got our bags and children to the van.
By the time we dropped off the girls at a friend's house, it was 7:30 and I was starting to worry. After a long and difficult labor with Eliza and the recent pain of breaking my leg, I had decided to have an epidural. I was done with pain. I began to worry that I had waited too long to go in to the hospital and I had missed my window of opportunity to get an epidural. I also started panicking that we were going to get stuck in the morning work traffic and I was going to have a baby in the van. Thankfully the Lord showed some tender mercies and we got through it pretty quickly.
By the time I got to the hospital and was checked it was 8:30 a.m. and I was dilated to 8 cm. Oh no! I pleaded with the nurses that it wasn't too late to get the epidural. They said they'd certainly try. Thankfully I had two of the same nurses I'd had two months previous when I broke my leg. They were so sweet and hurried and within 45 minutes I had the epidural.
Unfortunately it didn't work all the way.
I could tell it had taken the fierce edge off some of the contractions but I could still feel everything, and some of it was really bad. We kept moving positions and trying more medicine, but it never worked all the way.
Thankfully I progressed about a cm an hour after 10 a.m. so it wasn't too much longer.
About 20 minutes of pushing and he came out.
And I cried.
There is nothing in this world quite like hearing your baby's first cries and seeing him for the first time.
It only took us a day, but we finally settled on his name:
Dallin Stanford McBride
February 27, 2014
12:49 p.m.
7 lbs 15 oz
19" Long
Delivered by Dr. James Hannah
I really liked Dr. Hannah (I've had a different doctor each pregnancy).
I especially liked that he was there the entire time I was pushing.
My sister, Rebecca, witnessed the birth and took some pictures. I'm not sure how I managed not to get a picture of her holding Dallin, but she was there. She brought Miriam and Eliza by later to meet him.
They love their new baby brother.
As for my broken leg, it was not an issue. The orthopedic doctor had told me I could labor as normal, I wasn't going to hurt anything. The epidural had numbed it enough that I didn't feel any strain on the muscles. I had been weight-bearing on that leg for exactly 2 weeks. That was just enough time for me to be able to limp around, hands-free. That has been such a blessing because I can walk around and hold Dallin.
We had to stay in the hospital for 2 days for Dallin to be observed. So we had a few visitors:
Renee MacCabe
Grandma Hornberger
Dianne Milewski
One of my friends also had her baby the same day as I did. It was quite fun because we had been teasing each other our whole pregnancies as to who would go first. I won, by about 3 hours.
Katie Castaldi and baby Mariah.
I needed a break from the awful hospital bed so Stan seized the opportunity to take a nap with Dallin.
Dallin was on the billi blanket to help with a little jaundice.
Oh what a sweet boy! He has just won me over and I love to snuggle him.
Miriam and Eliza were staying at Grandma and Aunt Rebecca's while we were in the hospital. Unfortunately they both took turns being sick and the roads were too icy and snowy, so we didn't have them come home until the following Wednesday.
It has been so nice to see how the girls both love and adore their baby brother.
Welcome to our family of 5!
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