Selah's Birth Story part 1

I can honestly say that I enjoyed my pregnancy.  Even through the nausea, heartburn, frequent urinations, restless nights, night sweats, sciatic nerve pinchings, instant cravings, exhaustion, so on and so forth, I enjoyed carrying my sweet baby girl for 9 months.  

As I neared the end of my pregnancy, I anxiously awaited the birth of our daughter.  I was so excited I could barely stand it…. I just wanted to meet her!  I couldn’t wait to meet the sweet precious baby girl that had been kicking inside of me for so many months.  I couldn’t wait to meet my daughter whose hiccups I felt so many nights.   I couldn’t wait to meet my child who had been growing and developing inside of me for all these months.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013
I woke up at 4:30am with some Braxton Hicks contractions.  No biggie.  I had been having them throughout my pregnancy and according to standard textbook, they would increase near the end.  For a solid hour I laid in bed feeling the contractions; it was the most consistent they had been.  But they were mild and only lasted that one hour.  My alarm went off to get up for work and from there on, the contractions subsided for the rest of the day. 

I began my usual hour and 15 minute commute to work.  I began my first day of training my replacement.  I attended our usual Tuesday staff meetings.  3:30pm came, I turned off my computer as normal, said my goodbyes for the day, and headed home.

Tuesday evenings are Caleb’s early night meaning he gets off work at 4 and from 5pm on, we have the evening together.  We were eligible for an upgrade on our iPhones so we decided this would be the perfect evening for us to venture out to AT&T to upgrade our “cavemen iPhone 3” phones to the iPhone 4.  Whoo hoo!!

First, we grabbed some dinner ….  We grilled hot dogs.  I l.o.v.e. grilled hotdogs and have stayed away from them my entire pregnancy since they are a pregnancy food no-no.  But I was nearing the end of my pregnancy and they just sounded so darn good.  I caved.  It was delicious.

We then headed out to AT&T.  The syncing of phones took longer than expected so we were sitting there for quite a while making awkward small talk with the AT&T sales guy.  Andrew plays basketball.  Andrew is Mexican.  Did you know there is only one Mexican player in the NBA?  Yea… I didn’t know that either.   Yea… like I said… the awkward small talk as we all realized the syncing of phones was taking way longer than it should.

After sitting there a while, I started feeling an odd pressure I hadn’t felt before.   It was quite uncomfy.  I kept trying to sit up straight to give baby girl more room and in hopes to ease the pressure I was feeling…. although it didn’t really work.  As custom in the end of a pregnancy, nature called… for what seemed like the 100^th time that day.  I excused myself to use the restroom.  I came back and decided to stand in hopes it would alleviate more of the pressure I had been feeling.  

Caleb and I were chatting while Andrew left to work on Caleb’s phone.  When all of a sudden…. a gush of fluid left my body and began trickling all over the blue carpet of the AT&T store.  My eyes were as big as dinner plates as I stared at Caleb and said “My water is breaking……  my water is breaking!”  His eyes also grew to the size of dinner plates as he stared back at me, clearly in disbelief.   Ok…. What to do… what to do?!  Panic, shock and excitement quickly set in.  I awkwardly shuffled to the bathroom to attempt to clean myself up.  Drat!  Of course someone would be in the restroom.  Ah-ha!  The men’s room!  Praise the Lord it was open.

Caleb hurried over to Andrew and said in a calm yet confused tone… “So… I think my wife’s water just broke...?!”  I’m willing to bet this had never happened in this particular AT&T store.

I called Caleb into the bathroom where we frantically shuffled through 4 phones to begin calling our parents.  Yes… we had 4 phones.  2 old and 2 new and none were “ready to go.”  My parents had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of them so we knew we had to call them first.  As Caleb called my dad, I attempted to clean myself up.  Yea right!  Some women’s water breaking is a trickle.  Mine was a gush.  And a gush that kept on gushing.....  the gift that kept on giving.... my cup runneth over!  
Don’t worry, I tried my best to clean up the floor before we made a mad rush for the exit.

We emerged from the bathroom and all the AT&T employees were huddle together staring at us as a few people squeaked out “Congratulations.”  Boy did we give them an exciting story to share when they went home!

It felt like the beginning of our daughter’s birth was right out of a movie.  To continue the movie-like story, we were about 2 minutes away from the hospital.  However, we had taken the wrong car.  We had to drive all the way back to the house to get my car which had the car seat in it.  We also had to grab our bags.  In my preparedness, I even had a garbage bag and a towel in my car just in case my water broke.  Too bad, we had Caleb’s car…..  still need to clean the passenger seat.

We rushed home feeling extreme excitement!  We were even laughing about it because we were juggling 4 phones as we read off phone numbers to each other since none of the phones had been properly synced.  It was quite the ridiculous moment but a funny one.

In all this madness, so many thoughts went through my mind.
“This isn’t false labor… this baby is coming and she is coming tonight!”
“No more waiting… this is it!”
“Oh no… work!  I only had 1 day training my replacement!”
“Oh… today was my last day of work at Trinity… no closure.”

But I can’t worry about that now.  I have a baby to deliver!   

Let’s do this.

You know you're pregnant when... Part 3

My pregnancy is coming to a close.  Very soon actually.  And it's bittersweet.  We are absolutely floored to meet our baby girl!  The excitement is growing more and more each day although I'm not sure how that is possible.  It's so fun for me to see Caleb's excitement.  Even he is nesting!  It's so cute :-)

While we are brimming over with excitement to meet her, there is a part of me that will miss being pregnant.  I have waited for years for this time.  I was/am so excited to be able to experience the feeling of another life growing within me.  I am overjoyed that the Lord allowed me to be able to experience the phenomenon and miracle that is pregnancy.

It's a unique time... that's for sure.  While pregnancy comes with many wonderful experiences, there are some other experiences that are... well... down right uncomfortable.  Each trimester has brought on new surprises and the 3rd trimester has been no exception.

1) I thought I had to go to the bathroom a lot in the 2nd trimester... HA!  I can easily go 6+ times from the time I go to sleep to the time I get up in the morning.  Remember... that is a span of 7 hours where I'm not even drinking anything during that time!  Maybe I should look into just wearing a diaper to bed to avoid having to get up....?  No?  Ok fine.

2) A good night's sleep becomes a distant memory.  I guess it's good practice huh?

3) Heartburn.  Owie :-(   Tums have been a lifesaver!

4) Pinching of the sciatic nerve.  Bigger owie! :-(

5) Fat ankles... ohhh the swelling.  My shoes don't fit well anymore!  On the flipside, I get to wear flip flops to work while I sit at my desk.  

6) Nesting.  The fun part!  Anxious, excitement and energy to clean and get things ready for the new bundle.

7) I feel practically worthless when it comes to doing any manual labor.  I can barely lift anything!  1) My belly is way bigger and just "in the way".  2) I've lost all abdominal muscle control.  3) My balance is way off.

8) Reality of labor sets in.... again.  Panic.  Terror. 

9) Experiencing people's reactions to my pregnant belly.  It's very interesting to watch people's reactions.  They look at my belly.  They try to make eye contact.  They give me a smile.  A smile that says "Awww... babies!" 

10) People I've never spoken to say the same thing almost every time... "When are you due?"  I tell them.  "Really?!  You're so small!"  Perhaps you mean this is a compliment... but what I'm hearing is "You're baby's not the right size!"  Ok ok... perhaps I'm being over sensitive.

11) Her movements are outta this world.  Seriously.  It's alien like.  To actually be able to see something stick out of your stomach and then move across your belly, is a weird sight.  Weird!  But so cool.

I'm not complaining.  Really.  I hope it doesn't come across that way.  I have loved being pregnant and will truly miss it.  But this is a season and this season is coming to a close very soon.  If I've learned anything during this pregnancy, it's been a true test of faith and trust in the Lord that He will keep our daughter healthy and deliver her safely to us.  It's been a struggle these 9 months.  But the Lord has been faithful and in my times of fear, He has answered prayer and continued to keep her safe.

We can't wait to meet you baby girl!