Um...SURPRISE...we had a baby!

Guest post by Mom:

I don't even know where to start. Maybe with some final thoughts on pregnancy. I gave away the punchline by saying in the title that I'm no longer pregnant, but, man, I am still coming to grips with it!

This picture was taken at about 35 weeks. I was teaching my full schedule still minus a kickboxing class that I picked up in the summer. I've felt really strong this pregnancy. I was lifting fairly heavy still although every now and then I had to pull back on my leg tracks, but really I was good.

I kept feeling like I was farther along in my pregnancy than I was. I was feeling about two weeks ahead. I couldn't tell if that was just wishful thinking or what. I was certain of my dates. There really wasn't anyway that they were wrong. I had measured absolutely normal. My Braxton-Hicks contractions though were pretty present. I had contractions each and every day, but that wasn't really unusual.

Friday, the 23rd, I was at the gym working on my squats for birthing and cardio and I had a lot of people commenting that I looked ready to pop that baby out. I had to laugh and tell them that I could have at least FOUR weeks left. I was just 36 weeks.

Saturday, the 24th, we went to Staheli Farm as a family and we managed to snap this unflattering photo of me. I had NO idea this would be the last picture of me pregnant. None. Not an inkling. I was tired. I had spent the morning at a planning meeting and then soccer games and then the farm. My legs were aching and I was tired but not unusually so.

Sunday, the 25th, dawned and we spent a fun morning snuggling in bed with our girls. Siena wasn't feeling great so we left her in bed and took the other girls on a walk with the dogs. One of the great benefits of 1pm church and cooler weather. We only did a mile and as we walked back into our cul-de-sac, I looked at Pete and told him that I was back to feeling like I might be pregnant until the 20th. I wasn't going to go early. I just felt comfy pregnant.

We came back into the house and I pulled up a Youtube yoga video for preparing for birth. It wasn't anything special mostly just some poses that might help during labor. I had two contractions during it that really had some bite to it. I was surprised, but some of my Braxton Hicks had really started to pack a wallup over the last two weeks so it didn't concern me.

At about 10:30 am, I decided to hop into the shower. I was supposed to be preparing my first sharing time for church and I was kind of excited. And now for a little TMI, I went to the bathroom right before, like you do, and noticed just a little bit of "bloody show", but just the tiniest amount. It got me excited, but I decided to not tell Pete about it. I really wasn't feeling different and I figured that it meant I had about a week left. Besides, it was a really small amount and I was used to it only getting more copious the closer I got to labor. I had another contraction in the shower and let the hot water kind of help me through it. Can I just say that maybe I should have noticed that I needed a coping mechanism? I didn't. I thought it was another strong Braxton-Hicks. I got out of the shower and started to go about getting ready. The contractions kind of hung around. At about 11 or 11:30, I finally mentioned to Pete that I was having contractions that were painful and I thought I needed to lay down and take it easy. I assumed, again, that I was just having "false labor". I had a big drink of water, tried lying down on the bed intermittently, but I would still get the random contraction. Pete was really noticing that I was having to breathe through them and would ask me if I thought we were going to have a baby today. I was SURE I would NOT be having a baby today, but that I was in the most torturous form of false labor.

At about 12:30, I had showered and dressed the girlies for church, but I decided that I wouldn't go to sacrament meeting at 1 pm. I was afraid the contractions would crop up and I wouldn't be able to keep my cool sitting in public. I tried timing them, but they felt really inconsistent in both duration and spacing. I decided to have Pete just stay home with me because I kind of wanted him to rub my back. It felt nice to have him close and kind of apply pressure to places. (AGAIN...HELLO! Does that sound like labor to anyone?!)

Once sacrament meeting had officially started, I realized that the contractions were NOT calming down. I was kind of running into the bathroom every 15 minutes and always having business but there was no additional discharge which made me feel like I wasn't dilating at all. I did, however, decide to text my Primary President and tell her there was no way I could make it to teach sharing time and that I was so sorry. I felt awful, but really I was not going to manage that. I had Pete give me a blessing at about 1:30 to either know I was in labor or that these dang Braxton-Hicks contractions that were really starting to hurt would JUST GO AWAY!!!

Bless his soul, my husband. He was PERFECT during this whole thing. He had made the decision that if the contractions weren't gone by 1:45 pm, he was going to get the girls to my sister's and take me to the hospital to get checked. I was a bit grumpy about it, but at about 1:44 pm I started to give in. I wavered on who to call though. My parents would be done with church at 2 pm and maybe Becca, my other sister, would be better because she was done with church. Pete had already dialed up Angie though and had made arrangements. He packed up the girls and then asked if I would be okay while he ran up the block to drop them off. I thought it was funny and annoying that he didn't think I could last on my own for FIVE minutes. Boy, did he have my number pegged. While he was gone, I had TWO contractions that dropped me. I begrudgingly threw a nursing bra and deodorant into my purse and kind of moaned and then started growling through a contraction. It had finally dawned on me that if I WAS in actual labor, growling and being loud made me feel better! I was pretty mentally discouraged though because I really had NO idea how dilated I was and I was dying. I had never been checked. I was only 36 weeks and 2 days for crying out loud. I was terrified that I was going to find out I was only at a 5. In fact, despite originally wanting to be in the birth suite which was just like a birthing center, I had decided to ask for the epidural upon walking through the doors.

Pete opened the door from the garage and found me standing directly in front of him with a face that clearly said that I was discouraged/frustrated/tired and generally not okay. I kind of threw my purse at him and he went to help me in the car. I had another contraction and made noise which kind of surprised him, but also I think excited him. He knew right then that we were having a baby today. I still didn't. In fact, as we started to drive, I completely relaxed. It felt great. I thought to myself, oh maybe these will calm down! Nope, two minutes later while he was talking to Angie on the phone I had another contraction and it was impossible to keep quiet. Angie heard me over the phone and was really surprised. She was like me. She didn't think I was really in labor either. Until she heard me. Ha! I had another contraction in the 7 minute drive to the hospital. We pulled up to the doors and I got out of the car kind of slowly. I just had this overwhelming feeling that any physical effort on my part was going to bring another monstrous contraction. We got to the curb and I had another one. This time because we were out in the open. I grabbed Pete's hand and took a knee and just tried to breathe. As I looked up at the doors, I just didn't have the energy to stand so I started to crawl towards the door. Pete offered to carry me, but I found the gumption to stand. Do you think I thought I was in labor now? You'd be wrong. I didn't really. I had no mental energy to even contemplate it!

I was pretty much zoning out in between the contractions at this point. I didn't look around. I just kind of trudged forward. As we entered the labor ward, my good friend and another doctor at the practice I go to was walking out. Dr. Spanos looked at me and started laughing and said "Well hey there, Sheri! It looks like you're in labor!" To which I responded, "If I'm not, it is the meanest false labor EVER."

We got to the desk and started answering standard questions. They were quite surprised to hear I was 36 weeks and had never been checked but something about the way I was moving and responding told them that I didn't even need to be evaluated. They put me in a wheelchair and got me in a room quickly. I recognize that this is already a VERY long post. I'm amazed that you are still reading. It's almost at it's end. I got in the room, kicked off my shoes, headed into the bathroom to disrobe and put on their gown. While I was in there, I decided to use the toilet. The nurses kind of scolded me and told me not to push my baby out in there. To which, I half heartedly laughed and said I know. I think I must have had a contraction though and made some noise because there was suddenly a flurry of activity and I had a nurse trying to pacify me while checking me as I stood over the toilet. She kept saying she just wanted to make sure there wasn't a baby's head right there. She and I were in for a bit of a surprise when she did indeed feel a baby's head and I was fully complete. She also told me that my water had broken and asked if I knew when that happened. I suddenly realized that I had just heard that happen moment's before. There was a little pop but I hadn't felt any fluid. Turns out, my baby had just plopped down and plugged the entrance!

It took two nurses kind of pulling me and coaxing me onto the bed in the room because I said I couldn't move or didn't want to move from the toilet. My doctor didn't even have time to get there. They pulled in the hospitalist and I got on the bed and with my next contraction pushed and one more contraction and out came our babe. There was a huge GUSH of fluid behind the body that soaked the doctor.

As the body became visible, Pete was able to tell me that we got our little boy! I was in such shock. I couldn't believe I had just had a baby AND it was a boy. The nurses told me that I had been at the hospital for a whole six minutes. I hadn't signed a single piece of paper for consent for anything until after it had all happened. No IV, no blood pressure check before, nothing. They called me a "stop and drop." It was all very exciting. The labor floor was also already pretty hopping anyway.

It took them a few minutes to bring me back our baby as they tried to get him to breathe, he was kind of retracting and grunting and they were trying to decide if skin to skin would work or if he needed more help since he was technically pre term. Skin to skin won and I sat with him tucked into me while my doctor showed up and delivered my placenta which had TWO lobes which is kind of unusual. Again slightly TMI. Sorry.

Pete and I sat together and looked at our son and just kind of tried to wrap our head around it. He was born at 2:24 pm and 6 lbs 9 oz, 19 inches long. A fine size baby, but holy cow. He was HERE. Today. In October and NOT November. We spun for quite awhile.

The best part is that we had long decided that if we could, we wanted to surprise everybody that we had a baby and that worked out PERFECTLY. Angie had not told anyone where we were. So we sent out a text to my family that said we couldn't make Sunday night bingo with a picture of our new babe. They were freaking out because we didn't specify if it was a boy or girl in the initial text. We made them bring our girls to us and let us tell them first. 

To say everyone was stunned would be an understatement. It's still so crazy. It took us a day to actually pick his name and the girls really made the decision. We waffled between Paul and Samuel. The girls were adamant that Samuel was the name because of the Book of Mormon prophet Samuel the Lamanite. We tried to point out that Paul was a famous apostle, but their response was "But Samuel was a PROPHET." Adorable.

They are smitten. We are smitten. We are a family of six. Samuel Miles Romney, welcome home!