Wednesday Justin and I had a good evening together. Everyone went to bed peaceful and I wasn’t planning on baby making her debut right away.
That night I would get comfortable, drift to sleep, only to be awaken every 40 minutes or so due to discomfort caused by contractions and cramping. I went to the bathroom several times. As we got closer to dawn I noticed that contractions were taking on a pattern and I had some other signs of labor. I told Justin at 6 that morning that we would probably be having a baby that day and to cancel his classes. We were both excited.
Contractions kept coming, they weren’t picking up speed but were regular. I texted my mom to let her know. She came over 45 minutes later to pick up the girls. My contractions had slowed down and so I felt bad having her take the girls. She insisted though.
By 9 am contractions had stopped. I felt ridiculous for asking Justin to stay home. I was tired from the restless evening and decided to lay down and try to rest. I also gave Annie a call to ask if I could use her herb drops for labor prep to see if those could get things going again.
Annie obliged and Justin met her in Ontario to pick them up. I rested for a bit, but still nothing was really happening. When he got back I did the first round of drops and then we decided to go for a walk to see if that did anything for my body.
The walk was beautiful and calm. I had four contractions. A couple long and a couple short. Still not a consistent pattern. I had a few more signs of labor upon returning, which I thought was good, but was still unsure what my body was doing.
We ate some lunch when we got back and I took some more herb drops to see if they would work. After lunch I had Justin blow up our exercise ball to sit on while watching a movie. As I did this contractions started to come. The duration was inconsistent, but the spacing was growing more reliable. This went on for about an hour or two. We watched Armageddon to pass the time.
Just before 2:30 I had a pretty strong long contraction and decided it would be ok to go to the hospital. The drive wasn’t too bad and I was just worried that labor was stopping once again. I had a few more contractions heading up to the third floor.
When we got there our nurse Amy showed us right to a room and had me change into a gown. She checked me and I was at a 5 and 90% thinned. She went to call Raquel and see if I was to be admitted.
When she came back she said Raquel would come break my water and we could have a baby right away, or we could wait and see what my body does for laboring. She also asked if I wanted an epidural. I said possibly and then briefly tried to talk it over with Justin. He tried to encourage me to wait as I had birthed Natalie and Jenna naturally. I was very nervous at the thought of having my water broke as I knew things would get intense very quickly. I said that I did want the epidural and the nurse moved forward from there.
Contractions continued coming. They had a hard time getting an IV in my arm as I think I was dehydrated. The anesthesiologist was able to get one going in my mid arm. We then moved forward with the epidural placement. It was a challenge to hold still with contractions, but Amy my nurse was very helpful during this. She had me curl into her while it was placed. Once he was done I started to feel some relief. My legs were tingly, but I could still feel them enough to move them.
It was strange to be in labor but have relief. The nurses and anesthesiologist chatted a lot with Justin. While having heavy contractions I was a little irritated by this as he was trying to help me. He ended up getting a possible new student for his program out of the labor room. One of the nurses sons has been trying to figure out how he can take one of Justin’s classes. After the epidural kicked in I wasn’t so bothered by all the conversation.
It was very nice to be able to lay back and relax for a little bit. Raquel came in shortly after and checked me. I was all but dialated. She said she was going to let my body finish doing what it needed to while she charted. About 10 minutes later I felt like I could push. Raquel came back in and I started to push. It took about 5 different contractions to push her out. I was able to feel her descend down and as soon as she came out I was overcome with emotion of joy, wonder and gratitude. As they laid her on my chest she was still blue and covered with vernix and so so beautiful! It was amazing to see this little girl who I had felt inside of me for so long. Her head full of dark brown hair was breathtaking.
She made a small little cry and then was quite calm. Her birth time was 4:43 pm. We spent the next while holding and adoring her. She had 10 perfect long fingers and 10 perfect little toes. She was born with a small skin tag on her right pinky. The pediatrician tied it off with a string to cause it to fall off in a few days. Jenna called this the string on her babies finger that looks like a butterfly. She loved observing it.
We had decided about a month before she was born that Beth Nicole was a beautiful name we could agree on. Beth is short and timeless and Nicole after our good friend in Sandy Oregon. She is a very good woman and has shown us much kindness in our time as friends.
After snuggling her for a while our nurse weighed and measured her. 8lbs 6 oz, 20 inches long and 13 1/2 in head. She was about 1 lb larger than her sisters.
They gave her back to me and she went right to nursing. We spent probably another 45 minutes- hour in the delivery room before moving to the recovery room. By this time my epidural had worn off enough I was able to walk.
While Beth is definitely a Blazzard by looks, her birth experience was very different from my other two girls. Some of these differences include; her birthday is all even numbers and the girls are all odds, during the pregnancy we started with twins and lost one, had awful morning sickness, first time I took medicine for the morning sickness, sciatica nerve pain from twenty weeks on and had a terrible kidney infection at thirty weeks. I had a doctor tell me early on the third baby always is. I have learned much from it and so grateful it all went well and she is here safe with us. We love her!
There were a few different times I wasn’t sure what the outcome was going to be. Learning to trust and be patient has been part of this experience. Heavenly Father loves us and I am grateful to be able to be an active participant in His Plan of Salvation of creating families.
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