My disclaimer for this post...this is documented more for me than anything else.
Finally one of my children decided to enter the world on their own accord. I was induced with Payton and went 'in' with Charley after going to the doctor and discovering I was already at a 5. This time however I actually went into labor on my own. Meaning I woke up in the morning not knowing we were or were potentially going to have a baby that day. This was one of the things I prayed would happen. God is good. :)
It all started at about 5:30 am on December 30th. I woke up to a contraction which isn't unusual especially because I had had a lot of water that night and when the bladder is full contraction are more common so I really thought nothing of it. However, I was woken up 4 to 5 more times from 5:30 to 8:30 which is unusual. At 8:20ish my kiddos woke up. Bryan got up with them so I jumped in the shower. I was still having contraction but with my other two kids I had contractions a few days before they were born which lasted a short amount of time and never amounted to anything...meaning I was never in labor. So I didn't say anything to Bryan and he went off to work. Around 9 am, after timing contractions and having them about 7 minutes apart with increasing intensity, I decided I should call Bryan and give him a 'heads-up' that we might be having a baby.
The conversation went a little like this...me, 'Hello, what are you doing today?' Bryan, 'Nothing. We're having a baby aren't we?' me, 'I think so'. It was ironic because just the night before he had said how weird it would be to not 'know' when we were going to have a baby. We had somewhat of an idea with both Payton & Charley. Seeing as my next appointment was set of Tuesday January 3 we both figured that we would have a baby then.
I didn't just want to head to the hospital without really knowing if I was in actual labor or not so I called my doctors office. They were super busy because a lot of the physicians had taken vacation due to the holiday so they said I might have to go up to Boven (Holland Hospital) to get checked but they wanted to call the on-call doc first...which I knew was my own doctor. It took them about a half hour to call me back but finally did a little after 10 am. They were able to get me into the office at 10:30. I called Bryan back and he came home to watch the kids. I put my bags in the car because I didn't want anything forgotten if I had to go in and just call Bryan to meet me at the hospital. (My doctor's office is right across the street from the hospital so I if I was in labor I didn't think I would go all the way home then come back mainly because I knew I would need 4 hours of antibiotics because I again had Strep B.)
I waited in the office waiting room for a half hour with almost every seat full...not a very comfortable situation when you are having contractions every few minutes. I just wanted to get back into a room. I felt like the contractions had slowed but it might have been the situation where I was so tense that I just didn't notice them as much. When I finally got into a room I waited a few more minutes to see my doctor and when she checked me she said I was a 5 almost 6 and that I needed to head across the street. Very surreal moment for me because it was a surprise...it was great. I called my mom and asked her if she would watch the kids, which of course I knew she would. :) Then I called Bryan and told him to meet me at the hospital.
It felt a little strange getting out of the car with all my bags being 9 months pregnant by myself. People just knew why I was there and probably were wondering why I was alone but whatever.
I checked in at the nurses station and they got me to a room...a great room by the way...if you are having a baby at Holland Hospital room 107 is great, it has 2 windows! Score! Anyway, I got all the technical stuff taken care of and Bryan showed up at about 12 and I started my antibiotic at 12:20. From there we just sat around and played the waiting game. My contractions were there but they weren't too painful. Around 2 my doctor came in again and said I should walk around for a while just to get my contractions more steady. At this point I thought she would check me but she didn't want to accidentally break my water and have labor go so fast I wouldn't get my full 4 hours of antibiotics.
So I began to walk. I didn't want to walk the halls, I find that super uncomfortable and weird for those visiting people (sorry to those who have done it :) I paced my room basically then went to the kitchen with Bryan once to get water but went straight back to my room. This made the contractions more prevalent but again, nothing too bad. At 3 I did decide that I wanted an epidural. I figured I could handle the pain for a while longer but why...plus I did knew it was busy on the floor and did not want to get to a point that it was unbearable then have to wait. So at 3:30 we started that process and by 4 the anesthesiologist was leaving the room and my legs were starting to go numb. Such a great feeling. :) It was a lot less painful then I remember it being with Charley. I was actually feeling contractions this time so it didn't seem that bad. They were now comfortable checking me because we were about 20 minutes away from the 4 hour mark. At 4:10 the nurse checked me and said, "I don't feel a cervix" to which I said, "what do you mean?" to which she smiled and said, "your complete". I was not expecting to hear that! I chuckled and turned to Bryan and said, "Do we get a discount on the epidural if we don't use it all?" My doctor came in at 4:15 to check for herself but said that baby was still at a -1 station so she wanted to wait just for a bit for baby to drop down further. She said she was going to head back to the office and she would be back in about 45 minutes to and hour to check again. About 15 minutes after she left I called the nurse to tell her I felt a lot of pressure and was sure baby had dropped. Sure enough, baby was ready. It was 5 by the time Dr. G. was back in the room. They got everything set up and ready to go and about 5:07 I start pushed three times through one contraction and he was born at 5:08 pm. Honest to goodness truth it was super smooth. I feel super blessed to have had such great experiences with all the births of my children. Each one different but each one wonderful in their own way.
Curiosity killed the cat with this one too and I just had to have a mirror. I am so glad I did. I am however glad I did not have one with Payton or even with Charley due to some tearing issues I had with both of them. (Sorry, I know that might be a little graphic but like I said, this post is mainly for me :)
Bryan was again the one to tell me gender, this time there were no hands in the way and he was able to say it right away, "It's a BOY"! I get teary just thinking about it. There is nothing like holding your brand new baby for the very first time...nothing in the world like it! Best thing ever!!
They let me hold him for a really long time which I loved and when they finally took him to be weighed and such our nurse moved the stuff close to my bed so I could be a part of it all. He weighed in at a whopping 8 lb 7 oz. Biggest of all my kiddos but I would not have guessed because he felt so tiny in my arms. After all that was done it was time to name him. :) We came to the hospital with a girl name and two potential boy names. I needed to see his face closer to decide. Bryan of course jumps on his computer and starts to search the social security website for new ideas...silly boy. Around 6 pm we decided he was Grant Michael Myrick. We could then call family and tell them he was here. Well, we could call our family and tell them a baby was here. We decided to keep gender a surprise until they came to the hospital to see him.
Payton & Charley came up first of course. (Aunt Jamie was with them and brought them up around 7:20 pm) Payton was excited to meet her new sibling and came running into the room. Grant was in his bassenet and didn't have any blue/pink on to indicate his gender I told her that was our new baby and asked if she thought it was a sister baby or brother baby. She said sister baby but when I told her it was another brother baby she was just as happy. I thought she might be a little disappointed it was another brother but she wasn't she just wanted to hold him. Charley couldn't have cared less about anything. He was just his sweet carefree self. :)
The rest of our family came up and Payton got to tell them all she had a new baby brother and that is name was Grant Michael.
We feel so very, very blessed to have three healthy children. Even though Grant was less then planned, for us, he is a true gift and we are so thankful God has brought him into our family. We can not wait to see what is in store for our family of 5.
God is so very good.
I have been a mommy of three for three & a half weeks now. The most common question I get, 'how is it going?' Well, it has been an adjustment I am not going to lie but it is going good.
