A Year Ago Today (part 1)

I went into labor on my own in the afternoon! I remember everyone calling me that day, seeing if I was still pregnant (you know how they always do that toward the end) and I started to notice I was having some actual contractions. I began to count how many contractions I'd have & then do the math based on how long I'd been on the phone. I could see that the contractions were getting closer together. They never hurt, but they were intense. Bryn insisted I call the doctor, although I didn't think it was necessary just yet. To appease him, I called the OB & much to my surprise, they told me to hurry up & get to the hospital since it was my 4th baby & she could come quickly. I called Bryn (he was still taking the bus to work downtown since we both assumed I'd be induced as I was the other 3 times...and therein lay our mistake) & he said he'd hop on the next available bus. I called my mom to alert her to the situation. She was in the middle of a walk, not real close to her home. No worries. An hour later they both arrived & off we went to the hospital...where I was still only 1cm dilated! We walked the halls for an hour & nothing changed...for either one of us!;)

I was sent home with contractions coming every 2 minutes. We were home for all of 10 minutes when my water broke with a giant contraction. We had to call my mom to come back, had to ask a neighbor to watch the other kids until my mom returned & back to the hospital we went. I recall the contractions being quite intense by this time--I could've made a sailor blush at some points. On the flip side, Bryn was driving like I'd never witnessed before! (I suppose he had some fears about the fact that my contractions were now one minute apart. After all, you don't want to give birth in a high quality car like our hamster-powered Saturn!) We actually belonged in the fast lane that night as we whizzed by other cars.

We arrived at the hospital & pulled up to the emergency entrance. As I sat in the wheelchair Bryn had dragged carside, I completely forgot about any pain I was feeling from the contractions. Who needs an epidural when your husband tries over & over to push your wheelchair up the lip of a curb without any success?! (In his defense, I DID weigh an extra 50 pounds & was no longer the feather-light bride he had married 8 & 1/2 years earlier.) Around the time the ER security guard was walking out to assist him, Bryn, with a final burst of energy & strength, made it over that hurdle & we were granted access into the hospital!

By the time I finally got back up to the labor & delivery floor, I was dilated to 4cm. Got my epidural & within minutes, the baby's heartrate plummeted with each contraction . Of all my kids, it was the least "enjoyable" labor because I was so worried about the baby & why this was going on (turned out her cord was around her neck). On 12/14/06 at 1:49am, I got the green light to push, and at 1:51 Kaitlyn Elaine was born. It took exactly 118 minutes LESS to birth my 4th child compared to my 1st & for that I am forever grateful! (So was the on-call doctor!)

It's fun to look back & reflect...but it's really weird NOT being pregnant again around my child's first birthday like I was almost every other time!;) So tomorrow I will say goodbye to the baby days forever & hello to life with a toddler as my youngest. There are 2 ways to look at it--I can be nostalgic & sad, which is not always a bad thing, or I can be happy & look to all the things in the future that we'll get to do together as a family that we couldn't do as easily with small kids. I'll take choice number two!:) Happy early birthday, Katie! We love you!