Being married to this man of mine is an adventure. Here is why: we find out when and where we are going to be moving 2 weeks before it happens! Thankfully this time we had a little bit more of a warning.
2 months.
Yeah...
So here we go. Noelle. What a sweet one she is.
We had this name picked out in 2011 when we were pregnant for the first time & our babies were due in December. We actually did not even have it solidified as the first name until Christmas Eve day when I started having contractions!
Let me back up.
I am not a fan of trying to get my body to do things faster or slower or any different than how it decides too.......................
BUT!!! Seeing as we had a flight set for January 7th AND my due date being December 27th AND remembering that Gwinna decided to come a whole week late made me reconsider a bit.
Membranes stripped.
It sounds awful and painful but ended up not being so. I went through it 3 times. Monday (Dec 23rd) was the last. I had read all of these lovely stories about how women get their membranes stripped and within hours they are in labor or holding their baby!
What?! Did not exactly go this way for me but I am very happy still.
The very next day I began having very irregular yet obvious contractions. Something that I love about having gone through labor once was knowing what to expect the second time, at least thinking I knew anyway.
I really still have no idea.
Christmas Eve Day. It was beautiful and slow.
Me & Gwinna did my pregnancy workout
(which I only did toward the end this time mind you. The Firm is "much betta.") Contractions SLOWED after the work out...is this odd? I will never know.
When Michael got home I let him know that the contractions were weird, yet real and he started his pacing :) So cute. He had let us (really talked me into) open a couple Christmas presents early and mine was Ree Drummond's new cook book! I baked him pumpkin pie from it and he proclaimed that Ree Drummond is not too bad after all!
He kept asking how far apart and when and how did I feel and told me to tell him when I was having one. I let him know and talked through them and mixed and baked through them. After I rolled my eyes for the millionth time at him he called Stephanie and I over heard him saying he called so he would not annoy me anymore:) Sweet boy.
Oh, somewhere in there I also decided to make a french toast bake for Christmas breakfast the next day so it would be easy to throw in the oven in the morning. I wanted this breakfast more than the pie!
After this and a little bit of Duck Dynasty (yes we jumped on that band wagon) Michael asked if he could give me a blessing before things got too crazy. Yes please. It was perfect. I remember him blessing me that when I was in labor that I could go deep inside my heart and mind and remember that Jesus Christ has felt what I have.
That would be my focus, and it was. I ended the night with reading "The Mansion."
Contractions continued through the night and mainly were incorporated into my dreams somehow. At around 1:20 they started to keep me awake. Every time I would get up to get water or go the bathroom they would get stronger but I would lay down and they would slow. This all continued until 5:45 when they got more painful all of the sudden...to the point where had Michael been awake I could not talk, had to focus.
He woke up around 6:40 and we headed to the living room. I got out A Christmas Carol and started to read. Why? No idea, I just felt the need to read all of our Christmas books before Christmas was over.
Michael got the oven going and came to take my book away, turn on the Christmas lights and Duck Dynasty. I said "oh we still have hours to go."
Famous last words.
It was around 7:15 when I went to the bathroom and could not stand back up. Thankfully Michael had already learned to recognize when my pain was crazy. He came in, said "we have to leave," heard my water break and said "yep, lets go." All I could breathe out was "yeah."
For less than 2 seconds he entertained the idea of possibly calling Shelly Mathie to watch Gwinna, then he saw my face....yeah....no.
He woke Gwinna up as kindly as he could, changed her diaper and clothes, threw on her shoes, grabbed my back pack and thankfully was not in too much of a panic to remind me to grab my purse with insurance info! Again with the word but really THANKFULLY the hospital was only 2 minutes away. I reclined against Gwinna's seat in the back, held her hand and breathed like those crazies that you see on TV! Fast and through my mouth! Who knew?! It actually helped A LOT!
(By the way I totally needed to push when I was in the bathroom...I did not tell Michael this until Noelle was in my arms to which he replied "I'm going to put you in so many UFC moves later!")
Christmas morning was very still, pretty and white.
The hospital was empty and Michael just left our car in front, hoping we would not be towed. There are railings lining the walls (how convenient) that I leaned on as we walked in. The nurse in front did not move quickly or look concerned. Everyone took their time until I was "checked." HA! Then it was chaos in the room and I forced my eyes shut so that I could "dig deeper" as my good friend Shaun T would put it. They hurried to put my IV in and get everything situated. I was already at a 10 and fully dilated. The next thing I heard was the doctor (my midwife never made it) asking me if I would rather tear or be cut. I did not have time nor energy to answer. (Uh no cutting thanks very much.) And then I heard her say "we never did get an answer..." After the 6th or 7th push there was a dark haired sweet baby girl on my chest!!!
I prayed and I pushed and I thought of my Savior and I looked over a couple of times to admire my first born (yes we brought Gwinna in and she was so perfect. Michael said she whined when I looked like I was in pain but did not cry at all) and the love of my life and then I just felt an awesome relief. It was only 8:10 AM when our little Christmas miracle arrived.
A perfect little 7lb 13oz dark baby girlfriend.
