Easier said than done

One would think that breathing is natural. So why is it that when you need to breath the most it seems impossible? Take deep breaths. In through the nose, out through you mouth. Easy right? NOT! Friday May 28th started out like any other day. I wake up, go to the bathroom, get Lilly up, feed her, do the dishes, take shower and so on. With no real plans for the day, playgroup being canceled because of different schedules, I decided it was a great day to clean the house and do all the laundry, because you just never know when you might "pop".

Around noon I lost my plug and a little concerned since this never happened with Lilly I quickly alerted Ziff and we looked up what exactly this meant. According to online it meant pretty much nothing. A little disappointed, but not really to surprised, we went about the rest of our day. Ziff went to class and I continued with the house work and even took a little nap while Lilly napped. Evening came and we decided to go for a walk. It was so hot though we had to give up and go inside. After Lilly went to bed I decided to shower and get into my comfy pj's. It only being 8:30 I decided it was to early for bed and we settled on watching some Friends episodes. At 8:46 I noticed a contraction and it was kind of painful. At 8:52...same thing. At 8:58 again and then nothing till 9:23. Ziff asked if I was in labor and I responded "nah don't worry about it, they don't seem to be consistent...it's probably a false alarm." I had a few more random, but intense contrationss and then around 9:50 I stood up to go to the bathroom and BAM a huge, painful, stop you in your tracks contraction. And then when I got to the bathroom another...and 2 minutes later another. Ziff was in the shower and I told him that this was it I think we were actually in labor. I started to gather all my last minute things in between the contractions, which there really wasn't much time at all in between them, my guess was maybe 2 minutes.
We called our friends from church to ask if they could come over to be with Lilly, rather than wake her up to take her somewhere, but after calling twice with no answer and me ready to kill someone, we call our good friend Stacey. The first time she didn't answer and I was was in tears not knowing what we were going to do with Lilly, but I decided to try calling again and she finally answered and immediately she knew what was going on and said she would meet us at the hospital right away. We all loaded into the car and I held on for my life as each contraction threatened the arrival of a baby. I turned to Ziff at a red light still knowing we had 6 blocks to go and said "I don't think this baby is going to wait". He looked at me with worry stricken all over his face. We got to the hospital the same time as Stacey and she quickly whisked Lilly away, assuring her mommy was okay and that her baby brother was on his way.

I told Ziff I was okay to walk myself in to the ER, but about halfway there I decided I would take his offer of a wheelchair. Once inside the hospital they wasted no time getting me up to the 3rd floor. They quickly took my name and weight and then It was off to get me into a room. My room immediately filled with people. I think at one point there were 6 or 7 nurses running around prepping things because they knew there was not a minute to waste. By this time the contractions were so strong and so frequent I had no time to rest in between them.One nurse quickly got an IV inserted into my arm while another nurse checked me and said I was at a 7 with a small lip of cervix left. 10 minutes later I told her I needed to push right now and she said no you can't do that you need to just breathe. So that's what I tried to do. Breathe. In through my nose out through my mouth, whoo whoo whoo whoo.... In through my nose out through my mouth, whoo whoo whoo AHHHHHHHH! It lasted all of one contraction and then I told her again I need to push now and then I did.

My midwife walked in right as I started pushing. Later she told us that she had just left the hospital minutes before we came in and had just pulled into her driveway. She got there just in time, passing the "fill in" doctor as she came in to our room. First push. Water breaks. Second push. Third push...loud scream (there was no time for pain killers) 4th push loud scream again and BAM out he came. After saying hello to him and giving him his first hug, they whisked him off to clean him up and check him out. It was so fast that Ziff and I were still in a daze trying to comprehend what had just happened, but nonetheless our baby boy was finally here and we were both so happy and relieved.