To set the scene: my due date, Friday 7 /12, came and went and our little family got to have one last fun weekend together, just the 4 of us - details to bring you up to speed are over on my 40-week bumpdate (and all previous bumpdates can be found here).
Fast-forward to Monday, 7/15. THE day. At this point, Evelyn was a fully cooked babe & momma was 40 weeks & 3 days pregnant. I'd been having light contractions throughout the weekend, but nothing consistent or too strong. I was expecting this Monday to be one of my last days of work (though I was planning on doing said work from home) & after work had an afternoon full of last minute appointments planned: a manicure at MiniLuxe, an adjustment at my chiropractor, an appointment with my new/backup OB (if you've been following along you know my original OB was out of town on vacation at this point) for a second membrane sweep, and then a few little errands like returning library books and stopping by Trader Joe's for some of their amazing trail mix (have you had this? If not you've got to try it! Seriously the best!).
Well, as you can probably guess, none of those things ended up happening.
6am
My alarm went off, as usual. I snoozed it and then about 10 minutes later, sleepily rolled over to get out of bed. As I was rolling over I felt a light pop, which jolted me awake. What was that? I jumped up quickly & sure enough, my water broke.
{And thankfully, the jumping up "quickly" part helped save our bed!}
My water broke at home with both previous kiddos, but each time was different. With Arden (I was 40 weeks + 3 days), it broke late at night and I had zero contractions for a long time. With Turner (I was 40 weeks + 5 days), it broke after about 3 hours of laboring at home with increasingly regular contractions.
615am
I woke Taylor up and broke the news to him. He jumped out of bed and we started trying to make a plan: he'd take the kids in to daycare and then come back and we'd see how things were going. As I was getting dressed, I realized there were a handful of things missing from my hospital bag - things that I'd been wearing recently, plus things I use regularly like my hair dryer, etc. I started gathering the missing items and simultaneously noticed that the contractions were starting to be...noticeable. Taylor took a fast shower (I showered the night before, talk about good timing!), and since I was starting to feel contractions, he decided the kids would skip breakfast at home and just eat at school to save some time. He got them up and dressed, and I continued to pack my bag.
630am
Contractions started, but they were fairly light and pretty far apart.
I decided to throw in a load of laundry.
645am
Though it was early, I decided to call our doula, the amazing Laura Fortner (with NDDA) and let her know what was going on. You've got to call your doula when your water breaks!! I can't tell you what a comfort it is to have someone you can call and ask "what do we do now!?" I know, this is our third baby, we should know exactly what to do, right? Wrong. In the moment you don't. We were a bit flustered and even though I was overdue it was still unexpected and so it was incredibly reassuring to have someone guide us on what to do next.
Laura and I talked for a few minutes and put together a plan. The contractions weren't bad yet during our conversation so she told me to wait a bit to start timing them and reminded me which app to download (whoops - should have done this earlier!). She also told me to have a good breakfast, lots of protein & cabs, to get my body ready and powered up for labor day.
7am
Taylor had the kids ready to go to school and I gave them both hugs and kisses. At this point I realized the contractions were getting a little stronger, so I asked him to just bring the kids to Pops & Gigi's house instead of all the way to school (about 6-10 minutes away instead of 15-20 minutes away). This ended up being a really good call.
Pops & Gigi were out on a morning walk, but headed straight back home when Taylor told them he was coming over with the kids for a very fast drop-off. He passed the kiddos off quickly and then rushed back home.
Meanwhile, the contractions were getting a little intense, so it was taking me a while to move around the house to finish getting things ready for us to go. With each contraction I pretty much had to stop where I was, get through it, and then I could continue with what I was doing. When Taylor rushed back inside the house, I was on my way from the laundry room (again with the laundry!) to our bedroom, but had only made halfway and ended up in a ball at the bottom of our staircase. He had left the car running in the driveway and had intended to just get me and go, but I told him we need to have breakfast first. He looked at me and was very, very skeptical, but went ahead and made us both toast and made me tea to go in my yeti. This is still something that makes us chuckle because in his mind I was absolutely crazy for not immediately leaving...and I was kind of in denial about how quickly labor was coming on.
730am
I called Laura again and together we decided that Taylor and I should go ahead and make the drive into Dallas, and go to the NDDA office where we could stay and labor before going in to the hospital (their office is specifically set up for that!). Laura lives on the opposite side of town from us, and has small kiddos of her own (& not to mention that it was early in the morning!), so she was trying to make sure she could somehow get her kiddos up and ready and off to camp and get herself to Dallas, all during morning traffic. Doulas are heroes, let me tell you.
Again, this is a point where Taylor and I look back and laugh at because we had such different perspectives of what was going on. Taylor was thinking we needed to go immediately to the hospital. I was thinking that I wanted to stay out of the hospital as long as possible and labor elsewhere (Laura and I had discussed this weeks before during a birth-planning session, so she knew what I was trying to accomplish).
My experience with Arden was that we rushed to the hospital, very late at night, and then my labor stalled and we spent 19 hours trying one thing after the next to get my labor going and I still ended up with an epidural. With Turner I got to labor at home until the very end and his birth was very different (again, his birth story is here).
740am
We start timing the contractions because they seem to be speeding up a bit, which makes it slightly hard to get into the car (because remember, I pretty much need to stop in place during each contraction), but we make it.
Contractions are about 7 minutes apart & 2 minutes long.
{General rule of thumb: The 511 Rule: if your contractions are 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute each, and continue in that pattern for 1 hour, you are ready to head for the hospital}
745am
We leave our house...right into the middle of Monday morning rush hour traffic.
Whomp whomp.
8am
So now contractions are now about 5 minutes apart and just under 2 minutes long, and as we're realizing that traffic is kind of bad, we call Laura again and together decide that the best thing to do is to go straight to the hospital instead of to the NDDA office.
I only remember a few things from the drive because I faded in and out for most of it. When a contraction would start I pretty much couldn't open my eyes and just squeezed Taylor's hand. I need to take a second a brag on my husband - he handled every single part of this morning like an absolute superman. He handled the kids, packed ALL of our stuff in the car, stayed cool under pressure, managed to both placate me (he made us breakfast, remember? Side note: I tried to eat the toast in the car but couldn't get past 1 bite!) but also got us going towards the hospital. Besides letting me death grip his hand the entire drive (and literally the entire time I was in labor up until Evelyn was born), he coached me through the contractions and that was SO incredibly helpful. Hearing words of affirmation like "you can do this," "you've got this," "breath through this one," are amazingly powerful.
One funny memory from the drive in: we were in particularly slow traffic and I opened my eyes between a set of contractions and saw a police car on the side of the road. My first thought was: "we probably need to flag him down because we need an escort into Dallas because we really may not make it." It cracks me up now, but definitely tells you how fast labor was coming on in the moment!
And just in case you're wanting a spoiler: we did NOT have a baby in the car ;) We made it to the hospital.
810am
We tried to call my OB's office to let them know we were going to the hospital, but since it was before office hours we got the automated answering service, and between navigating the traffic and both of us dealing with the contractions, we made two attempts to get through to the doctor on call but ultimately gave up as we got closer to Baylor Hospital.
Contractions were now about 4 minutes apart, lasting 1.5 minutes long.
830am
We arrived at Baylor!
Taylor found a parking spot in the L&D drop-off area.
Between contractions (we stopped timing them at this point), we made out way inside slowly (very reminiscent of how we walked into the hospital with Turner!). We went straight to L&D, but since no one had called them and told them we were coming (because we never got ahold of my OB's office), we were sent across the hall to triage.
Triage, lovely triage. Such an important department but so very far from L&D - okay it's not actually that far, just across the hall, but it felt miles away in the midst of the now very fast and painful contractions.
The good thing is, two weeks prior we had been to triage so we were actually familiar with where it was and what they were going to do.
We get to the triage window aaaaand no one was there. Taylor eventually flags someone down and they give him a stack of paperwork to fill out - he politely gives them the rundown of how far along I am, when my water broke, etc., and tells them the paperwork needs to wait. They politely tell him it needs to be filled out. He tells them that as soon as he gets his hand back from my death grip, that he'll do it. They eventually give in and usher me over to a bed, and between contractions I manage to get into a gown. The nurse checks me, determines that I'm 8cm dilated, and immediately, with me still on the bed, they whisk us back over to L&D.
845am
Laura arrives at the hospital!
We learn that my OB, Dr. Littrell, is stuck in traffic.
Dr. Gunby, also from my OB's practice, was on call and at the hospital, so he immediately gets called in.
The nurses check me again and now I'm 10cm dilated (!!)
9am
We go through a few more contractions and I'll skip most of the details, but here are a few specific memories that stood out to me:
-We had an absolutely amazing nurse, Hope. Between her, Laura, and Taylor, I had the most amazing coaches to get me through those last contractions. So many words of affirmation and guidance. I seriously can't imagine getting through those last few minutes without them.
-At one point I hear Dr. Gunby say: "eh it's going to be a while" - which let me tell you is totally depressing right in the middle of labor!! But immediately Laura, Hope, and even the resident in the room all start exclaiming "no! no! we're almost there!" which helped keep me feeling encouraged. (And now in retrospect I know what he meant - he's delivered SO many babies...he has a handle on timing!)
-One of the few times I opened my eyes
-Right as she was born, someone commented on her "full head of dark hair" and I remember it shocking me - our babies aren't born with hair! And it's certainly not dark. Well sure enough, our baby #3 had both.
-Only 3 pushes...
923am
Miss Evelyn Ree is born!
Just three hours and twenty-three minutes from water breaking to baby in arms...crazy!
Laura cut the cord (like she did with Turner!).
Dr. Gunby and his resident (who I honestly didn't even know was in the room until I looked at pictures later in the day!) confirmed that I didn't need any stitches (WOOHOO! This was a huge deal to me and something I'd been SO hoping for!), and delivered the placenta.
A nurse brought me some orange juice, which was the best thing I'd ever tasted in that moment (I never ended up having breakfast and in retrospect can't believe I made it through labor that way!)
After that everyone started leaving the room (Baylor hospital is super great about waiting to do any checks/measuring of baby until at least an hour or so after birth to allow for a good amount of skin-to-skin time between mom & baby and just general family bonding).
Laura stayed with us for a bit and helped me make sure Evelyn was latching properly. It's amazing to me how much you can forget between babies, but you do...and then it all comes back. She answered questions for us and made sure we were good to go before she headed on to another appointment - are doulas impressive or what? No big deal, just help bring a baby into the world and then continue on about their day - I was totally picturing a superhero cape tucked into her bag as she was leaving :)
And then eventually the room was down to just me, Taylor, and our brand new little baby. Those first quiet moments alone were incredibly special and sweet.
Evelyn was weighed (7lbs 7oz) and measured (21 inches), and passed her apgar test (8 - her hands and feet were pretty purple/blue right after birth and she didn't immediately cry), and then we were moved up to the recovery floor.
Honestly, her birth was a little bit of a surreal experience. It happened so quickly that I remembering thinking right after she was born "whoa, there's a baby!" That said, everything turned out so perfectly and was pretty much exactly what I'd been praying and hoping for: going into labor on my own (as opposed to being induced), laboring at home for as long as possible (instead of at the hospital), and an unmedicated delivery.
Evelyn Ree is now 1 week old and has been the most wonderful baby! We're soaking up every sweet snuggle and adjusting to our new life as a family of five!
The official last picture to end my weekly bump pictures:
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