I felt like it would be "any day" for almost two full weeks leading up to Grayon's birthday. My body had made good progress and I was just super convinced (or maybe just super hopeful) that I would have this baby before my brother's January 2nd wedding so that I wouldn't have to worry about having a Bismarck baby (or I-94 baby for that matter)...
But alas, Grayson Michael was on his own schedule, and I never should have doubted the Lord's perfect timing of it all.
We went to the Bismarck wedding and stayed at a hotel that just so happened to be literally across the street from the hospital, so I had no reason to worry. The girls were in less than perfect form with some tummy troubles and very little sleep due to our close quarters. Adding a newborn to that mix would have been awful. Seriously awful.
But we plowed through the weekend. Emberly rocked the flower girl thing. We were able to attend their perfect wedding, and we made it home at all of my 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant. To say I was relieved would be an understatement.
My 40 week appointment was the next day and my regular doctor (who delivered both of the girls and had seen me every single appointment for both girls and Gray) was on vacation. But I was determined to not wait until he got back to deliver this baby so I asked to have my membranes stripped yet again.
This time the magic happened and I started to feel like I was going to have this baby for real. When I told Jordan this, he asked me what felt different and I didn't have a clue. I just felt like baby was coming.
Piper was up a gazillion times in the night that night, which is not her usual. The last time I got up with her at 5am, I went to use the bathroom before crawling back into bed, and my water broke. I wish I could say I was all like, "game on" ... but I was actually super tired. I woke up Jordan and we made phone calls and finished packing our things. We both showered and got semi ready for the day, and made it to the hospital around 6am.
At this point I still wasn't 100% sure my water had broken, so they tested and sent it off to confirm. I was having super mild and very irregular contractions at this point and truthfully felt like that test could come back either way. I sure wasn't feeling miserable by any stretch of the imagination. But the test came back confirming that this was the real deal indeed, and they started the process of admitting me. (I was about 4cm dilated at this point.)
After a gazillion questions and several attempts at getting my IV in (seriously... several. I hate this part.) I started feeling the contractions get a little stronger. It was now about 7:45am. I really wanted to get in the bath because this helped me relax a lot with Piper... so they checked me again and I was about 5.5cm and they reluctantly let me get in. (My nurse joked she had never delivered a bath baby and didn't want to today... but my doctor said she had once or twice, so it was all good.) ;)
By this time it was 8:00am. I was determined to just hang out in the bath for awhile. I was feeling pretty good and I knew I just needed to let my body do its thing and relax. I figured it was late enough in the morning that I could text a few people to let them know I was in labor and baby would arrive sometime today. And then I had a major contraction. And another. And one more. And I decided I needed to get out of the bath and call the nurse.
By this time it was about 8:20. Jordan called my mom because I wanted her there for delivery. The midwife that was going to deliver sweet baby in place of Dr. Vetter came in. She was a rockstar and a serious blessing. She coached me through about 8 more contractions and then I was ready to push. 5 minutes later, sweet Grayson Michael was here and on my chest. A perfect and even 8 lb. in weight and 21" in length.
My recovery was crazy awesome (yay third babies and midwives that keep the aftershock to your body to a minimum). The girls came to meet their new baby brother by 11:30 that day. The doctors and nurses pretty much just let us do our own thing. And we haven't looked back since.
It feels a little surreal to be honest. We are a family of FIVE. Jordan and I sat at dinner tonight and just looked around at our littles and said, "is this real??"
And it is real! And it is exhausting. And it is wonderful. And it is humbling. And it is just such a gift from our good good Father.
So we pray that we will cherish each new day going forward. And for grace upon grace in each of our moments. And that these little people entrusted to us will know that the God who knit them together will walk with them in each of their moments and extend to them the greatest gift - Himself - if they would just call upon His name.
#feelinggrateful
