On Monday, August 13th, we had scheduled our air shipment to leave for Hong Kong ahead of us. This was a big day because we had spent weeks deciding what to take, give away, throw away, or store away. When the packers came, we finally were able to get a big hurdle out of the way and see what would fit in our weight allotment. Luckily for us, we squeezed everything we had hoped to take...whew! We were also relieved that I had not had the baby before then...not sure how we would have handled it if we had. We did schedule an induction on Wednesday...for a couple reasons. 1)we were trying to balance family time, and if I had the baby on Wed I would be home by Friday, and thus, we would have had two weekends together before the "first shift"left for Hong Kong. 2)When you have four other children, it's nice to be able to plan childcare. 3)Wednesday was the 15th of August, and we had three other children born on the 15th of the month. So Wednesday was looking good!
On Tuesday, my sweet grandmother had planned to take my older two daughters for pedicures for their birthdays. She had missed Grace's b-day in June since we were at the beach, and Emma would be in Hong Kong for her birthday. The salon was in Hockessin, closer to where my grandmother lived, so I joined them...to bring them home, and I wanted my toes to look pretty, too. As we were leaving at 4pm, I experience a larger than normal flow of liquid leave my body. Now, having four babies, and being pregnant with a fifth, it is not abnormal to have incontinence...so that was my first thought. But, this was a little more than normal, so my second thought was that my water broke. Now, my water had never broken outside the hospital before, so I began to try to remember how much time I had and if there was anything else I was supposed to do. I did ask my grandmother if she had any towels in her car, and when she told me she only had tissues, I told her what I thought was happening. She was so excited and gave me her flannel blanket she uses for picnics. I didn't know how absorbent it was, but it was better than nothing...and I had a 30-40 minute drive home!
On the way home, Andy called to ask what we should do for dinner, and I suggested that we stay home since we will need to get ready to go to the hospital...crickets. "Are you sure?" Yep!
So I decided to lay down, since I had only had one contraction on the way home, while Andy was cleaning up the kitchen. We also had decided that I was going to try to give him a haircut before we left. Yes, I know. A haircut when you're in labor? But Andy needed one and contractions were not too intense...yet. About half-way through, I had to intense contractions, so I told Andy that that he could either get the rest of his haircut, or a shower, but we didn't have time for both...we needed to go! He chose the shower, I called my brother to come watch the kids, and we were off by 5:15. By the time we had been in the car for 5 minutes, my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart. I was busily texting in between contractions. Our friend, Melissa, is the nursing coordinator at the hospital and was on that day. She wanted to be notified when we were coming in...so we let her know, with all the details. I also texted, and Andy talked to, our friend Jocelyn, who is the pediatric hospitalist and was on that night. As Andy talked to Jocelyn, giving her details of how close my contractions were, she was telling him that she could meet us on the side of the road. When I would ask him what she was saying, he was telling me that I was going to be fine...he was doing his best to keep me calm during our 40 minute drive, during rush hour, to the hospital.
As we arrived at the hospital, it was like a scene in a movie. Both Melissa and Jocelyn converged on our car at the same time. Jocelyn had come from the parking lot and grabbed Andy's keys to park the car, and Melissa had come out of the hospital with a wheel chair for me. As she wheeled me pass the from desk, they handed Andy a blue sheet to be filled out later and told us to go on back. When we got back to triage, I remember the hallway being lined with nurses saying, "this is Puffenberger," as they directed us to the room, where two nurses and a doctor were waiting for me. Melissa had done a great job preparing them for me! In seconds, they had me in a gown and getting checked, only to find I was 8cm. Without an IV, they called my doctor and rushed me upstairs to labor and delivery. When I got up there, two of my doctors were waiting (shift change). They checked me, and told me that I could push during my next contraction. One contraction/two pushes later...Sarah was born. Eleven minutes after arriving at the hospital...the fastest eleven minutes of my life! I remember feeling like "what just happened?" But she was beautiful, already pink and crying, and she looked just like the other four...amazing!
So Miss Sarah came with a bang. She had to, she's the fifth. But in the midst of moving to Hong Kong, I wanted to make sure that we don't forget this amazing miracle that we have been blessed with, and I am trying everyday to enjoy her. She is growing so fast...and she has been such a trooper.
It'll be so fun to keep up with you on here! She is just precious. Glad I had a chance to meet her before you took off!
ReplyDeleteWell that brought tears to my eyes! What a way to make your first appearance into the world! Yowza!!
ReplyDelete