The Third One



Photo by Squeezebox Photography

So after a brief visit to the hospital when I thought I was in labor, I learned that the third baby doesn't have a reputation of following the trends of the first two.

Bella came just over 7 hrs. after my water breaking- and after eating a meal of Swedish meatballs at my friend's house (This same meal put another one of her friends into labor. No joke). Of course, the epidural could've been to blame for it taking that long, because I was having heavy contractions early on. My doctor thought I'd deliver by midnight. My due date was August 15th, but she joined our family on the 6th, instead.

After an early miscarriage, the following pregnancy brought gestational diabetes and group b strep. Needless to say, the doctors worried and worried that I would have a gigantic baby and need to be induced. Brody woke me up at 11:30pm, five days before his due date, and met us 2 1/2 hrs. later. No pain meds. No time for antibiotics. And an average 7lb. baby. The doctors can only give their best guess, right?

Now, baby #3 is teasing us. Since big sister was born at 38 weeks and big brother at 39, I just assumed this little guy would come early and grant me a quick-like labor/delivery. Not so. Not so.


Photo by Squeezebox Photography


I've felt those Braxton Hicks contractions a lot more often in this pregnancy, so I've been disregarding them for the most part. I've even had fairly consistent contractions for an hour without calling the hospital. But 4 days ago, I started feeling more uncomfortable, and by dinnertime the contractions were still not going away. I went to bed, thinking I just need to sleep it off, but woke Jason up around midnight. I was a basket full of nerves. Was I in labor or not? We started timing contractions. They were continually less than 5 minutes apart. Even though my water hadn't broken, I was sure that if I didn't get to the hospital, this baby would come quickly.

I know my mom appreciated that middle of the night call, waking her up to come over and keep the kids while we went to the hospital. Honestly, I was full of worries: Would someone be available to watch the kids? Would I make it to the hospital in time? Was I ready to cope with the pain of labor again? Was this all a false alarm? Will everyone be annoyed if this isn't the real deal? Am I forgetting something?

Photo by Squeezebox Photography

After a long night of little sleep, those contractions kept coming, but there was no proof that I was in active labor- 9 hours in the hospital and only 2 cm to show for my efforts. I was a bit emotional coming home, but I'm glad we did. I was able to nap and get to bed early that night. Since then, I've had a brand new perspective. Getting more done around the house feels fabulous, and getting some labor jitters out of my system is a relief.

So there's no baby yet.  We'll just wait like the rest of the pregnant mommies and not expect a whole lot. I suppose I'll be even more excited when his time actually arrives. We'll keep you posted :-)

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:34

Do you have a similar third baby labor story?