Harper Grace | A Birth Story {Part 1}

Oh, Harper. I am writing this as you are snuggled up on my chest. It's 8:50 and I am still waiting for your daddy and sister to wake up for the day. I can't complain though...we got up "early" at 7:30.

It all started much too familiar with Quinny's birth story. I was up all night/early Tuesday morning with what I thought were painful contractions. Meaning I couldn't sleep through them and they were coming every 8 minutes. So, I did what any normal human would do. I panicked because I hadn't gotten a mani/pedi yet so I went into the bathroom and painted my nails.

I tried to rest and patiently waited for Anth's alarm to go off at 4:35. Which it did, followed by 8 more snooze alarms until he finally started to get out of bed and I told him, "Honey, I don't think you should go to work today." To which he replied...

"Uh oh."

A sweetheart, my husband is. I immediately call out of work and tell them I probably won't be coming in for the next 12 weeks or so either. I decided to crawl in bed and try my best to get some rest. Quinn wasn't going to wake up for another couple of hours so I wanted to take full advantage. Well, if that little nugget didn't know better, she woke up crying at around 5:30, which is rare. I like to think she just wanted mama to herself for the last time. So I race into her room, and she tells me what a bad dream she had and I scoop her up and cuddle the crap out of her for a little while. All while trying not to cringe with every contraction.

She gets settled back in her crib and falls right back to sleep and I try and do the same. The next thing I know I wake up, it's almost 8:30 and I scream "NO!" Because I had fallen asleep for 2 hours and there were no contractions in sight.

I.was.bummed. It was my mother in law's day to watch Quinny and I knew she was already there, along with my mother and I am positive they have no idea what the hell is going on. So we make our way downstairs to break the news to them that this probably wasn't it. Even though deep down I kind of knew that it was. The same happened when Quinny was born. I left work on a Thursday and I just kind of knew I wouldn't be back. It was a rare "gut feeling" moment for me.

My mother in law decided to stay and her and my mom took turns watching our little nugget while I showered and Anth and I finished up some last minute things. Sure enough the contractions started back up a few hours later just as they were the night before. It was around 5:30 that I told Anth he might want to call the midwife and see what she says.

Just as our luck would have it, she told me if I wanted to come in, I should do it sooner rather than later because the entire Labor and Delivery floor was occupied. Of course it was.

As I mentioned before I was attempting a VBAC and being that Quinn had a rather dramatic entrance into the world, I knew I would rather be at the hospital hooked up to monitors than at home trying not to kill someone.

So we decided to finish packing our hospital bag and head into the hospital. But first?

I had to say goodbye to my little nugget. And just thinking about this makes me cry. Because I was scared, in pain and had no idea how long I would be gone. We gave her one last hug and kiss and left her with my mom with promises of coming back home with her baby sister.

So off we went. We finally made it to the hospital and were immediately discouraged when we saw another pregnant woman at the admission desk and I convinced myself that I would be having this baby in the crowded hallways of the L&D floor. Upstairs we went and checked into a tiny little triage room where I was hooked up to all the fun monitors and such. One of my favorite midwives was on call and I am so grateful for all of the time she spent with us. She actually worked a 24 hours shift so she was with us right up until a few hours before Harper came.

So the same fear I had with Quinn was that I would have made zero progress and would be sent home. Well I was a whopping 2 cm dilated but since I was trying for a VBAC I wasn't allowed to be sent home because I was required to be hooked up to the monitors, which was fine by me. I just wanted to make sure this bambino was healthy in there.

So we walked. That dreaded walk around L&D trying to make my lady parts do what they were supposed to do. I hated it as much as I did when I walked the hallways with Quinn.

Also? When you are trying to walk while having contractions, you tend to look down a lot. Let's just say the socks I wore that day were burned and I have a new respect for those individuals who clean hospital floors.

Anyway, after walking for an hour, it almost seemed that the contractions got less painful. I was pissed.

And I knew the midwife was coming to check me and probably give me the awful news that this was not in fact the real thing...