I think it would be fitting to start by telling you that I was dilated to a 3 at the beginning of October. My doctor was so nice as to tell me, "Oh yeah, you're having this baby early. I bet he'll be here in 2 weeks." One word of advice: NEVER listen to a prediction like that.
Two weeks later, and still no baby? Well that's when I started to get frustrated. But I still wasn't due for 2 more weeks, so I spent the time I had left finishing some last minute projects and things around the apartment to keep me occupied, each day getting more and more uncomfortable and less sleep. My parents booked their flights in advance, according to my doctor's predictions, and showed up on October 31(my due date), expecting that the baby would already be here. He wasn't. And we started to get worried half way through the week when he still wasn't here and they were leaving at the end of the week.
My mom thought that maybe if she walked me all over creation, the baby would just fall out eventually. So we spent every single day going on looooooooooong walks. I'm not kidding, like 5 miles a day! Some of those walks included jumping jacks and running up and down stairs. And still there was no baby. This did nothing but hurt my back.
We went to the doctor with 3 days left before my parents takeoff, which only depressed the heck out of us because she refused to induce me until I was 2 and a half weeks overdue! 2 AND A HALF WEEKS! what the?!
I woke up November 7th with a funny pain. Could this be a contraction? I felt that I was getting my hopes up and carried on the day, going to a relief society retreat with my mom, taking Wade and my dad to the North End to get steak sandwiches, and going out to Walden pond where, once again, my mom insisted on more walking. At this point, those interesting pains were coming almost every seven minutes(we knew this because my mom had been writing them down since I first woke up), but they weren't very painful. My mom suggested we walk around the ENTIRE lake, but by the time we got halfway, I was needing to stop for each contraction. So we turned around and went back. We went out to eat in Cambridge at Border's where a lady in the bathroom asked when I was due. When I said "Last week," she said, "OH MY! bless your little heart!" It's so nice to have sympathy.
We went home and watched TV and suddenly I felt like I was going die. So thats what real contractions are, eh? They really are as bad as everyone says. Maybe worse. I spent the next three hours writhing in pain on the floor and throwing up. Why did I not go to the hospital, you ask? I delivered at Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is like number one in the country for delivering babies... which means they make you stay home until your contractions are 4 minutes apart for at least an hour. I had to call the hospital to ask permission to come in! And even when I did call at 4 minutes apart, they asked me if I could stay home just a little longer, maybe take a shower to help me feel more comfortable. Uh...yeah right. So they said I could come in. We loaded up our stuff and got in the car around midnight.
Have I ever mentioned how awful the streets of Boston are? There's like a million holes and bumps that haven't been fixed in years. Well I think that Wade managed to hit every single bump. And my contractions were suddenly coming every 1-2 minutes. It really was like the movies where the wife is screaming at the husband and really I thought I wasn't going to get there in time for an epidural.
They checked me in right away and I was already dilated to a 6. A nurse in triage was asking me questions and I couldn't even think straight to answer them. I finally got my epidural and it was heaven. Absolute heaven. I'm so grateful for modern medicine.
I then tried to sleep for the next few hours until baby Miles was ready to arrive. At the same time, my mom was making phone calls to the airline, asking them to switch her flight to a later time. When it was finally time to start pushing, it only took a half an hour and about 4 segments of pushing for Miles to make his debut. And I felt like a wonder woman. Giving birth is no small thing!
After I was taken up to my room, Wade went to pick up my dad, who got to spend a short half hour with his new grandson. My mom hung around for another hour, and we had a very sad parting when she left. I wasn't so sure I could do this mom thing without her. But thank goodness for phones, because I call her almost daily.
Miles was perfectly healthy and chubby, almost a whopping 9 pounds. He had jaundice, so he spent his first day of life hanging out in a tanning bed.
We absolutely love being parents. It's almost like Miles has always been a part of our lives. I didn't know it was possible to love someone this much. I truly believe that childbirth is a miracle and you can't help but be reassured that there is a God who loves us and has an eternal plan. I'm so glad our family has the opportunity to be together forever.
