The day started out like a normal day, or so I thought. I was in a great mood and felt great. I was looking forward to spending the day with the kids and Tom. There was the exception of the dream that I had the night before in which I was told that if I baked a birthday cake for the baby, then the baby would come. So while it was a relatively normal Sunday morning for everyone else, I got up bright and early and baked a birthday cake for Quinn with the help of Trevor, Aliza and Ella. Although I was feeling fine, I was 37 weeks pregnant and willing to do anything that I could do (within reason) to have the baby sooner than later.
My previous pregnancy with Ella was quite traumatic! During her delivery she did not manuever herself correctly and was born in an unusual position. She likely was not able to manuever correctly due to her large size, 10 lbs, 12 oz. I delivered her at the Birth Center, without medical intervention (no physician) or medications. During delivery my pelvis seperated which has resulted in complications including being unable to walk or roll over in bed for weeks following her delivery, as well as long term pain and arthritis. I was not looking forward to having these problems with another delivery. Hence needing to deliver a small baby, and the earlier the better (post 37 weeks!)
Since I had the dream that baking a cake would bring about labor, I thought lets try it! For some reason after the cake baking process- which is a process when you have three children helping- I became very easily agitated. The littlest things were making me very angry and frustrated. I was getting anxious about the babys arrival and not being ready for the first day of school for the other kids. Also, Tom's school year was starting early as usual and he would be going back to work in 3 weeks. As he did yard work outside (he is a smart man and knew it would be best for all of us if he and the kids stayed outside while I was in my "mood") I called my mom and asked her if she could take the kids for an hour or so while we went school clothes shopping. This trip seemed to help take some stress away and really helped me feel somewhat organized. For the past few weeks I was having regular contractions but not enought to start labor. So once we got into the car I noticed that my contractions were coming kind of frequently, but not too painful. This was part of my continuing frustration, I was having regular contractions, sometime painful and making sleep difficult, but not starting labor. At my previous Drs. appointment I was 3 centimeters dilated, but that means nothing when it is your fourth child.
On our way home I was really hungry. I had been really concious of eating heathly during this pregnancy and gained only 12 pounds. I was so afraid of having a large baby and really wanted to delivery naturally without a C-Section. I knew that the only way this could happen (without seperating my pelvis again) was if the baby was small. On this day I had a craving for McDonalds. If you know me, that is a crazy craving considering that I do not eat meat and especially processed meat. Tom asked what I wanted while in the drive thru line. I told him I wanted a Sweet Tea (I had not had sugar in months), a cheeseburger (sounds disgusting now) fries and an ice cream cone. A few miles down the road my "walking on eggshells" husband looks at me with a grin on his face and I look down at my large belly covered with crumbs and a half eaten cheeseburger in one hand and ice cream in the other to dip the fries in... we both started laughing and it was at that moment that I realized I was going to be going into labor soon. I even said out loud that I would be very surprised if I was still pregnant the next day. We went home and I made dinner for the family. We had "Quinns Cake" and sang "Come have a Birth Day dear Quinn" to the tune of Happy Birthday and then went for a bike ride around our neighborhood. During the bike ride I was keeping track of my contractions and while not too painful, they were very frequent and coming about every 3 minutes. We got home and I called my mom to ask her to be on stand by should we decide to go to the hospital. I went back outside to walk some more while Tom got the kids ready for bed. I wanted to see if these contracts were going to continue. About 1/2 way around our block I realized that I was really in labor and should not walk too far from the house just in case my water broke or my contractions started getting stronger. I walked home and called my mom to come over to watch the kids. Even though all things were pointing to actual labor, I was convinced that I was not really going to have the baby. With my other kids I had events of false labor and would go to the hospital only to have the contractions stop. I felt bad for having my mom come over, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, it could not possibly be this easy... All you have to do to go into labor is bake a cake for the baby... yeah, right.
So we went through the motions of going to the hospital and going through triage. My contractions were still happening, but I still I was convinced this was all for naught, I was not really going to have a baby. We did not even bring my bag from the car inside because we were that convinced that a baby would not be arriving. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and said she would be back in one hour. Fifteen minutes later she came back and said that I was contracting every 2 1/2 minutes and at this point she did not need to tell me this... Those not so painful contractions that I had been having for the past few weeks were gone. The real contractions had begun. It was determined that I was officially in labor. Now there was a decision to be made... Vaginal delivery or C-Section. The fear and pain of Ellas birth came back very quickly. Most people say that women forget about the pain of childbirth once the baby is in their arms. This is not at all true for me. I very distinctly can recall the pain and trauma of Ellas birth and the incredible helplessness and discomfort of the weeks that followed. This is also true for my husband who made the statement during our discussion that he needed me to be able to walk and since we did not know the outcome of a vaginal delivery (if my pelvis were to seperate again then I would likely need to have surgery to repair it) then maybe a C-Section was the safest option.
So off to the O.R. we went. This was a really quick process and almost surreal for us since it was such a differnt birth experience than we had ever had. Within an hour Baby Quinn was born. She was born at 11:59.23 on July 25th, 2010. She was healthy, 6.13 lbs and 21 inches long. Now, two months later and completely healed from the C-Section I can say that we made the right decision.
My previous pregnancy with Ella was quite traumatic! During her delivery she did not manuever herself correctly and was born in an unusual position. She likely was not able to manuever correctly due to her large size, 10 lbs, 12 oz. I delivered her at the Birth Center, without medical intervention (no physician) or medications. During delivery my pelvis seperated which has resulted in complications including being unable to walk or roll over in bed for weeks following her delivery, as well as long term pain and arthritis. I was not looking forward to having these problems with another delivery. Hence needing to deliver a small baby, and the earlier the better (post 37 weeks!)
Since I had the dream that baking a cake would bring about labor, I thought lets try it! For some reason after the cake baking process- which is a process when you have three children helping- I became very easily agitated. The littlest things were making me very angry and frustrated. I was getting anxious about the babys arrival and not being ready for the first day of school for the other kids. Also, Tom's school year was starting early as usual and he would be going back to work in 3 weeks. As he did yard work outside (he is a smart man and knew it would be best for all of us if he and the kids stayed outside while I was in my "mood") I called my mom and asked her if she could take the kids for an hour or so while we went school clothes shopping. This trip seemed to help take some stress away and really helped me feel somewhat organized. For the past few weeks I was having regular contractions but not enought to start labor. So once we got into the car I noticed that my contractions were coming kind of frequently, but not too painful. This was part of my continuing frustration, I was having regular contractions, sometime painful and making sleep difficult, but not starting labor. At my previous Drs. appointment I was 3 centimeters dilated, but that means nothing when it is your fourth child.
On our way home I was really hungry. I had been really concious of eating heathly during this pregnancy and gained only 12 pounds. I was so afraid of having a large baby and really wanted to delivery naturally without a C-Section. I knew that the only way this could happen (without seperating my pelvis again) was if the baby was small. On this day I had a craving for McDonalds. If you know me, that is a crazy craving considering that I do not eat meat and especially processed meat. Tom asked what I wanted while in the drive thru line. I told him I wanted a Sweet Tea (I had not had sugar in months), a cheeseburger (sounds disgusting now) fries and an ice cream cone. A few miles down the road my "walking on eggshells" husband looks at me with a grin on his face and I look down at my large belly covered with crumbs and a half eaten cheeseburger in one hand and ice cream in the other to dip the fries in... we both started laughing and it was at that moment that I realized I was going to be going into labor soon. I even said out loud that I would be very surprised if I was still pregnant the next day. We went home and I made dinner for the family. We had "Quinns Cake" and sang "Come have a Birth Day dear Quinn" to the tune of Happy Birthday and then went for a bike ride around our neighborhood. During the bike ride I was keeping track of my contractions and while not too painful, they were very frequent and coming about every 3 minutes. We got home and I called my mom to ask her to be on stand by should we decide to go to the hospital. I went back outside to walk some more while Tom got the kids ready for bed. I wanted to see if these contracts were going to continue. About 1/2 way around our block I realized that I was really in labor and should not walk too far from the house just in case my water broke or my contractions started getting stronger. I walked home and called my mom to come over to watch the kids. Even though all things were pointing to actual labor, I was convinced that I was not really going to have the baby. With my other kids I had events of false labor and would go to the hospital only to have the contractions stop. I felt bad for having my mom come over, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, it could not possibly be this easy... All you have to do to go into labor is bake a cake for the baby... yeah, right.
So we went through the motions of going to the hospital and going through triage. My contractions were still happening, but I still I was convinced this was all for naught, I was not really going to have a baby. We did not even bring my bag from the car inside because we were that convinced that a baby would not be arriving. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and said she would be back in one hour. Fifteen minutes later she came back and said that I was contracting every 2 1/2 minutes and at this point she did not need to tell me this... Those not so painful contractions that I had been having for the past few weeks were gone. The real contractions had begun. It was determined that I was officially in labor. Now there was a decision to be made... Vaginal delivery or C-Section. The fear and pain of Ellas birth came back very quickly. Most people say that women forget about the pain of childbirth once the baby is in their arms. This is not at all true for me. I very distinctly can recall the pain and trauma of Ellas birth and the incredible helplessness and discomfort of the weeks that followed. This is also true for my husband who made the statement during our discussion that he needed me to be able to walk and since we did not know the outcome of a vaginal delivery (if my pelvis were to seperate again then I would likely need to have surgery to repair it) then maybe a C-Section was the safest option.
So off to the O.R. we went. This was a really quick process and almost surreal for us since it was such a differnt birth experience than we had ever had. Within an hour Baby Quinn was born. She was born at 11:59.23 on July 25th, 2010. She was healthy, 6.13 lbs and 21 inches long. Now, two months later and completely healed from the C-Section I can say that we made the right decision.
Unknown to the doctor deliverying her, we had already celebrated her birthday a few hours earlier. When they told us the time of her delivery I was thrilled to be able to tell her siblings when they woke in the morning that their baby sister was born on the day they made her a Birth Day Cake.
