It’s been a while since there has been any updates, and by while I mean about 8 months. Life with two under two is instantly crazy, but in the most wonderful of ways.
About a month after we downsized and finished moving I was due with baby # 2, our wonderful little girl. She was due to be born May 4th, but just like her brother, she was inclined to stay in there for as long as possible.
One week after her due date she was still doing wonderfully in there and I had decided that I was not going to induce and just wait for her arrival. the Monday after she was due I woke up feeling great, which was a big thing because the last month had been excruciatingly hard with an unbelievable amount of back pain to the point where I was hunched over walking like Quasimodo.
I was feeling a little crampy, but I had a midwife appointment that day and I declared that it was the day. Although it was hard to believe because Monster was two weeks late, I convinced my midwife that by the end of the day she would be here.
My Love, Joshua, at the time had Mondays and Tuesdays off so we spent the remainder of the day running errands. There I was walking around Walmart having these tiny little cramps, but just ignoring them. After we got home we went out back to barbecue and I was still having these cramps but breathing through them because I thought it would still be a while before I had to worry about anything.
We continued to go on with our day and ate dinner, then I decided to go for a bath- Monster joined, because it is impossible to have a bath without him invading. Then the cramps started to get worse.
I got out of the bath and just sat in my room thinking to myself, “Ugh, this is going to be a while.” Of course I was assuming that because of the labour I went through with Monster, but I was fooling myself.
Just an hour and a half after barbecuing out back I was, little did I know, in full-blown labour. By 8 PM I was feeling it, but not ready to go to the hospital, although I am not a good judge on that because Monster was almost born in the car!
I told Josh to call my Dad, because he was taking Monster for the night, which was Monster’s very first sleepover! It took a while for my Dad to get there because he locked his key in his house and had to wait for his step-daughter to come with the spare. Josh got Monster’s bags packed and my Dad came to pick him up around 9:30, and by that time I was laying on my bed breathing through some good contractions- still telling myself I was not ready to go to the hospital.
As soon as Monster was gone and my mind was clear of worrying about him it went down. First was one strong contraction that I really had to focus on breathing through. Josh asked me if I was okay and I asked him when did he think we should call our midwife, Debbie.
Right after that was another strong contraction in which I described to him as a “call Debbie contraction”. So he paged my midwife and I waited for her to call. As soon as she called I had another contraction, and by this time I was on my hands and knees on the bed somehow thinking that would be easier.
Six months later I still remember it so clearly. She listened to me breath through another contraction then asked if my water broke, and as she said it, it happened. I told her that everything had just progressed so quickly and I didn’t think that I had much time.
Debbie told me, as Josh came to the same conclusion, that I needed to get to the hospital, which was only about two blocks down the street. Josh got everything together and helped me up. We were living on the top floor of a house and by the time I took the ten steps it took to get to the top of the stairs, I knew I wasn’t going to make it.
I told Josh I wasn’t going to make it, but he knew the same thing that I did- the midwife was on her way to the hospital and we were in this alone.
He pleaded with me to try to make it to the car. He knew if I could make it to the car he could take care of me and rush me to the hospital… but I turned and went back to the bed and told him there was no way and that he needed to call the ambulance.
It was pouring rain outside and the house echoed with thunder and lit up with lightning as Josh dialed 9-1-1. He kept asking me if I was sure that I couldn’t make it, because he knew that now it was all up to him.
Let me tell you what a stone fox he was. As he cooed to me directions, he was on the phone with the emergency dispatcher and she was walking him through what he needed to do. The first step was to get me on my back.
By now it was only a half hour after Monster left, and I was on my hands and knees again at the end of the bed swimming in the knowledge that it was only Josh and I and I was about to give birth.
He begged me to get on my back, which was easier said then done, and with one swift motion I flipped over and landed on my back. My body felt the urge to push and I gave in. One more contraction, with Josh still on the phone cooing directions to be but talking all business with the dispatcher, I gave one final push and our beautiful baby girl met her father’s hands.
I was laughing. I could hardly believe what had just happened as Josh wrapped her in a towel, cleaned off her face- focusing on her nose and mouth, listened for her glorious cry and then placed her on my belly.
I will never forget his smile. The joy in his eyes as he sat with us waiting for the paramedics to show up and finishing up with the dispatcher on the phone.
She was born at 10:26. The moment she was born the storm subsided, as if it were welcoming our little Lightning Bug into the world and she was given the name Tesla, master of lightning.
All at once the paramedics rushed in. Six of them to be exact, although no one had an idea of what they were doing, but they all showed up to be part of the joy that had taken over our house.
Our midwife, who realized the moment she got to the hospital that we were not there and rushed over, walked in the room and laughed. She jokingly asked if maybe our next baby we could call earlier so she could actually deliver it.
The paramedics checked us over and then Debbie took the reigns and did a final assessment. I was perfect, but Tes had a slight heart arrhythmia and listening to her heart it sounded as if she had two distinct heart beats that switched back and forth.
We followed up at the hospital but by the time we got her there and hooked up to the machine it had fixed itself. The night was over and bed was calling us, so we went home and rested up to await Monster’s arrival the next morning.
Josh still wears that amazing smile every time he looks at that darling little girl, and six months later, her first words were fittingly “dada”.
SmASHeD Phoenix 