June's Birthday

Here is the story of the day June came into the world.
Friday afternoon, I had gone for my 40 week check-up with my OBGYN and things were not really progressing all that much. I was barely 2 cm dilated(I had been 1 cm for the past 2 weeks) and she wanted to do an ultrasound just to make sure all was good in utero. And, of course, it was. The ultrasound came back saying that she was a little behind schedule size wise, so I left the appointment feeling like I was going to be pregnant at least one more week. My OB set up an appointment for me to come back on Monday and I would then start coming every 3 days or so until birth just to keep an eye on things since I was going past due date. But, I have to say how happy I am with Dr. Fyke. I never felt pressured to "speed" things up or felt like she was giving me a deadline.
So, Friday night, I went home with a whole new outlook and started to plan what I was going to do the next week to keep myself busy until baby decided to come.
The Landrys came over for a cookout and we ended up playing dominos and hanging out all evening. I was having some mild contractions, but I just assumed they were occurring from being checked at my doctor's appointment which had happened most other weeks.
We went to bed around 11 and I fell right to sleep.
Then, around 2:30 am or so, I was woken up by some serious contractions. So, I got up, played on my phone for a little while and waited for them to calm down. Instead of calming down, they got stronger and closer together. After about 45 minutes or so, I woke Dan up just to let him know what was going on. We were both very nonchalant about the whole thing and I just kept waiting for the contractions to stop. At this point, I decided to make a bowl of soup to prepare for the "long day" I was going to have ahead of me, but I couldn't hardly eat the soup because the contractions were so regular and I was starting to get very uncomfortable.
At 4:30 or so, we started to time the contractions and they were consistently 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about 50 seconds each. I couldn't believe how regular they were already since I was sure I was just getting started with labor. Dan then wanted to call my mom to let her know what was going on so she could start heading up here. I was still being pretty stubborn and convinced him to wait another hour.
I also knew that I needed to get in 2 rounds of antibiotics during labor because I was GBS positive, which would take at least 4 hours in the hospital. Dan was really pushing me to go ahead and go to the hospital, but again I was resisting because I still thought we were early on in the game.
Finally at 6:30, we called Clay to come over and sit with the boys(still asleep) until my mom and dad could get into town and we headed out for the hospital.
When they checked me, I was 6 cm and really moving quickly. I was shocked, but also relieved to know that the contractions I was experiencing were the real deal. I was really doubting being able to go au natural if I was only 2 or 3 cm dilated at this point and the contractions were this strong.
The nurses quickly hooked up the antibiotics in hopes of being able to get 2 rounds in before baby was born, but even they were not so sure that was going to happen. It took about an hour getting checked in and about 15 minutes sitting in the bed to let the antibiotics go in. I was actually pretty comfortable in the bed and didn't mind sitting through the contractions. I had this vision that I would want to be walking around, bouncing on the exercise ball, or even taking a shower to alleviate pain during contractions, but ended up either sitting in the bed or standing next to the bed pretty much the whole time. Things kept progressing pretty quickly and by about 9:15 we asked to be checked again and I was 9cm but my water still had not broken. The doctor started to talk about wanting to break my water, but I asked to wait and see if it would break on its own. So, after about another hour of walking around and standing, I was able to break my own water, by bearing down one good time. Then, it was time to push. And at 10:31 am, we got to meet June Elizabeth, all 7 lb 15 oz and 20 inches of her! I would definitely have to say that labor was more painful this way because I felt EVERYTHING, but it was so quick, and totally worth it.
We called Nonnie and Papaw right away and they brought the boys up to meet the newest addition.


Needless to say, we didn't get the second round of antibiotics in, but the baby and I were both perfectly healthy. They even let us all go home on Sunday. At first I thought I would want to stay the 2 nights, but after one long night of lots of interruptions and an uncomfortable bed, I figured we would take our chances at home. :)
I cannot say enough good things about the nursing staff at OCH or Dr. Brown. Everyone was so respectful of our wishes and so positive the entire time. It was one of the best days of my life and we have one beautiful baby girl to show for all our hard work!
God has blessed our family beyond measure and I don't think I will even begin to understand why we have been given all that we have. I will just continue to say thank you every day for these 3 perfect children and God's ever present handiwork in our lives.