Saturday, we went to lunch with the kids at Maggianos and we did a little shopping and headed home. Since there were still no houses behind us, but they had cleared the pasture, we drove the truck out there and shot the rockets. For dinner, we ate quesadillas with salsa - and it was spicier than I usually eat.
It was around 10:30 p.m. and we were watching "Law and Order - SVU" in bed and I noticed I started having stronger and stronger contractions every 5 mins. I switched sides and they continued. So I went to the bathroom and noticed I lost my mucus plug.
A few minutes later, I had to go back to the bathroom. I called out, "I don't think we are going to make it to Tuesday." He asked, "Why?" I replied, "Because my water just broke.."
Contractions were every 4-5 minutes and lasted a minute each time.
It was about 11:15 when we called Jaime to see if she could come down to sit with the kids but she had Gavin and I didn't want her to wake him. We called Grammy to come stay with Andrew and Alyssa - which made more sense since she was only about 45 minutes away vs 1 1/2 hours. Grammy said she was on her way!
I called the ER and told them what was happening and they suggested calling the oncall doctor (Dr. Erin Westerholm) and letting her know that we were heading to the hospital since I was in active labor and that I would need a c-section. I left a message with her answering service and piddled around the house.
The kids were sleeping so Dave filled up his truck with gas and I finished packing and working on Alexanders's birthday banner. Dave and I said a prayer together in the living room since the kids were sleeping on their pallet there. Dave woke up Andrew to tell him we were going to the hospital - but later we learned he didn't remember him doing that!
Headed to Mansfield Methodist hospital and I had LOTS of pressure and contractions... "He's going the wrong direction!" I yelled. Ha! Dr. Westerholm called back and I told her all my symptoms and she said she would see us at the hospital.We pulled up to the ER and got checked in. We were definitely in active labor! We also learned that it was a Full Moon so we definitely had everything lined up to have a baby!
We checked in and confirmed that my water had broken and we were having regular contractions. However, I had only dilated to a 1 - which the nurse told us was good because if we had made too much progress we would be going in for an emergency C-section. Yikes! I met Dr. Westerholm, who was very nice, and we discussed the plans for surgery. We had to wait a few hours because the anesthesiologist wanted it to be 8 hours since I had last eaten, which was at 8:00 that night. The time passed pretty quickly though and before I knew it - they were handing me my surgical cap and wheeling me into the OR!
I was super nervous but had been receiving texts and posts on Facebook from people praying (I was so surprised at how many folks are up after midnight!) :)
In the ER, I had my phone loaded with songs to play to help keep my nerves calm. They were:
"One Thing Remains" by Passion
"Hello World" by Lady Antebellum
"Wave on Wave" by Pat Green
"Dixie Lullaby" by Pat Green
"Strong Enough" by Matthew West
"Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)"
"Shout to the Lord" by Darlene Zschech
I put the songs in shuffle/random order for play and it was neat how things worked out and played at certain times. When everything started and the anesthesiologist was performing the spinal block, "Strong Enough" was playing. When the doctor delivered Alexander and I heard his first beautiful cries, "Wave on Wave" was playing. This song was one of our main songs at our reception and there is a story behind Pat Green singing this song to David and I the day after we got engaged in New Orleans. They told us he was 7 lbs 11 ounces and 21 inches long. Dave and I kept saying, "he's SO tiny!!!" and the OR staff responded "That's NOT tiny!" but they hadn't seen Alyssa! :)
"Dixie Lullaby" and "Hello World" were playing after Alexander had arrived and the surgical team was working on me. Dr. Westerholm mentioned when she first opened my up that, "As pretty as I was on the outside, I was sure ugly on the insides." She explained that my abdominal muscles were ripped to shreds. My assumption is they had been that way since I was pregnant with Alyssa since she had been such a big baby and Alexander was so tiny. She had to do a lot of repair work while she was in there, so that took awhile. But once we were done, we went to our recovery room and began bonding with our new, sweet baby boy!!!
Alexander Garrett Davlin completes our family by making us a family of 5!
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