**Warning:  This post is a little lengthy!**

At 30 weeks along in the pregnancy, I joked with POB that I was “ready to get this show on the road!”  But, I was really half joking and half serious.  The anticipation of childbirth and meeting my baby girl was killing me, like most other moms who have been pregnant for almost eight months.  I was also anxious for other reasons specific to our situation — I wanted to know what was really going on with this baby whom we had only seen through UltraSound, and how much time we would have with her.  Despite my half joking and all of these feelings, we stayed the course to plan to deliver at 35 weeks.  At the end of August we picked September 23rd to be induced.  It was one day shy of 35 weeks, so we could have waited until the next Tuesday (when POB was back in the hospital again), but like I said — I wanted to get this show on the road.

At our 30 week appointment, when we picked the induction date, was the last time we saw AJ on an UltraSound.  Because we had so many of these, we were spoiled to see her very frequently.  POB explained that there was a lot of fluid surrounding her and that she was small (both commonalities of T18 babies).  The plan for me at this point was to begin taking a medicine in the next couple of weeks to “ripen the cervix”; because this was my first pregnancy and I was five weeks ahead of schedule, there was no telling what my body would, or would not, do to prepare itself for labor.  And, the drugs worked!  Five days before my scheduled induction I was 70% effaced and one centimeter dilated (hooray!).  Because this was awesome news (my body was actually making progress!) I stopped at Plehn’s Bakery for a doughnut on my way to work to celebrate myself.

Over the weekend some family had begun to arrive and final preparations for our hospital stay were underway.  We celebrated my cousin Danielle’s wedding the Saturday before the big day, so these are the last preggo pictures of me!

I was supposed to call the hospital at 4pm on Monday, September 22nd, for a 6pm check-in, and to make sure they had a bed available at that time.  I was eating a late lunch around 4 on Monday with our dear friend, John, sitting with me as I called.  The conversation went something like, “Hi…I’m supposed to be induced…bed available?  Great.  Thanks!” — like, what the heck do you say in this kind of conversation?!  Since John has awkward tendencies like I do, he totally understood the uncomfortableness of the situation.  So we laughed, finished our chicken nuggets, and prepared to move out.

I’m pretty sure our car ride to the hospital was silent.  I was just really nervous for everything at this point, similar to any new mom, I would imagine.  When we got to Labor & Delivery, the nurses knew exactly who we were (yes, we were the couple who was supposed to be there at 6, but they knew everything about our situation).  They let us know they had read all of the history in the chart, and asked if we wanted to add anything that they should know, but they had it covered.  I was so impressed by this that I took 400 breaths of relief.  We were going to be in great hands.  To come full circle, I started more of the same induction medicine I had been taking in the hospital and was relegated to being horizontal (no peeing for TWO HOURS after getting a dose of medicine, and certainly no more eating!).  We were pleasantly surprised by a visit from our parish priest who comforted and prayed with us before the real deal.  We also enjoyed the company of our brother, Nick, and friend, John, who brought the necessities — food for Charles…and the icons we had left at home.

After a long night of tossing and turning (and carrying the IV cart with me to and from the bathroom), POB checked me, broke my water, and administered the Pitosin around 9am.  They told me it would work fast (about 15 minutes) and they weren’t lyin’!  I was doubled over in pain quickly.  My uterus was working hard.  It was working so hard that I remained in a contracted state — that translates to NO RELIEF.  I just stayed contracted for about 20 minutes.  The longest 20 minutes of my life.  In that 20 minutes, they prepped me and the room for the epidural, and administered it.  Poor anesthesiologist.  He was really nice and trying to talk to me every step of the way, but I wasn’t paying him a bit of attention.  I was trying to focus on breathing, while crying and feeling nauseous, and wanting to rip every cord attached to my body straight off.  But, once the epidural was in and working, I was OUT, as in, asleep.  I slept for about two hours when my fluid monitor started going off because it was empty.  A nurse (that was not mine) came in to change it, and I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure.  She called my nurse, my nurse called POB, and POB said I should “labor down” for an hour and then we would push.  Well, about 30 minutes went by and I was feeling more intense pressure.  The nurse checked me out and the baby was right there – ready to come out (practically out, but that’s a minor detail).  She called for another nurse and POB to come ASAP.  The other nurse made it, but POB didn’t.  Without any pushing, more of just a relaxing of all the muscles in my lower body, AJ was there.  As soon as AJ was there, POB came running in with the Neonatologist, Women’s Health Specialist, and a few other assistants.  My amazing nurses delivered my amazing baby with my amazing husband by my side the entire way.

As you know, Alexandra Jude was born at 1:06pm on Tuesday, September 23rd.  Coincidentally, she was born on a Tuesday and so was I.  We were both born during football season the morning after a Monday Night Football game.  My dad watched MNF 28 years ago (almost 29 – eek!) with the Doctor before I was born (at 2:01am).  Also, coincidentally, because of my tomboyish-ness having been blessed with two brothers, I acquired the nickname “Icebox” from my dad when I was kid (this from the movie “Little Giants”).  Going well with the births/football theme, I knew this was the biggest “game” of my life (Charles’ too), and it was the best “game” we have ever played.

Daddy was the first one to hold AJ.

Mommy introducing AJ to her brothers, Sawyer & Hank.