I had it in my head that the baby would be at least a week late, though as March 24 neared, Dave was convinced the baby was coming any minute.
March 24, 2011 was a Thursday. I woke up feeling the same as I had been feeling pretty much every other day and Dave woke up announcing we'd be having our baby that day...I laughed.
At work as the day progressed, I started to feel a bit weird. I felt a bit of pressure and thought maybe I had to visit the ladies room...this happened several times throughout the early afternoon and I emailed my cousin Christina to ask her some questions about when she had her first son, Tyler, because I had recalled her saying she felt "weird" at work the day she had him and I wanted her to elaborate...because I, too, was feeling "weird."
At this point, I still thought baby day was at least a week off but I reached out to my friend Christa asking her if she thought I could take something for constipation (sorry, folks...but seriously! THAT is what early labor feels like! How come NO ONE ever mentions that? I would have taken things a bit more seriously and maybe even clued Dave in, ha, had I ever heard that before!) and she told me to call the doctor. Seems she'd become convinced baby time was nearing, too, but I didn't listen. She even called back a bit later to see what the doctor said but I'd never called (she yelled at me).
By the time I left work at 4:30, though, the lower pressure was continuing and becoming more frequent. Still, I told no one at work what was going on, I did not talk to Dave about it, but I had a feeling - I made sure all my loose ends were tied up at work, cleaned my desk, and brought my laptop home with me, which is something I rarely do.
Dave called on my way home to ask what I wanted for dinner and to tell me he was stopping at Kroger. For some reason, I still didn't tell him anything but my back was starting to hurt and I thought to myself, I'm not eating dinner tonight; I'm having a baby, so it doesn't matter what you buy...but hurry home!
By the time he got home, I was on the phone with my mom and grimacing through some back pains. Dave looked concerned as he listened in and grabbed his stop watch and notepad.
I could not get comfortable and I called the doctor's office - my favorite doctor was on call (Dr. Lea!) and suddenly I knew for sure we'd be having our baby that night - it was meant to be! Dr. Lea wanted my contractions (back pains) to be a bit closer together before calling him back but that didn't take long and soon enough, we were headed to the hospital.
I text my boss that I wouldn't be in and we called our parents...soon we would be parents!
With everyone gathered around, things started slowing down but finally, it was time to get serious - and get the baby out! I made best friends with my nurse, Shannon, and even better best friends with the anesthesiologist, Kevin (I made the nurse in triage laugh by asking, as soon as we arrived, "How much longer until I get my epidural?")
Despite driving our friends and family crazy, it was so exciting to wait and learn the gender on birth day...with a tear in his eye, at Dr. Lea's prompting, daddy announced:
"It's a girl!"
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