I'm sitting here in the bathroom with Micaiah in the bathtub thinking back to exactly a year ago. I had gone to the Doctor today and I was 4cm dilated and 80% effaced. But my last ultrasound had shown that I had very low amniotic fluid which was a decrease from the week prior and my Doctor was pushing me to be induced. That was definitely not my ideal birthing situation but I told her I'd do it on Thursday if I hadn't delivered by then.
It's 9pm right now and last year at this time I still wasn't having contractions or major signs of labor. But by 12:30am they had started. I was somewhat in denial at first (which I think a lot of women are when labor begins) but I quickly realized that it must be the real thing. I spent about 30 minutes in the bathroom and then laid on the bed so Damien could help me relax during the contractions. Even though I didn't take any classes either time,
I think we had a better plan to just have Damien count and massage through the contractions. The only problem was that it worked too well. I didn't realize how far into labor I actually was. By 1:45am I could tell my water was about to break - I know it sounds strange but I started having the same feeling during the contractions that I did right before my water broke with Orin. I can't explain the feeling but a sort of tingling and almost being able to tell the "bubble" was going to pop. And as we started
out the door, and I sat on the couch to have a contraction before heading to the car, it broke. It was definitely much less fluid than with Orin so I guess the ultrasounds were correct (I know how subjective they can be with size and fluid levels so I wasn't convinced it was low). Well, as soon as my water broke I knew we were in trouble. We got in the car - Damien in the back seat with me and my mom driving. The contractions were coming every couple
of minutes. Luckily my contractions with both labors never lasted more than about 45 seconds. About 10 minutes down the road I could feel Micaiah's head in the birth canal. I knew he was coming fast. I told Damien I thought he was coming out do Damien had me take my pants off just in case (don't want a baby born in your pants!) But he said he didn't see a head so we were ok. I remember I was just thinking, "I can't believe this is actually going to happen in the car."
We had even joked about it. During this entire drive Damien was telling my mom to go faster and faster and when we hit a red light to just run it. Thank goodness it was 2:30am. We were also going a different way to the hospital than we had originally told my mom so Damien was having to give her directions. But, my mom was having a hard time hearing, so Damien was having to yell them to her from the back seat -
this just escalated things so she'd yell back if she had a question or to confirm a turn. I think I would have laughed if I wasn't in such pain but I was just thinking I wish they would shut up. We finally made it to the hospital. I had taken my shoes off with my pants so I was walking in barefoot. They offered me a wheelchair but at first I said no...there was no way I could sit down with the baby almost out. So I instead knelt down in it facing backward. So they wheeled me into the elevator with my
butt sticking up in the air (yes, and my pants had been put back on before we got out of the car). The lobby guard sent us to the wrong floor at first. I think the nurses behind the counter had a good laugh at the site of me in the wheelchair. When we got to the right floor I guess they could tell that I was very close because the nurses sprang into action - and if you've ever had a baby you know that most of the time the nurses are pretty doubtful that you
"actually" in labor until they can check you out. We got in the room and I laid on the bed. There were about 5 nurses scrambling around. I'm not exactly sure what they were doing but they were all telling me to do a different thing. "Lie still ", "move here", "lift your butt", "scoot down", "make a fist", "lie still." All the while they were asking me questions such as, "What # baby is this," "What pregnancy is this," "How far along are you." I remember telling them I was group B
strep positive (just meaning that they needed to give me antibiotics at least 4 hours before giving birth - I knew that wasn't going to happen.) As soon as I laid down I just remember a nurse saying, "Ok, baby's head is right there." I remember feeling a little relieved because I would have felt really stupid if I was only like 7cm or something. Another thing I remember is one nurse attempting to stick an IV into my hand.
It wasn't very easy for her since she would tell me to stay still and another nurse would tell me to move. The only other thing I remember was a nurse trying to pick up his heart beat on the monitor. I thought she looked a little worried and I didn't hear anything. I was suddenly really worried and asked if everything was ok. She said "Everything is fine," but I'm still not sure if she saw a heart beat or was just trying to make me feel better. But about 30 seconds after lying down, Micaiah's head came out! The
nurse trying to do the IV threw down the equipment and said, "Oh, I give up!" What a relief! He came so fast I really thought I was going to split in two. His body came out in the same contraction. It was over! He was born right onto the bed since they hadn't had time to break it down. I was obviously still in my clothes, the Doctor hadn't made it in, and I had never pushed (think goodness or it would have happened somewhere bedsides the hospital room).
I'm just glad the nurse never told me "Don't push" or I might have said something I'd regretted (just joking). It was great because Micaiah cried right away and they let me hold him for quite a while (with Orin I held him for about 10 seconds but since he wasn't crying the took him.) The doctor made it in time for the placenta and to tell me that amazingly I hadn't torn. I was in shock. Damien and my mom were both laughing and saying "I can't believe it, I can't believe it."
I was just glad he was ok. He looked so adorable and his head was pretty perfect since he came out so quickly. A little later as the nurse was doing all of the paperwork that is usually done as you check in before the baby is born, we laughed at questions such as "What are your plans for labor," "Do you want pain medication," and all the other questions irrelevant now that he was here. All-in-all it was a wonderful birth and I was definitely smitten from the beginning. My one regret is that by the time my mom got the video camera started his head was out. Oh well. But he's here and this year has flown by. He has the cutest mouth and the most adorable chubby cheeks! He gives GREAT kisses. Micaiah is such a sweet, sensitive baby and I'm so looking forward to being a part of his life! I just pray that I'll be a godly mother to him and somehow, by God's grace, raise him to be a godly man.
Sometimes on weekends we like to just stay at home and relax and sometimes we like to spend the day out doing something as a family. Sometimes we go out to a park and BBQ, sometimes we go Downtown, and often we'll go to one of the many local festivals. When we decide to go out Damien usually looks on the Washington Post website for happenings in the area.
One of the great parts about living in this area is there is almost always something to do. During the Spring and Fall there are always lots of festivals. Yesterday Damien noticed the Maryland Renaissance Festival was going on. It lasts for about nine weeks. If you've never been to a Renaissance Festival, they are amazing! There are TONS of people and the buildings, costume and shows are great. Damien had been to many as a child and has a lot of great memories. The first one I had ever been to was when Damien took me in Arizona. The one here in Maryland has been running for something like 28 years. 
I guess Damien just didn't think of going the last few years we've lived here. The kids were great all day, even without naps. Micaiah just loves to be pushed around in the stroller and look at people and things. Orin is just about the opposite and loved walking the entire time and picking up sticks and rocks. We saw a play, a sword swallowing act, a show called "Fight School" and a Jousting tournament which Orin loved because of the horses. 
Amazingly, with thousands of people there, we ran into to people we knew: Matt & Karin Vile with their kids and someone from the Family Practice we go to. We had some yummy and surprisingly inexpensive food and ice cream. It was a really fun day together.
For the last six months we've had trouble with it overheating. The side panel is constantly off with a fan blowing directly on it - and we were getting to the point where that wasn't able to control the heat. It was pretty funny to just look inside and see the quarter inch of dust on everthing. 
On top of that, our 40GB hard dive has been "yelling" at us saying that it's out of room. After almost a year of that we've run out of things to delete. Luckily Damien is very resourceful when it comes to computers (surprise, surprise) and was able to buy new parts for less than even the cheapest Dell out there as well as use some of the parts from the old computer.
Orin had a blast "helping". He loved to just take everything out of the tool bag and name things as he did and then put them all back in. He loved our little electric screwdriver so we left the old computer out for a few days so he could practice using it. :-)
