In an effort to get my new blog up-to-date, I’m posting some oldies-but goodies;) I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy reflecting back on them!
Original blog post….
It was 5am. I was laying in bed when I started to feel slight cramping. Nothing horrible, but consistent cramping. Enough that I knew today would be the day.
I looked over at my 2-year-old and whispered to him as he slept, “This is the last morning it’ll be just us.” I started to cry. Tears of joy that we’d be welcoming another baby into our lives, and tears of sadness that my baby would now be referred to as our ‘big boy.’
By the time 7am rolled around, the cramping was picking up. I rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Bloody show – this was really it. We were having a baby today! I told Justin to get himself prepped and started texting his mom and aunts to see who would be available to take Conrad. With a sitter lined up, Justin headed to work to finish up a few things he needed to get done. I texted my bestie, Amanda in Milwaukee, to see if she could make it for photos, and my sister Wendy so she could coach me again! I also got our hospital bag packed and Conrad’s bags packed so we were ready to roll.
By the time 9am rolled around, Justin was back home and my contractions were about 4 minutes apart. Justin refused to let me stay home any longer, so he loaded the car as I sat on the couch trying to figure out what I forgot to pack. Pregnancy brain sucks – so I just needed a moment by myself to collect my thoughts. When I was ready, I headed out to the car.
We dropped Conrad off at Justin’s Aunt Stacy’s and I cried hysterically as we drove away. What would my baby think when we came home with a new baby? Would he still love his mama, or would he be mad at me forever?!
Obviously the emotions were taking over;)
We got to Oshkosh about 9:30am and decided to grab something to eat before we got to the hospital – so through the McDonald’s drive thru we went! We followed that stop with a Walgreens visit for hospital snacks and tums to cover my acid reflux. My contractions at this point were too strong to be seen in public with, so Justin went in by himself. As you can probably imagine, I was swearing at him by the time he came out – it felt like he took an eternity in there!
We pulled into the hospital parking lot and started unloading the car between contractions. Once we had our bags we headed into the hospital, up the elevator to the 3rd floor and walked up to the nurses desk.
“What can we help you with?”
“We’re here to have a baby!” I responded.
Our nurse led us into our room. I quickly changed into the hospital gown so she could check me — we were already at 7cm – it was 10:30am. I was supposed to get 4 hours of antibiotics into my system – but I knew then that there wouldn’t be enough time for that!
After failed attempts to go to the bathroom, I continued moving around the room to get this baby rolling…..walked, rested on the backside of the bed, etc.
When I finally laid down on my side, I knew it was time!
“I need to push, call the midwife,” I said to the nurse.
She did just that. When Loree, our midwife, got into the room she wanted to check me – within a millisecond of her sticking her hand in to see where I was at – my water burst everywhere! So much for the clean sheets they intended for me – it was quite the mess! It was also time to start pushing as I had quickly reached 9.5 cm!
The nurses got me flipped to my back, held my legs up for me and I started pushing. I won’t go into gritty details, but the pushing went much faster with baby number 2! Just 7 minutes later, there he was!!! The midwife told me to look down as he was coming out – balls and all – I became a mommy to my second baby boy at 11:53am on August 10th, 2017. Nash Roger Rhode was absolutely perfect – all 8lbs8ozs and 22 inches of him!
Photo credit goes to Amanda La Count-Sawinski
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