Unlike her big sisters, who were both born a few days before their due dates, Zae made us wait for her arrival. Baby Tres was due on January 21. Though I was trying hard to be patient, by Sunday the 25th I was definitely more than ready to meet my baby. Waiting is not easy! Nanny and Papa were staying with us, and that evening we stayed up until about 10:30 playing Qwerkle, and then went to bed.
I woke up at 12:10 to what seemed like it could be a different kind of contraction than the Braxton-Hicks painless ones I'd been having for weeks. After a couple more, Caleb and I decided we should head to the hospital. Since Athena had come so quickly, we didn't want to risk an unplanned homebirth! So we called our team -- Lisa (our doula), Ahya, Nana, and Jen -- and woke up Nanny and Papa, and drove to the hospital. At about 1:30 am, we got to the delivery room and the nurse checked my dilation: 4 cm, same as I had been 5 days earlier at my last doctor's appointment. I was still having contractions, but was definitely wondering if this was a false alarm. The nurse and on-call doctor decided to do a labor check, meaning that we'd hang out for a couple of hours and then they'd check me again.
On her way to the hospital, Jen had dropped Mia off at our house to be with Mazie and Athena so that Nanny and Papa could come to the hospital. But since it looked like it could be a while before things actually started happening, we told them to stay home a little longer and try to rest.
We spent the next couple of hours walking around the hospital floor and trying to keep my contractions coming. With both Mazie and Athena, I hadn't gotten to the hospital until I was in very active labor (7+ cm) so it was strange and kind of fun to have this relaxed, early labor experience, but also a little stressful trying to make sure things were moving along so they wouldn't send us home. We really, really wanted to meet this baby!
At 3:45, I was put on the monitor to check my contractions and baby's heartbeat. My contractions were about 2-3 min apart and were strong enough that I had to breathe through them. I was feeling hopeful -- it definitely felt like I was in labor by now! A little after 4 am, the nurse checked my dilation again and delivered the verdict: "Well, you've made some progress. You're at 4 and a half centimeters." Oof. Lisa reassured me that this was good news: early labor gets you up to 5 cm, so I was almost done with that and things would probably move more quickly from that point. I was a little discouraged but tried to stay positive.
The nurse and doctor decided to extend my labor check -- rather than admitting me at that point and putting me "on the clock" with hourly checks, they would leave me alone for another two hours and see where we were at that point. It was 4:30 am, and the nurse said she'd be back at 6:15. Since we'd been up since midnight or so, we decided to all lie down and rest for a while. Lisa said she thought it would be great if I could sleep through another centimeter or so. I doubted I'd actually sleep, but lying down to rest sounded like a good idea. So I got in bed, Caleb put a cushion down on the floor next to me, Nana rested next to him, Ahya took the couch, and Lisa and Jen went out into the hallway.
After about 20 or 30 minutes, my contractions started getting a lot stronger and I wasn't comfortable in bed anymore. I got up and went to the bathroom, and started having even stronger contractions. The rest of the team got up. I came out of the bathroom and felt like I had to throw up, so I went back into the bathroom and stood by the toilet. I remember thinking that this was REALLY intense for only being 4 cm dilated -- how on earth was I going to make it through another several hours of this? Then with another strong contraction, my water broke at about 5:07 am. Jen texted Nanny and Papa and told them things were picking up and they should get ready to come to the hospital. My next contractions were really strong and I was feeling a lot of pressure. Lisa had me look up and blow out during the contractions.
We came out of the bathroom, had another contraction, and then Caleb suggested I get onto the bed. I got on the bed on my knees and put my arms around Caleb's neck. The nurse had just come into the room and had a glove on to check my dilation. With the next contraction I felt a lot of pressure and Lisa continued to coach me to look up and blow out in puffs. The pressure kept getting stronger... and then it was gone. I reached down and announced "The head's out!" Much scrambling ensued... the doctor wasn't in the room, the nurse just had one glove on, and Caleb was trying to get someone to put gloves on him so he could help catch the baby. I believe his exact words were something like, "Gloves! Can someone get me gloves? THE F*CKING GLOVES!!" Meanwhile, I was feeling great... such relief. It's amazing how comfortable it can be to have a human halfway in you once that hard head is out. Lisa and the doula had to remind me that my work wasn't quite done and that I still had to push (my first actual push) to get the rest of the baby out. So I did, and the baby was out, and I flopped back onto the bed and looked down: a baby girl! I heard them announce the time: "Baby girl at 5:17 am." They brought her up to my chest. Pure bliss.
Nanny and Papa got to the room just a few minutes after Zae was born, and probably just a minute or two after the doctor. We called Mia and she woke up the big sisters and they were able to see their baby via FaceTime. We even put the camera between Zae's legs so they could see if they had a little brother or sister! (Mazie made the correct diagnosis, but apparently Athena was a little deceived by the umbilical cord.) Mazie had big happy tears running down her face. We had been planning to have her at the birth, but unfortunately due to flu precautions the hospital was not allowing any children under 18.
For this reason, we were determined to get home as quickly as we could. In the end the hospital staff was great and understanding, and at about 2 pm Nanny and Papa and Ahya brought Mazie and Athena to the hospital, and we checked out and met them downstairs and went home!
We're so grateful for another perfect baby, and are so excited to see who she becomes! Welcome, our little Zae-by. We love you so much already!
Thanks to Lisa Waldo, our doula, for many of these lovely pictures! More Zae pics here.
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