Logan and Sydney: Choice’s Birth Story: Too Much Information (As most birth stories are)

This time around we didn’t find out the gender. We thought that it really didn’t matter since we had everything we needed for a boy or a girl and all you really need are diapers anyway. It was Logan’s idea not to find out, and I thought it was really going to bother me, but it was such a neat experience that I almost wish we hadn’t found out with the other two.

I had an appointment with Dr. Chamberlain on May 22. He said I was progressing and that really should have been an indicator because I never show any signs of having a baby until I am actually having a baby. I had a few contractions here and there all afternoon, and while helping Logan install the new microwave that evening, I even went so far as to download a contraction timing app on my phone, but things were sporadic, not really painful, and I thought I might go into labor the next day, so I washed my hair before we went to bed, just in case.

We went to bed about 10:30. I hadn’t had a contraction since my shower so I thought that I would probably get a decent nights rest, but I started getting little uncomfortable contractions about 7ish minutes apart. I just stayed in bed because Logan was sleeping. During one contraction at about 11:30 I heard a loud popping sound. I stood up and some fluid leaked out. I woke Logan up and told him I thought my water had broken. He was like, “What?! Let’s go to the hospital.” But I didn’t want to go yet. Things didn’t seem like they were moving very fast and I didn’t want to labor at the hospital for hours like I did with Chap, or even just a couple like I did with Merit. My water breaking, even just a little bit, made things hurt worse and move more quickly. I remembered from Merit that things felt about 80% more bearable if I could just keep my legs relaxed. So that was my goal.

At 12:14 we started trying to call Anisa to come stay with the kids. I didn’t want to call earlier because once you start telling people, the pressure is on. You have to produce a baby. No false alarms, you know? We called her 5 times in about 2 minutes but she didn’t answer. So we decided to call our sweet, sweet neighbor Janice at 12:16. I could hear her when she picked up the phone and the first words out of her mouth were, “Are you going to the hospital? Let me put on some pants and I’ll be right down.” Seriously, she was a life saver. She walked down a few minutes later. I was still shoving things into my hospital bag, and Logan was looking for my sewing tape measure because with the other two we had a belly measuring picture with the tape measure just before we went to the hospital. I was leaning over the kitchen counter and Janice was rubbing my back while Logan frantically searched. I was at the point I didn’t care anymore when he found it. We snapped a quick picture and then Merit woke up. I was trying to comfort Merit in the hopes that we could get her back to sleep before we left when Janice said that we should probably go. The contractions were pretty close at this point. And we left poor Janice with a crying toddler. I felt so, so bad. She said she was happy to pay back this favor, since the Degan’s had done this for her twice before.

We took Logan’s truck to the hospital so that whoever had the kids in the morning would have the van and car seats. I remember hitting a red light at Blvd. and Bluff and wanting to cry. I remember a song that I absolutely hate coming on the radio and that I didn’t even care enough to change it. That is when I knew things were getting serious, haha. But weirdly, I always feel like I'm in a similar amount of pain going to the hospital each time. And each time I am so much further along than I was the time before.

We got to the hospital and they made me walk to the far side of the nurse’s desk over by triage. I was so annoyed. I was thinking that if they put me in triage I would hurt someone. But thank heavens, triage was full. They walked me into the nearest room right across from the nurse's desk. As soon as I walked in I was like, “Oh crap, I’m having a baby right now!”

Super embarrassing, but I pretty much just took my pants off and sat on the bed. She said I had to lie down to be checked and I seriously didn’t know if I could move that far to lie down. When she checked me she told me I was complete and ready to deliver. She yelled for another nurse to call my doctor, who lives in Winchester Hills :( And almost immediately that crazy urge to push hit me like a brick wall and I knew he wouldn’t get there fast enough. The OB on call came in and everyone basically just stared at the crazy lady with no pants on and told me that if I could just breathe through the contractions that I wouldn’t have the urge to push. Um, how long have you been working in Labor and Delivery? Have you never seen a natural birth? Because the most accurate description I have ever heard is that it is like vomiting a baby. When you have to vomit, you vomit whether you want to or not and there was no way in heck I could stop pushing. I vaguely remember someone attempting to place an IV in my hand and I was like that is not happening. I never even got strapped to a monitor. They never broke down the bed. And no one ever helped me. After a few minutes of a whole team of people just standing around staring at me like I was insane, Logan looked down and said, “Um, the head is out.” Then the OB on call was like, “Oh!” and came and caught her body.

This was unusual because normally you are sitting up in the bed and can kind of see the baby, but I was laying flat in the bed, and I couldn’t see her at all. I asked Logan if it was a boy or a girl and he said girl and I just started crying. I was never emotional with the other ones. I don’t know if it was the quick labor or the surprise of her gender or what but I was emotional. At this point my doctor came running in and the first thing he did was cover me with a sheet. He was super annoyed that I was just laying there exposed and no one trying to do anything for me. They didn’t hand her to me right away because I was still in my normal shirt and I had to get into a gown to do skin to skin. But I felt great! I only took one ibuprofen the whole recovery. My paperwork shows that I was admitted at 12:45 and she was born at 12:55. That is what I call fast! And I had the hardest time remembering that her birthday is on May 23 since it still felt like May 22. Also, we forgot the camera. After we took the belly picture, we left it on the counter. Bummer.

It was awesome to be able to walk immediately. With Merit the epidural kicked in after she was born so I still couldn’t walk immediately. I seriously would have walked up to the post partum floor if they would have let me. When Logan left at 5:30 to go rescue Janice I wanted to go home SO BADLY! They wouldn’t let us leave until she was 18 hours old and that was a very, very long 18 hours. I never thought I’d say this, but if we have another baby (and I don’t think we will), I would have it at home. I have survived a completely un-medicated birth and all I wanted afterward was to get into my own bed.

Her name is Choice Hannah, Choice; the adjective form of the word meaning excellent, elect, precious or rare. And that was not the name we went to the hospital with. Her name going to the hospital was either Summit James or Memory Marie. We had talked about Choice before, and I didn’t like that it was a single syllable, but when we saw her we knew Memory wasn’t right, and she looked like a little Choice. So far we have got some weird reactions, which are nothing new, and only one person has understood her name. On our vacation an older lady asked what her name was and when I told her she replied, “Well, she sure is choice, what a pretty name.” We love our Choicey-roo-roo, as Chapter the nickname giver has named her.