Finding Joy

I think little miracles happen every day. It's just up to us to find and recognize them. But sometimes we get big miracles. For us, one of those big miracles came very quickly in a sweet little package early Saturday morning.

At my 36 week appointment I tested positive for Strep B, which meant I needed to be in the hospital 4 hours before I gave birth to get antibiotics. I was a little worried about this, since with The Captain I barely made it to the hospital in time to push, and I was only in delivery for about an hour and a half. So I asked my midwife what would happen if I didn't get there in time to get 2 doses of antibiotics (which is what they like to give, and they need to be 4 hours apart, hence the 4 hour deadline). She said they would have to do blood cultures on the baby and she'd probably have to stay longer in the hospital.

My labor with The Captain went so well, but everyone told me the next one would be shorter, so I was planning on going to the hospital earlier. It was going to take us an hour to drive there, plus I had to make sure The Captain was taken care of. So I just prayed that my water would break first again, so I could know when things were starting and take care of everything and still make it to the hospital.

So when I started having contractions Thursday in the late afternoon, I was a little disappointed. They were strong, as in I had to stop what I was doing when I got one, but not at all regular, and after laying down for awhile, they went away. I had a few more mild ones Friday morning, then nothing. I called my Mom in the morning because I didn't think I'd last more than a few days, to give her a chance to buy plane tickets and be prepared.

We had plans Friday night to go out to dinner with the interns that were leaving Johnny's work. Before we left I started getting a few contractions, but they were still mild. Johnny asked me if he should get the hospital bag in the car, just in case. We debated for a minute, but in the end I said I didn't think it would get that serious. I suppose in hind sight, it would have been a good idea. On the drive up to dinner, they got serious. They were long, like 2 minutes, and happened every 10-15. They were really painful because they pinched multiple nerves in my pelvis, which made it extremely difficult to relax through them, or just breathe really. Getting up and moving helped calm things down, and I made it through dinner. In fact, I felt pretty good by the end. We told people that we would still have Game Night at our house, if they wanted to come. On the way up, I was worried that I'd have to go lie down, but the ride down was manageable. We put The Captain to bed without too much trouble, and standing for awhile calmed things down. Which was good since people did come over.

Luckily for me, we didn't end up playing any games, just talking. Also luckily for me, we had all just eaten, so the fact that I didn't have treats was a plus. I got a few contractions while everyone was over, but I just had to stop talking during them, hopefully no one noticed. Well, except Johnny. Everyone was very tired, so they left around 10:30. We went up to bed, and I hoped that like Thursday, the contractions would go away and I could get some sleep. Sadly, that's where my luck ran out.

Johnny helped me through a few contractions, then asked to get a little sleep so he would be ready when I needed him. I tried to sleep, but I had to get up to go to the bathroom three or four times. I hated it because every time I stood up, I'd get a really hard contraction. Finally, I figured out that this baby was coming tonight. Since my water hadn't broken, I decided to get in the tub, hoping that would help me relax. I hadn't found a comfortable position thus far, and was having a lot of trouble mentally and physically committing myself to success. The tub helped a little, but I started having 1 1/2 contractions pretty rapidly. I knew it was time to get someone to watch The Captain and go to the hospital.

The two people who live close to me that I knew I could call in the middle of the night were out of town, so I called someone far away. . . and got a voice mail. Then I called my mom, to freak out of course. Johnny was frantically putting things in the car, and in the 11 minutes we were on the phone, she talked me through 3 or 4 contractions. She also gave me a few ideas of who to call. But after several failed attempts to get dressed, and Johnny's help through a few more contractions, I felt like I'd have to push, and I knew we wouldn't make it.

I threw myself on the pile of pillows on the bed and Johnny gave me a blessing. I told him I had to push. He told me to go ahead, and I wondered how he knew it was okay. I'm sure he didn't, but that was what I needed to hear. First push, my water broke. Third push, she was crowning. Fifth push, she was here, crying and healthy. It was less than 20 minutes after I'd got off the phone with my mom. 1:30 am.

We cleaned up, got some sleep, and went to the hospital later that morning. We had to be there for 48 hours until the blood work on little Joy came back negative for infection. Which it did. She's perfect, and I feel great, too.