So! Milly had a good time messing with us. Around midnight on the 2nd, she sent me to the hospital with contractions and dehydration. I was dialated to a three but the nurses got the contractions stopped. I was sent home with terbutaline and instructions to drink more water than 4 camels with cotton mouth. A week later, she did it again. This time it was around midnight (always in the middle of the night) the night before my baby shower. I stayed in the hospital for 2 days waiting to see if she would come. The doctor didn't want to give her any help because I was just shy of 36 weeks. So after two agonizing days of "will-she or won't-she" we went home with instructions to continue the terbutaline and some pain meds.
Fast forward another week. I'm 37 weeks and I'm tired. Milly has dropped into my pelvic bone and is REALLY heavy. She's laying all on the right side of my body and it's making my right foot/ankle swell up. (Just the right leg. SO ANNOYING.) I'm still having sporadic contractions that bring me to tears but never get consistent enough to be called Real Labor. The terbutaline makes me tremble and shake.
This kid better be seriously cute.
On Tuesday the 18th, I have a bad day. I'm tired and I just feel like laying around. I want everyone to go away. I put the kids down for their nap at 12:00 and climb into the tub to try to relax. I begin to pray, asking God for guidance and strength. The prayer turns to sobbing as I cry out to the Lord. I no longer know what I want or what I need. I then remember Matthew 6:8.
"The Father knows what you need before you ask."
Trusting in this, I simply cry and let my Heavenly Father comfort me. Peace rushes over me in waves. I am able to calm down. God brings other people to the front of my mind and I am able to really pray over them. I get out of the tub refreshed and peaceful about the whole situation. God will bring Milly when it's time. He'll take care of everything. That night, I went to what I thought was my Ladies Bible Study. Instead, they surprised me with a baby shower! I had a wonderful evening of fellowship and laughter that just made me feel even better. I came home with a full heart. I shared my day with Ben who laughed and cuddled me. We fell asleep easily that night.
Around 1:45, I got up for one of my nightly trips to the bathroom when I felt something familiar. My foot hit the tile and GUSH. (Ref: http://www.kittencrush.com/?p=189 ) Luckily, Ben was only half asleep and got up pretty quick. We grinned at the similarities between Milly and Sophie and called the necessary people. Once at the hospital, I got hooked up to the monitors and settled in to labor. It was nice not to be hooked up to a million things to make the labor stop but to have everyone encouraging me to keep going. We ended up watching Star Trek TNG and breathing through contractions. Finally I got uncomfortable enough to ask for the epidural. The doctor also wanted to hook me up to some Pitocin to make my contractions a little more effective at dialating me. (I was still just at a three.) Since Milly is my third child and I was being encouraged by medicine I really thought it would go faster than the last time. Alas, no.
After hours and HOURS of increasing pressure and then pain that even slipped past the epidural, I was exhausted. Ben held me when I cried, he fetched about 938 cups of ice, updated family and friends, rubbed my half numb feet, reminded me to breathe and reassured me that this would end. Good Lord, I love that man! The epidural was working but kept settling into whatever side I was laying on. I kept having to call the nurse to turn me like a hot dog.
Finally, FINALLY, we arrived at full dialation and my doctor said it was time. With a nurse on one side and Ben on the other, I concentrated all of my might and Millicent Mei Dyer came into the world at 2:41 PM. She gurgled and gasped a bit too much so they whisked her to the warmer to get the gunk out of her mouth. After she was clean, they wrapped her and brought her to me. Gazing down at that little mummy-burrito baby with giant alert eyes, I again felt tears coming again. This time it wasn't because of pain, fatigue, anxiety or anger. These were tears of love and gratitude. I thanked my Heavenly Father for giving me such an amazing gift in His perfect timing. I thanked Him for reminding me the day before that He was always in charge and that He would never put me down. I thanked Him for answering the hundreds of prayers from the last nine months and giving us a healthy full term baby.
I thanked Him for Milly.
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