Happy Birthday, Lauren Grace

Well, we are officially a family of four.  

Lauren Grace made her dramatic arrival into our lives at 12:08am.  

I think that our girls are either trying to remind us that we're not in control or warn us that we're in for it when they get older....either way, we've managed to have two "impatient" little ones thus far.  Hannah couldn't wait to be born and was 10 weeks early.....Lauren at least made it to term, but when she decided she was ready to be born, out she came, about 30 minutes after my water broke.  I'll do a separate post with the (much) longer version of events for those who are truly interested, but for the rest of the world who just wants to know the basics of what happened last night, keep reading.....

Around 8pm last night I started to keep track of this funny pain in my tailbone.  It didn't feel like the contractions that I had with Hannah, and was more uncomfortable than painful.  However, it was like a wave that would come and go and when I started to keep track, there was no pattern -- 12 minutes, then 8 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 6 minutes.....since my doctor had told me there was no need to go to the hospital until contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour, I didn't think much of it.  Plus, on a pain scale it was only a 2-3 out of 10.  Around 10pm Jon and I (finally) narrowed down our name list to four names, since we hadn't really discussed it much at all before last night.  About 11pm I had a bowl of cereal and went to bed.  I'd been on the phone with my cousin, who told me it was likely early labor and I should at least have my bags packed, but I should try to sleep if I could.  Once I was in bed, I had 3 contractions that were 5 minutes apart and then my water broke.  Poor Jon was up rubbing my back, then I sent him downstairs for a heating pad, then yelled for him to come back because my water broke...he really needed the ability to clone himself.

Once my water broke, I headed to the bathroom to clean up, promptly had 2 contractions that had me doubled over in pain (7-8 on the 10 point pain scale) and told myself that I was definitely getting an epidural the minute we got to Riverside (our hospital).  Jon called his sister to come over and stay with Hannah and I called the doctor's office (where the recording said to go directly to the hospital if your membranes had ruptured).  While Jon was loading up the car and we were waiting on his sister, I felt the urge to push.  This occurred no more than 10-15 minutes after my water broke.  I told Jon to call 911.  At first he was hesitant because he figured they'd show up and say "yep, you're in labor," but he called anyways.  The dispatcher had me lay on my side on the floor and had Jon cover me with a blanket.  A few minutes later, Jon's sister arrived, followed immediately by the EMT's.  Apparently the EMT's were strolling up to the house expecting to just transport me to the hospital.  Jon met them and told them I was having the baby "right now" and they ran up to our bathroom....when the EMT checked me, the first thing he said was "she's crowning folks."

And so, Lauren Grace arrived about 30 minutes after my water broke.  I was laying on our ceramic tile bathroom floor (not the most comfortable place to be when giving birth), with two teams of EMTs in my bathroom.  I'll say that the EMT's didn't do much other than catch the baby (and out of four of them, only one of them had prior childbirth on the job experience -- I was #3 in 19 years of being an EMT).....one lady tried to remind me to "remember your breathing" but I was planning a hospital birth, where the nurses talk you through that kind of thing.  I wasn't prepared to think or even talk while the whole birthing process was going on -- I was just screaming through the pain because there wasn't anyone to help me settle down and focus.  All I know is that it hurt like I was on fire, but the pain was over fairly quickly.  (Well, I assume it was quick based on the timing of events, but it seemed like forever when I was pushing...and in fact at one point declared myself "done" before she was all of the way out.)  Lauren opened her eyes and cried right away, which put Jon at ease.  Once Lauren was born, they transported us to the hospital....unfortunately, not the one where my OB group has privileges, but the one only 2 miles from my house.  It's a shame that we don't have pictures of me being wheeled out of the house on a stretcher and my new infant daughter being carried out by an EMT wrapped in one of our blue bath towels.  That would have been a great scrapbook page!

Needless to say, they took us to the hospital and checked everyone out.  We were both fine, but as a result of all of the commotion, we didn't get any pictures right away.....it was almost 3am before we were settled into our room, and then Jon left at 6:30am to head home to relieve Rachel, get Hannah, and bring her over to meet Lauren.  The pictures below were all taken about 10 hours after Lauren's arrival...ENJOY!

7 pounds of pure "cute"

Jon and his girls

Proud Papa

Mommy & Lauren