Dang it, I missed the first page with the race list. Was up much of the night, and was so tired and over caffeinated that I didn't think to check in until tonight.
On the plus side, I was up much of the night because my dear friend Misty had her baby at 5:24 this am. She's the friend whose little boy Lucas passed away in January. Her pregnancy has been anxiety filled and definitely colored by her grief, and it's been hard not to worry that something would happen to the new baby, too. (Her little boy who died had severe cerebral palsy from placental abruption at birth.) I'd seen her in the office on Tues, 2 days past her due date, and she was thinking about having my strip her membranes, but she decided to wait another day or two. She'd been having a lot of prodromal labor, and not sleeping great, but she was sure baby would be here soon. I talked to her dh last night, and he said she was having more irregular contractions, and had gone out to the video store, hoping that would start something (she'd made a trip to the video store just before baby #4 was born.) I was up late finishing some charting, and finally went to bed around 12:30.
At 2:45, Misty's dh called to say they were leaving for the hospital, and I got up and got dressed and headed there to meet them. (She was anxious about being there at night and having relatively inexperienced nurses she didn't know, so I'd planned to meet her.) She ended up beating me there by about 3 min. She was in good spirits, and contracting every 3-5 minutes, and still feeling pretty good. Baby looked great on the monitor, and her nearly 8 year old dd was happily bouncing around the room and making us all laugh. I checked her and she was 5-6 cms dilated.
We moved to a labor room, and continued the party. They called a friend (also a client of mine, and a family friend to us as well) to join us to officially take care of their dd (who, frankly, knows more about childbirth than most adults!) but also because they just wanted her to have the chance to witness the birth. Misty likes to labor upright, so she walked in the room, and bounced a bit on the ball, and knelt on the rocking chair facing the back of the chair. I listened to the baby every 15 min and we were having a good time chatting. Baby continued to look great, and Misty was happy that she didn't have even so much as a drop of bloody show (she'd had a lot of bleeding during her placental abruption and since then bleeding makes her understandably nervous.)
Finally, she started to need to breathe more with contractions, and was having a harder time choosing a comfortable position. She went back and forth to the bathroom a few times, and then decided to kneel on the bed. During her last birth, this had been almost the exact same chain of events - except that time she her water broke shortly after she knelt on the bed and the head was basically born as her water broke, and I barely got half a glove on to keep baby from splashing off the end of the bed. This time, as she got comfortably kneeling, with her upper body draped over the raised back of the bed, her dh said "you might want to get your half a glove on now!" and I decided to be really prepared and put 2 gloves on!
By the second contraction kneeling on the bed, she was pushing. Her dh stood behind the bed and held her hands and whispered in her ear, the friend rubbed her back from the side of the bed, and I sat behind her on the bed with her dd almost leaning on me to me close enough to see everything. We realized we had no nurse, and put the call light on, and there was a comical series of the nurse asking "Can I help you?" and then not hearing us, and so not coming, and we kept putting the light back on. (For pete's sake, if you're the labor nurse and you have a grand multip in labor with a history of rapid deliveries, maybe if the call light keeps going off you might come and check wants going on.) Misty's water broke with her first push, and with the next one the head was crowning. The nurse finally walked in as she pushed the head out (and complained that we didn't tell her what was going on.) Misty took a couple breaths and couple little pushes to push the shoulders out, and then baby boy #4 splashed out into my hands, with his sister immediately calling out "Oh, it's not a girl!" (she'd been hoping for a sister finally.) Baby was instantly pink and sputtered a bit and started to cry. Misty turned over and we passed the cord under her leg, and she scooped her new son out of my arms and snuggled him up to her face. Her dd snuggled up to them both on the bed and said "Oh, Mommy, I'm so glad he's hear - I don't care if he's a boy or a girl!"
I think we were all so relieved to have baby safely here, and the long pregnancy over with. Her dd cut the cord, and the placenta was born, and she had no tears and needed no stitches. Baby went to breast, and the dd called grandma and grandpa, and after a few tries the nurse gave up trying to take the baby from her for weighing and such. We all sat around and watched the baby nurse and looked at his huge little feet (if that makes sense!) and talked about how happy we all were. After an hour or so, we finally weighed the baby (8 lbs 5 oz) and the dh and dd held him for a while, while Misty (who looked like she'd never had a moments work!) took a quick shower. They opted for early discharge, and went home tonight to sleep in their own bed. Such a bittersweet day - filled with joy over the new baby, but also with memories of their lost little one.
So no running today, but I don't have to work tomorrow, and am hoping to take my Guts and Butts class and get in a short run as well. I still have 2 mamas overdue, so either could of course throw a wrench in those plans!