Daddy - the unexpected catcher

It was exactly a week before my due date, and this being my fifth baby, I didn't expect to go into labor early. All the other 4 were overdue by at least 4 days. It was a Monday morning, very early. I had insomnia the night before, so I was just crawling into bed with dh and a ds at 6:00am.

Ds was restless, so we were just snuggling together when I got my first contraction. It was kind of rough, but not too bad. I figured it would pass. Of course it did. But then two minutes later I had another one. I thought, "Man, these really hurt when I'm not even due for a week!" After the fourth one I decided to get into the shower to see if they would calm down. In the shower, they only got worse.

Oh, I should mention at this point that I am a big baby when it comes to pain. I had a hospital birth planned, along with an epidural. But, by the time I got out of the shower, I told Dh, "You better call your sister" so she could watch the other kids. He is hesitant at first, with it being so early in the morning. Apparently he didn't think I could really be in labor either.

He casually gets out of bed and goes downstairs to call his sister, who doesn't answer the phone because she's in bed. Meanwhile I am panting in the bathroom with contractions that are now about a minute apart and really painful. My water broke while I was still in the bathroom, and the contractions started coming in almost constant waves.

I am starting to yell at dh to get someone to the house to watch the kids because I had to go NOW. As I started to try to get dressed, I began to shake uncontrollably and cry. I knew I was in transition already, and I am scared out of my mind.

I give up trying to get dressed and instead kneel next to the bed, burying my face in the covers to stifle my loud moans. I finally tell hubby to call an ambulance because I need to push. FINALLY he starts to look a bit alarmed. He asks me if I'm sure, and I say YES.

So while he goes back downstairs to get the cordless, I am already starting to push. Well, my body is taking care of it, I really have no control at this point. He comes back up the stairs and is on the phone with the 911 operator, who is telling him to have me lay on my back (a VERY unnatural position for giving birth I discovered) to see if there's a bulge.

Yep, there's a bulge. Dh says, "Don't push." I'm screaming "I have to get it out!" (Yes, I feel guilty about saying that now) and I push like there's no tomorrow because all I care about is the pain going away. About three minutes later, dh holds out his hands to catch wet little dd before she hits the floor. She looked up at him, looked at me, then laid her head down to take a snooze. "Is she breathing?" I ask over and over. "Yes, she's breathing."

About a minute later, the meds arrive. I tell them they're too little too late. Five men walk into my bedroom as I am sitting with my legs up in the air and an umbilical cord coming from me. They cut the cord, but spend the next 15 minutes poking and rubbing on her, trying to get her to cry. There's nothing wrong with her, she just doesn't feel like crying!

So I get a fun ambulance ride to the hospital, complete with sirens (there was a lot of traffic), and I end up having to spend 24 hours there. : Hannah Grace was born Oct. 24, 2005. 9lbs 2 oz and beautiful!

She never did cry the whole rest of that day. :