The short story (even the long version is a short story):
I had my 39 week appointment and found out I was dilated more than a person walking around should be. Particularly someone on her third pregnancy and with a history of quick exits. I think the doctor's exact words were, "I think I'm seeing how you had a baby at home." We were given marching orders to go straight to the hospital and check in. They'd be expecting me.
The previous few days I had had occasional contractions but nothing to write home about so this was finally getting exciting. Both boys were at school and Grandma would soon be on her way down to help out with them. I didn't feel like I was in "labor" but whatever, it was baby day!
Hospital selfie, why not?
We checked into the hospital and it all went pretty fast from there. The whole process of ejecting this "business day baby" occurred between mid-morning coffee break and afternoon tea.
Mystery Baby R3 turned out to be a little GIRL (!!!) who came out:
- 5 hours after a routine doctor's appointment.
- 4 hours after arriving at the hospital.
- 3 hours after "labor" started.
- Less than 1 hour after that receiving that blessed epidural!
The doctor who broke my water said he'd give me until 2:30 to show progress before starting Pitocin and the baby was born at 2:37. Bam! Showed him! He even had to skip his coffee break so he wouldn't miss it.
That same evening it started snowing and then everything iced over. Our town was placed on curfew the next night so people would stay inside instead of going out and doing dumb things. It was nice and cozy inside our hospital room and we had a great view from the 4th floor.
An unusually snowy backdrop for our first Georgia baby!
Little girl did us a huge favor by arriving on Tuesday 1/16. It was the only day the boys went to school that week, between the MLK holiday and the snowstorm that froze half the state and cancelled school for the next three days. A day later and we likely would've had issues getting my parents here and getting to the hospital.
She met her brothers on her birthday and I'm guessing she recognized the boisterous soundtrack of her womb-life.
Her brothers go back and forth between being sort of into her and not really noticing her.
She's a very chill baby and likes to zen out with her hands up. Both grandmas made quick work of getting her some feminine outfits to compliment her gender-neutral/boyish wardrobe.
Here are a couple of pics from her newborn shoot by jacieshofieldphotography.
