Chapter 10.5: The Next Generation

"Somethings wrong"

For most people this indicates that something is wrong. For me, this was my first indication that Addie was on her way. Becca had said - since I was busy at drill - that she would only call if she was in labor or the house was on fire. So to her this was the best way of alerting me that something was going on. Unfortunately, similarly to her laughing/crying when she fell down the stairs - this also confused me, I immediately responded with "Please explain", but also found a quiet place to call her from before she even had time to respond. Luckily, nothing was wrong, but it seemed that Addie was in a hurry - so I raced home from drill, calm but in a bit of shock - we'd convinced ourselves that we had it all figured out - Addison *would* be induced on 10/29 due to the gestational diabetes and that *would* be her birthday. Since we had it all figured out, Becca was rapidly packing a bag while I sped home.

False alarm

We got to the hospital right around 6:30pm with a hastily packed bag and a good deal of nervous excitement. Alas, when we got there we only made it as far as the Triage section where they determined that the discharge we had come in to check was not amniotic fluid and that we should just check with doctor during Becca's regular appointment on Wednesday. Somewhat disappointed, we headed home - the way I looked at it, we weren't ready so it made a good practice run and we resolved to put together a good bag (less hastily prepared on Monday afternoon after Becca got home from work). No worries, we'd be ready now that we've had a good practice run.
 

 Oh snap

Of course, the next morning - Addison again decided that she was gonna come when she well pleased. So as I groggily woke up, I found Becca already having contractions for a couple hours - most of which she had slept through or fallen back asleep after. We decided shortly thereafter to keep track of them - she was already about 4min between contractions each contraction lasting about 40 seconds - once again, time to go. Unfortunately, we still hadn't packed a better bag. This wouldn't have been such an issue, but  Becca was being incapacitated by the contractions and so I was using a stopwatch app to time her contractions. So in-between contractions - I was getting us ready - running back and forth, getting stuff for the bag, taking super-fast showers and of course fulfilling personal requests.

Again, with a sense of nervous excitement in the air, Becca sent an email saying she wouldn't be in to work and myself IM'ing my boss saying I'd be in late or possibly not at all today. We'd been timing for about an hour and we were ready to go in.

Sure enough, once we got to the hospital Becca was already 4cm dilated and 100% effaced (which was up from 2cm and 50% the night before). Of course, we were just surprised how fast this was all happening - we'd been expecting (a) she would be making her appearance on 10/29, (b) it would be a slow labor since it was our first kid and (c) it would be a slower labor because of the epidural. All in all Addie was set to completely throw all our expectations out the window - what a punk.

We got set up in our room for delivery and were standing by - just waiting for Addie to make her appearance. And so we wait. I was still coming to terms with the fact that we'd be there in the hospital for two more days still in a bit of shock about how fast all this was happening.

Showtime!

Our nurse got everything set up to monitor Addie's heartbeat and the contractions while the anesthesiologist got the epidural going. Then once everything was set up, everyone left to give Addie some time to simmer. Meanwhile Jan and Roger watched the contractions come and go and Becca felt the pressure of them as they occurred - growing a little concerned as they kept getting closer, but the nurse hadn't come back in to check on her. So the next time the nurse came by Becca mentioned she was feeling that pressure she was warned about - the nurse, a little surprised, decided to check out how things were going down below and to her surprise found that Becca was already 9.5cm dilated - Addie wasn't wasting any time at all!

Becca's doc was called in some pushing was done and about an hour later Addie made her appearance! Now, being a completely unbiased party I can assure you that she was the prettiest little baby girl I had ever seen. I was amazed at how calm Addie was - she had cried when she first popped out and then naturally when she was getting cleaned up, but for the most part she was just taking it all in - big bright eyes looking around and taking in all 8in distance that she could see. It's hard to believe such a pretty little girl is half mine.

Rob