baby girl # 3 | the hudson clan

I have a ton to be thankful for. Without a doubt.

I had hoped that I could add “baby being born” to yesterday’s list. However, it was not to be.

All I can say is the labor is confusing. It changes dramatically from child to child (at least for me) and it makes me feel like a complete rookie/moron when it comes to reading the signs of my body.

You read all the pregnancy stuff… the books, the websites, the forums. Your doc gives you the same mantra that everyone else does…

“when your contractions are 5 min apart for 1-2 hours, come to hospital.”

So at 1am on Tuesday morning, my contractions were coming 3-4 min apart for an hour. But i was tired and A.) didn’t want to call my neighbor at 2am to come over and stay while we ran to the hospital, and B.) was not at all sure i could even rouse my sleeping hubby at that hour. So, I got in bed and fell asleep. Woke up around 4:30, still feeling contractions. Told John we were probably going to head to the hospital this morning once we could find somewhere for the girls to go and once the contractions picked up again.

And they picked up and started to actually cause me to grunt in pain at times. And we got a hold of my superstar neighbor, Christine, who agreed to keep the girls that morning (oh poor Christine… just read about HER morning here… .

We went to the hospital. I got hooked up to the monitors. Contractions were coming hard and fast… like 2-3 min apart. Everyone was sure this was is. I mean, why wouldn’t it be?

And then they checked my cervix. No progress. Nada. Nothing. Talk about deflating. But the OB said to just walk for an hour and see if that helped.

So I walked an L shaped pathway on the 3rd floor of Holy Cross for an hour… felt like my back and pelvis was going to literally fall apart into pieces. John was amazingly supportive and walked with me, making inappropriate comments about people and artwork (in the maternity ward) at every turn.. complaining about how exhausting this was for him etc. Definitely was my comic relief, whether I wanted it or not.

Got back in bed, harder, faster, way more painful contractions. Hope. Excitement.

No change in my cervix. Baby is obviously messing with us. I started crying. The nurse took pity. Said to walk another hour. Do squats with the contractions. I did. I was sure it was working. I was worried baby would be born on the carpet of the 3rd floor hall at times during the squats. I think other people were afraid of that too… judging by their looks. Whatever. At this point I would have walked the halls naked and done whatever they told me to have this baby.

Went back to bed… hooked up to the monitor. Contractions had slowed and the cervix hadn’t budged.

They sent me home. Of course, I could look on the bright side…. the side that says “Hey! This is the start of the process… this is it! Baby is coming soon. Baby is healthy. This is great!” But unfortunately, all I could see was the other side… the side that said, “WE WERE SO CLOSE. We were at the hospital. The contractions were out of control. This could have been the day.” And yes, I just wanted to sit down and cry.

But instead, we picked up the girls, brought them home, and all took long naps.

And it is Wednesday now and baby seems to be very comfortable where she is. And so I wait. Trying to wait patiently, joyfully, contentedly. Trying.

But in the meantime, I get to get caught up on more projects and clean the house some more…. yea!! Nesting has its perks for sure. My level of productivity has increased exponentially. My crafting desires have gone out of control, however. Maybe I need to unsubscribe to the many amazing crafty blogs I watch. So. Inspiring.

Here are a few pics of some of my favorite people and favorite things we have been enjoying the last couple of weeks….

Pumpkin carving/pumpkin graphitti with neighbor friends:

Halloween 2010: the fairy princess and the monkey…. unbelievably appropriate to their personalities. i love the fairy princess’ originality… random dress up thrift store dress + fuzzy princess crown from garage sale + fairy wings borrowed from neighbor + dollar store gaudy gold earrings + sparkly red shoes+ prison tat (temp tattoo on her NECK that looked like a prison tattoo) = fairy princess, of course.