…on her sixth birthday.
I can’t believe she’s six years old. This girl makes me so proud every single day. She has the sweetest spirit and is the smartest kid I know.
Her due date was February 6, 2015, but I refused to be induced. She would come on her own terms, and besides, we were only a thirty minute drive to the hospital. …and I knew that Leslie could get us there in half the time, if he needed to. So I wasn’t too worried about delivering in the car.
I had gotten my first chiropractic adjustment of my life on her due date (or maybe the day before), just to get everything lined up and ready to go. I highly recommend this.
I laid around all weekend while Leslie worked, just waiting for something to happen.
Nothing.
So on February 7, we decided to go to dinner with my parents and some family friends after Leslie got home from work that evening. I started getting ready, and noticed that I was cramping and my stomach was tightening a bit.
I tried to ignore it, because I didn’t want to be one of those first time moms who got sent home from the hospital for false labor or whatever.
So I casually started glancing at the clock (while getting ready for dinner) every time I had the cramping. It was literally happening every five minutes on the dot.
I mentioned it to Leslie, and he suggested that we bring our hospital bag just in case. I declined.
Not sure what my reasoning was though.
We went to dinner, and the cramps got more intense, while remaining five minutes apart. I found myself having to breathe through cramps by the time we left dinner. Odd, I thought.
So we started to head home, when Leslie mentioned that we could just swing by the hospital and check in. It wouldn’t be a big deal if they ended up sending us home, really.
I declined, but he insisted.
So we compromised and I made him call the maternity center to fill them in on the situation and see what they thought. They said they’d call my doctor and call us back. So we parked outside of the maternity center and waited for them to call. We waited for probably an hour, and they never called.
Leslie finally went inside because my cramps were so painful at this point, I think it scared him.
Thank goodness, because they said they had tried to call me several times to tell me to come in and get checked immediately. (Guess they had written the wrong number down)
He came back out and got me from the car, and we walked into the hospital together full of excitement.
THIS MIGHT REALLY BE HAPPENING.
Side note — my nurse later told us that she thought she was going to have to send me home for sure, because I came in with a smile on my face, as opposed to being doubled over in pain. (What can I say, I’m tough like that lol)
Anyway, they took us into the smallest room possible and hooked me up to a machine to monitor my contractions and check for dilation.
I had dilated to 3-4 cm, and my contractions were legit. So they transferred us to a bigger room to be admitted. We were not going home without a baby at this point!
I immediately regretted not bringing our hospital bag. Lol
Things were going well. We were tired, it was well past midnight at this point, and Leslie had been up since 5am the morning before for work, but the excitement kept us going.
I didn’t want a waiting room full of people, so I wouldn’t let Leslie text anyone except for my mom to tell her to come up there (and ask if she would go get our bag!) She refused to get our bag, for fear of missing her first grandchild’s birth. Thanks Kimberly LOL.
Anyway, they decided to start me on pitocin to get things going. At some point I got an epidural and had my waters broken by the doctor. (Another side note: I liked my doctor at the time, but really didn’t care that he wasn’t the doctor on call that night.)
I remember feeling really hot the entire time I was in labor. I feel certain that I heard Leslie and the nurses talking about turning the temperature back up once the baby arrived, so she would be comfortable.
My epidural only took on one side of my body (I remember feeling EVERYTHING on my right side, and hardly anything on my left. I could still move my legs and everything too.) So I was still breathing through contractions, and all of that.
Around 6 in the morning, it was time to push.
I only pushed for twenty minutes, and Eleanor made her way into the world. Her cry was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. They laid her on my chest, and I just stared at her. It wasn’t one of those “immediate bonding” situations you hear of so often or anything; and to be clear, neither me nor Leslie had ever even changed a diaper before, so we were clueless as to what to do next.
They took her weight and did all of her testing, and we navigated learning to breastfeed. It was a whirlwind of a night / morning. We were so exhausted at this point, but because the sun was coming out, visitors started pouring in throughout the day. WELL RESTED visitors, might I add. We had not slept in what felt like days. I just remember being so tired.
We stayed one full night after her arrival though, and were discharged the next morning. Still sleep deprived, but excited to go home.
Those first few nights were especially tough for us. We still hadn’t had any real sleep, and things weren’t looking good for us on that front. We were also in such shock that they just sent us home with this baby, without any tests to make sure we were fit to be parents or anything! Lol
We made it through though, all three of us. Together.
And now our sweet little 7lb 2oz baby girl is SIX YEARS OLD.
Even though we’re technically the ones raising her, she’s taught us a whole heck of a lot more about life in her six years than we ever knew before.
She lights up every room that’s lucky enough to hold her, and we’re just beyond fortunate that she’s ours to love forever.
Happy Birthday to my best girl, Eleanor Goldie Sumner.
Love this and you!