Just as I was starting to think I would be pregnant forever.......God finally blessed us to have baby #7 rather unexpectedly and quickly! I went over my "due date" by 5 days and had the most intense Braxton hicks contractions starting at about 38 weeks. My husband came home on leave at 39 weeks and 3 days, so I was even prepared to have baby without him being home since we had half of our children at 38 weeks! So when Oct. 10th rolled around (40 WKS.) and I was still not in labor, I was then starting to prepare in my mind that my husband might have to go back on the road before the baby would be born! Every morning we prayed that, that day would be the day baby would be born....we went out to a park everyday to walk around and still nothing more than some pesky Braxton hicks contractions. With our last 5 births from Noah to Moses I experienced PROM (premature rupture of membranes) in other words my water would break way, way before I went into active labor! I would have to induce my own labor with a breast pump and herbs. So in my mind I am just waiting for my water to break for a good warning time that baby would be ready in the next day or two. However on early Saturday morning I was awoken out of sleep with intense contractions that I could not sleep through, still no water breaking so I just ignored them and did some laundry, took a shower and laid down in between contractions. Saturday morning we had planned to go out soul winning with our church....but decided to stay home since church is 40 min. Away and through an under water tunnel that can sometimes be blocked for 30-40 min. by the slightest fender bender, and I could just imagine that It would be just my luck to have to give birth in our van in traffic. We had planned to take the kids to the park again to walk around but I was just not up for that either, since I had been up all night with contractions. I spent most of the day trying to catch up on the sleep I lost the night before, but the contractions kept coming! I wasn't 100% sure I was in true labor since my water hadn't broken, but was concerned because of the amount and intensity of the contractions, so I wanted to go check on baby at the hospital to make sure baby was okay. I figured they would just send me back home if baby was fine and my water still hadn't broke. We left at about 4:15 pm. The contractions continued on the drive over which seemed really long with my husband driving super slow and catching almost all the red lights. Finally we got there and found the labor and delivery. I checked in and they told us to wait in the lobby while they prepared a room for us. My husband could tell I was very uncomfortable with the contractions and so after waiting 10 or 15 minutes we went back up to the front desk and there was a nurse there ready to call us back. We went to the exam room and got the hospital gown on and I went to the bathroom in the room and my husband being there the last two births looked at my face and went to the hallway to find a nurse and told her, "my wife looks like she did last time we had a baby, I think she is going to have the baby now" with that we had a doctor and a couple nurses come right a way and asked me to lay down so she could check my cervix and get a heartbeat on baby. No way was I going to lay on my back in the middle of contractions so I laid on my side and heard her say, "I feel a bulging bag of waters, head, no cord and she is complete". Then she asked me if I wanted to go over to the labor and delivery room or just stay there to have baby in the small exam room. I don't remember if I said anything at all, I just laid on my side and held onto the bed rail, she said I could do what I wanted , I could lay on my side and push if I wanted to, whatever I felt like doing. So I felt like pushing and out popped the bag of water. They rolled us over in the bed to the labor room and baby came in just a few more minutes with a few pushes at 5:18pm. They handed me baby and I couldn't even believe it was a girl!!!!
They asked my husband if we wanted the eye cream and all the other things they do for routine hospital birth babies. He said no to everything and there was absolutely no fuss or fight! The dr. And nurses all told us they are there to do what we wanted......a big change from my previous hospital births!! They were all very kind and gave us all the space we wanted and said whenever we were ready for them to get baby measured and weighed to just press the nurse button. They did check my blood pressure which was elevated probably from just the quickness and unexpected delivery, but other than that everything was perfect! The hospital was very clean and just recently renovated so the bathroom looked like a hotel with sparkly tile backsplash! They gave us a pack of newborn diapers, wipes, all the nylon panties I wanted, brought me food and snacks. I was surprised no one came in to tell me the dangers of not getting the vitamin k shot or rolling their eyes about not bathing baby. When we asked about discharge they said that it's at 48 hours, we asked to go home sooner and they agreed as long as baby didn't have any signs of jaundice or heart problems. Our pastor and his wife stopped by with a card, Balloon and healthy snacks for the night at the hospital.
It was now night time, Chris pulled out the chair into a bed and went to sleep, I stayed up almost all night just holding, cuddling and feeding baby. In the morning Chris left to pick up the children who were with my sister and took them to church, the playground and brought them back to the hospital.
All the staff that came by the room just loved the children and said how beautiful they all were. No one made us feel like our children didn't belong there. The kids were all excited to see baby and try out all the hospital snacks and drinks.
We did the pku test along with a bilirubin test and her levels were very good, so we got a knock on the door and it was the discharge nurse sending us off with a gift bag of diapers, wipes, nursing pads, baby records and footprints. Chris got everyone back to the van and pulled up to the front. The nurse carried baby Naomi in the car seat and made sure we snapped her in place and wished us well. That was all, very smooth birth and pleasant hospital stay! A little over half way through the pregnancy is when we decided to do a hospital birth instead of a homebirth and I hated the idea of going back to the hospital after having 2 homebirths, but at the end of the day what I really want for my births are respect for my birth decisions and a trained professional guranteed to be there at the actual birth just in case of an emergency. Unfortunately I didn't feel like the homebirth midwives in this region offered either of those gurantees. Even during the prenatal visits the staff was very respectful and allowed me to bring all the children to the appointments and when a male Dr. Was assigned for my group b test he let me do my own swab test so I would not be exposed in front of a male! We also opted NOT to do a sonogram, genetic testing, Flu shot etc...and nobody threw a fit. Praise the Lord for our sweet new blessing Naomi Ruth Esther, my husband being the labor coach, my sister for watching the other 6 children for the evening and all our friends and family who prayed for us!
