Late Saturday afternoon (Jan 5), I melodramatically texted my friend Lindsay, who had just had a little boy the week prior, that I would be pregnant forever and that the baby was never coming.
Brandon had Communion set up obligations at our church Saturday night, so I decided to take the kids to Target to kill some time and stock up on a few necessary supplies for the kids, were the baby ever to come. (cue more melodrama)
The kids, though they can have their moments, were behaving fairly well in the store, but they were just extra excitable that night. When you are 1 and 3, there is a lot to point out and get excited about. The current obsession in our household is ALL THINGS Angry Birds. Happy can spot Angry Bird merchandise like an eagle to prey. And if he ever fails to see something, Little Miss, who chooses to use more grunts than words that she is perfectly capable of saying, will loudly grunt about something Happy may have missed.
Well, just our luck that night at Target, we ended up in the check out lane with more Angry Birds paraphernalia than is fair to any parent. The kids were beside themselves with excitement of pointing out stuff. As my very pregnant self tried to load stuff onto the check out lane belt (with just a touch of difficulty) and the kids were begging to see Angry Birds items, the gentleman behind me in line said, "Boy! You SURE do have your hands full." Why do they always say that at the most chaotic time? Is it because it is just so hard not to say it? I politely responded that I did, but was happy about it. If that poor man knew I was going to be delivering my baby in the van in just 3 short hours, he might have even run the other way.
Anyways, I got the kids home and, very fortunately, Brandon was able to leave his communion responsibilities earlier than normal and was able to help me get the kids to bed (otherwise, he may have gotten home after all the drama started and found a baby in our house instead of our van). As soon as the kids were in bed, I started feeling contractions. They felt pretty tame and similar to the false contractions I had been feeling off and on for 3 weeks. After about 20 or so minutes, Brandon called his dad to come over to stay with the kids. I thought the call was a little premature, but I didn't argue.
In the 30 minutes that it took Brandon's dad to get here, my water broke and my contractions increased in intensity. I was laying on the hall floor when my father-in-law arrived. Brandon was hurrying to get everything we needed in the van. Fortunately, I had the foresight to ask Brandon to clear out the back bench of the van so that I could lie down while in labor.
A little background: With my labor with Lil Miss, it went very quickly and I did NOT handle the pain well. So much so that nurses were coming in and telling to be quiet because I was scaring other patients. I was that woman in labor. And it took the anesthesiologist a sweet forever to get to me and give me an epidural. Because of this, I had been reading up a lot on natural childbirth and pain management while pregnant with Mollie Grace. I wasn't planning on a natural childbirth, but because I was reading all this literature that was so pro unmedicated childbirth, I drank the kool-aid a little bit. A few weeks before Mollie Grace's birth, I had casually mentioned to Brandon that I was interested in trying an unmedicated birth. My sweet gentle husband who rarely has a strong opinion on how I handle things said, "What?! Are you serious?! That's crazy!!" We eventually came to a compromise of me trying to labor naturally and if I couldn't handle the pain, then we would chose for me to get an epidural.
We left soon after my father-in-law arrived. As we were getting into the van at our house, I told Brandon, "I want that epidural!" He laughed and nodded, indicating that is what he thought would happen all along. I laughed (as much as I could). He usually is right, anyways.
About 10 minutes into the 45 minute drive to the hospital (although I think Brandon managed to make it a 30 minute drive), I realized that there was not going to be enough time for me to get that epidural. But I still had no idea that the baby would be born in the van.
continued (Part 2)
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