Vada Daphne

It came totally unexpected.
I had gone out on Saturday night with my cousin. She was worried about how I was feeling and I will never forget what I said...
I'm fine, unfortunately. I should just relax, it won't be until at least Monday now
My exact words. See I thought she'd have an all odd birthday, like her sisters have all evens...2/6/08 and 4/8/10. I figured, this girl is just going to be completely different.
I got home at 10:30, and laid in bed watching TV. It wasn't until 12:30 when I started having contractions. At the time, I thought they were Braxton Hicks...I'd had many nights like that before and had no reason to believe this was any different. I finally turned off the TV at 2 to try and get some sleep...contractions still there, but not painful at all.
4 am rolled around, and I woke up in extreme pain.
I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes, lasting a minute, but I was in denial. I didn't want to wake Adam in case it was a false alarm, so instead I ran a bath. After about 10 minutes, I called him into the bathroom. By this point, I was crying through every contraction and he suggested I call L&D. The nurse I spoke with suggested I wait until they got worse because I couldn't feel it through my whole stomach, just the lower half... I only made it 20 minutes... Adam called back to let them know we would be on our way.
We got our stuff together, my mom and sis came over to watch the older girls and by the time we were on our way to the hospital, it was 5 am.
Gosh, I'm so embarrassed by this that I'm tempted to leave it out, but I'm positive Adam will never let me forget it... I screamed nearly the whole way to the hospital... I yelled at him, the freeway, the universe and everything I could think to yell at and then just screamed out in pain. I was the typical mom in labor you see in the movies... it was awful. I never imagined myself to be like that, but I swear something entirely different takes over inside you when dealing with pain.
The ER staff was not very understanding. I made the mistake of saying something about pressure and before I could say another word, they were shoving me into one of their little rooms. I argued with nurses for a while, asking them to just take me to L&D and they refused to let me leave until they could check and make sure I wasn't ready to push her out already. I finally laid on their bed and a male nurse came over to check my cervix. He was not nice, and he was not gentle. He told everyone that he could feel my amniotic sac, but not my cervix...just send her upstairs... Thank goodness!
By the time I got up and settled in at L&D it was 6 am and I was still obnoxious during every contraction. I can't even recall how many times I apologized to the L&D nurses.
They noticed I was scheduled for a version the following day and flew into high gear. One nurse checked me (I was at 7 cm) and the other went to get the doc to do an ultrasound to confirm position.
It was right about here that I finally realized I was in labor.
I know it sounds silly to have gone through all of that and still be in denial, but everything seemed to move so quick that I didn't really absorb what was going on all around me.
I asked for medicine. Another thing I hate to admit.
I always wanted to believe I could do it naturally. I wanted to think I took the Epi with Scarlett because of a weak moment. Definitely not. I begged. I yelled. I told them they better not wait until I can't have meds to get things moving because I couldn't do it naturally. I swore I was dying...and I very honestly don't remember it hurting so bad. The nurses assured me they would get pain medicine as soon as they could.
The doc rolled in the the ultrasound machine and she was breech. I had that feeling and was preparing myself to hear the words, but I wasn't as upset as I expected to be. I mean, it wasn't my ideal by any means, but it didn't crush my spirit. I knew that I had done everything in my power. I had prayed and hoped, stood on my head, saw the chiro, tried every technique known to help...she just had her own plan...
They gave me meds to stop contractions and ease my pain and prepped me for a c-section. I get really bad anxiety attacks when it comes to medical procedures. I had several of these attacks over the next 30 minutes while prepping to have my baby. All the nurses were so wonderful and understanding and gentle. I'm thankful for that. With my last baby, I felt rushed. I felt like no one wanted to talk with me, they were just concerned with getting the job done. This time, they slowed down when I asked and the nurse sat and talked with me and the doc even talked me through an anxiety attack. She held my hand and ever so gently reminded me that my beautiful baby would be here soon. I don't think I can speak enough good about them. They definitely made my experience easier.
They started surgery and of course, it seemed to take forever. Haha! Isn't it always like that when you're excited??
Adam got to watch them take her out. It was kind of neat to watch him watching them. Then they showed her to me and moved the curtain so I could watch them clean her and measure her.
It wasn't my perfect birth, but it was perfect for what it was. And in the end, all that matters is her. My sweet little Vada is finally here. My sweet little babe who didn't have a middle name until I was walking out the hospital room door! LOL! Adam and I couldn't agree, so I told him I was going to leave it blank and change it later. I wrote it down on our way out of the room and didn't tell him until I had turned in the form. Thank goodness he loves it as much as I do!!