Welcome Opal Dawn

My due date was January 22. My mom (and the birth tub) arrived on January 8. I thought we would be ready to have the baby any time after that. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I had been sick for what seemed like forever. When my mom got here it got worse. I spent 5 days in bed. Literally only coming out to go the bathroom and eat. The rest of the time I slept. I felt bad because I was not spending time with anyone and we couldn't really do anything fun. I was coughing every 2 minutes, we had gone through several boxes of tissues and by this point I was pretty sure I had fractured a rib from all of the coughing! Coughing while 9 months pregnant is the worst! I had to sleep sitting up and everything hurt. I was taking everything we could think of to try and get me better. Cough drops, Silver, Robitussin, Nasal rinses, Arnica. The day my mom got here I went to the doctor and she told me there was nothing we could do except wait it out. I was starting to think it would be okay for me to go to my due date if that meant I was healthier! I didn't want to be coughing all over a brand new baby!

Around 4am on January 14, I woke up with contractions. Since I couldn't sleep very well anyway, I laid there and started timing them. They were not very strong and very inconsistent. They were strong enough that I couldn't fall back to sleep after a while. I knew Daniel's alarm was going to go off around 5 so I didn't bother waking him just yet. When he did wake up I told him today might be the day. He got up and showered. The contractions were still not consistent. Some would be 4 minutes apart then others would be like 8 minutes. Around 6:30am I sent my mom a text (I know she was just upstairs but everyone was still sleeping and I didn't want to walk up there!) to let her know we were going to fill the tub. Turns out she was up in the middle of the night sick! So this baby picked a day to come when everyone was already super tired!

After the tub was filled, I decided to go ahead and shower. Things were not progressing and I was starting to wonder if this was false labor. I told Daniel maybe he should just go to work because I would feel dumb if he stayed home all day and the baby didn't come! He insisted on staying home anyway. I was getting annoyed because the contractions were not getting stronger or closer together and they were just annoying! Around 10ish (maybe 11?) we bundled everyone up and we went for a walk. People always say you should walk to get labor going. I've never really had to do this. My last 2 got going pretty quick once they started. So we walked up and down the street. By the time we were walking back toward the house I did have to stop a few times and wait through a contraction. When we got home I felt like things were finally moving! I think I got in the tub around 12:30, when I finally felt like labor had started.

By 2, I was in the tub and the midwife was here. We kept Johnny home from preschool that day because I wanted him to be here. Diadora was napping through much of the labor, Addie was my little helper and Johnny was in and out of the room. I really felt good through the first phase of labor. I felt like I was focused and relaxed. I wanted that baby out and I knew the best way to move it down was to stay focused! I was already so exhausted from lack of sleep and being sick that I knew I did not have the stamina to keep this up for very long. I was even falling asleep between contractions. Like when you nod off or a second then jerk your head back up because you didn’t really mean to fall asleep.I think I only threw up once or twice (less than my previous labors). The worst part was that I could not breathe! I had snot coming out and I had to keep asking for tissues or wash cloths to wipe my face. Good thing we didn't have a professional photographer this time. It was embarrassing! 

Finally, time to push. I do not like this part. I start to push then I get frustrated. I can tell that the baby is not moving. I was pushing and not feeling anything. My midwife is very calm and won't check my cervix or dilation unless I ask her to. When we talked before, I told her that I wanted to wait until the cervix was fully out of the way before I started pushing. I was trying so hard to avoid intervention from her of any kind. Of course when you are there and trying to push the last thing you want is for someone to be poking around in there checking your cervix! So I pushed for a little bit then became so frustrated that I could tell nothing was happening. I finally asked her to check me and she said the cervix was stuck. Again. I could tell from her tone that she was sorry to be giving me this news. We tried to fix it while I was in the tub, changing positions a couple of times. Eventually she told me that I really should get on the bed because it would be a lot easier. I didn't want to move but finally gave up and got out of the tub and waddled in to our room and somehow managed to get up on the bed. When we walked in there I saw Johnny D was taking a nap on our bed! Poor kid got woken up by his mom trying to get a baby out! As soon as the midwife freed the cervix, the baby was on her way out! I have to say, laying on the bed is NOT my favorite birthing position. It felt like the baby's spine was on my spine. I kept saying how much my back was hurting so they had my roll slightly on to my side. At 3:58pm with Daniel holding my hand on one side, Addie squeezing my other hand and Johnny and Dia watching, little Opal Dawn was finally born. She was tiny and purple and perfect.

7lbs 1oz, 19 inches

Starting the day like any other. Cereal and tea...

...some waffles...

...and smiling faces!

Checking fb in between nose blows.

I look forward to the day when I can be an observer and not the one being observed!!

Addie was such a big helper. She wanted to give me drinks and she was right there with us the whole time. 

Working hard. I don't really want to share some of these with my face in them, but I love that Addie is sitting with dad, just hanging out.

Grandma's selfie with Dia!!

Trying to free my silly cervix. This is the point when an epidural would be fantastic. This has to absolutely be the.most.painful.thing.ever. At one point during labor I said to Daniel "please don't make me do this ever again". I was half joking, but seriously this can't be good for the body. ;)

And then, it's all over. And you have a sweet babe to snuggle. And I was already home, in my own bed. 

My mom took video at the end, of her coming out. On the video you hear Daniel ask me if we should see if it's a boy or girl. When he says "it's a girl!" he is smiling but I think he was thinking oh man! 3 girls!!

Everyone was laughing because we thought it was a boy, we were all surprised!

Clamping the cord getting it ready to be cut. We let Johnny help Daniel cut it since he is the lone boy. We keep telling him he has to take care of all these girls!

Proud siblings!

Of  course it took us a few days to name her. We hadn't even really discussed girl names because Daniel was so sure it was a boy. We talked about Penelope again (we considered that one when Dia was born) but I didn't want it because it's on the top 100 girl names right now. We agreed on Opal but could not find a middle name! I wanted one that had some importance. A family name or a name that meant fourth child. I did a lot of research and in the end came up with Dawn. I got that from one of those websites that generates names for you! It also happens to be our midwife's name.

I find it interesting that during labor I only coughed a few times. A few hours after she was born, all of my symptoms came back.Worse than they were before. 2 days after I had her, Daniel went with me back to the urgent care. This time she gave me antibiotics because the baby was out. Yay! I guess they were hard core ones, the kind you definitely should not take without food. Learned that the hard way.  I spent the next 2 weeks coughing and blowing my nose. Thankfully I started to feel better and I got to enjoy my little girl and the little time I had left before my mom went home. We are blessed to have 4 healthy kids and are loving our new addition!