Water breaking

"Next time you pray for your water to break, you might want to be a little more specific." - Cousin Guy Van Noy

This is the story of Maria's labor and delivery.

I think the above quote is a perfect way to summarize her story.

Let me start off by saying, I was really ready to have this baby. I felt like I had accomplished my list of things to do before the baby arrived (haircut, pedicure, concert, organizing, etc). I was starting to dread the thought of going until my due date (3/25), let alone going past it. I had been having some Braxton Hicks contractions in the past week or so, just enough to annoy me that something might be starting, but still knowing that they weren't the real deal because of how short and sporadic they were.

I started having regular (meaning, I didn't think they were Braxton Hicks) contractions after I picked up Lucas from daycare on Tuesday. We're riding along singing "Old McDonald" and the contraction I had lasted longer than any of the ones I'd had up until that point. I didn't think/hope too much about it. Also, on the way home, Lucas pointed over to the baby's carseat and said "Baby". I explained to him that it was for the baby and we'd be bringing the baby for rides soon. We got home and I started making dinner. I had offered to make dinner for our neighbors who had a baby a few weeks ago. Mom came over to eat dinner with us and watch Lucas while I delivered food to the neighbors. A few more contractions while making & delivering dinner, about a half an hour or more apart, but still pretty consistent.

We enjoyed our chicken pot pie for dinner. Lucas & Grammy started watching the Caps hockey game after dinner, while Ryan & I started to plot our "to-do" list if we were indeed headed to the hospital in the next 24 hours.

We got Lucas to bed, worked on a couple more things for our to-do list and sat for a little bit to watch the Caps game.

By 9, the contractions had started happening close enough together that I started keeping track of them (about 12-15 minutes apart).

Ryan's friend, Jeremy called a little after 9. Now this is where things start to get interesting.

Ryan went down in the basement to go talk to Jeremy on the phone, so that I could watch TV and he wouldn't have to worry about waking Lucas up. We are SO fortunate that he did.

He got downstairs and when he stepped off the bottom step, he heard "slush". The carpet was wet. Now, all I heard from upstairs was a string of explitives. Not until I heard a second string of cursing, did I decide to go down and investigate.

Ryan had found the pipe that runs the water into our house from outside, leaking, at a steady pace. The best part, is that the leak was below the manual shut-off. Moments of panic & moving things from out under the stairs in the basement, we determined we needed to call the town to shut-off our water from outside. Ryan's parents made their way over with a shop vac and a carpet cleaner, as well as some fans. The town came to shut off the water.

Yes- so now we have no running water in the house.

Although there wasn't a considerable amount of damage done, the carpet was wet & there was still plenty of standing water that needed to be taken care of in the basement. I can't imagine (and don't want to!) what would have happened if we had gone to the hospital & the water had been running the entire time we were gone.

Ryan and his dad spent the better part of the next 2 hours cleaning out the basement, while Ryan's mom and our neighbor, Julianna, kept me company upstairs.

Julianna was even nice enough to offer me the key to her house so I could use the bathroom (very pregnant lady in labor & no running water = no fun!).

Once the majority of the clean-up was done in the basement, we decided that it would be a strong possibility that we would be heading to the hospital.

I got the rest of my things together and headed over to my Mom's house to take a shower and get some rest. I remember going upstairs to kiss Lucas as he slept and whispered to him that he'd be a big brother soon. I was crying as I left my son sleeping there, thinking he wasn't going to be "my little baby" any more.

Ryan took Lucas, after I left, over to his parents, so that they could watch him.

No sooner did Ryan arrive at my mom's house, shower and lay down to catch some sleep (he said he got a total of 3 minutes) before I indicated that my contractions were getting close enough together (7-8 minutes apart) that I thought we should get ready to leave for the hospital. One of our major concerns this time around was leaving soon enough for the hospital. With Lucas, we waited a little too long and the ride to hospital was agonizing. Especially since I went from having contractions 8 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart in a matter of a half hour to 40 minutes with Lucas, we figured 8 minutes was the magic number this time around. At this point, it was a little after 3am.

Before we left for the hospital, Mom made sure to get a few pictures.

My shirt says "Coming soon, An Irish Blessing"

Contraction tracker notepad in hand

Getting ready to leave for the hospital to welcome Baby Craun #2

As we were getting ready at my Mom's, Ryan went to put on a red shirt.

I asked him where his green shirt was (it was St. Patrick's Day, afterall).

He didn't have one. I insisted that I would pinch him ALL DAY LONG, if he didn't get a green shirt. So after our photo op, we stopped by the house to get Ryan a green shirt.

I called the dr's paging service to let them know we were on the way.

Our car ride to the hospital this time was much calmer. However, I was little concerned that the doctor hadn't called us back yet. We arrived at the hospital with still no call from the doctor. I was glad that we hadn't waited for him to call us back to leave.

We walked in the door to labor & delivery and started to get checked in.

One of the nurses said "Are you Ms. Craun?". I replied "Yes". She said the doctor had been trying to call me and kept getting a busy signal. We never did find out if they had written down the wrong number or what. I felt better that they had been trying to call me and they were happy I made it to the hospital safely.

We were taken in Triage, which was at about 4:30 am. The nurse checked me and said I was about 5 cm dilated. They would be happy to admit me and get me set up in a labor & delivery room. It looked like we were going to have a baby today!

These are my St. Patrick's Day attire for L&D

I packed them in my bag just in case we were in the hospital on St. Patrick's Day

Little did I know, we would actually be delivering on that day

Wearing green while in labor: CHECK

Once I got moved to my L&D room, the nurse (Amy) hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor & a contraction monitor. I fortunately was given permission to be up and move around, but to try to stay connected to the monitors as much as possible. They placed an IV line (just in case), but didn't hook it up to anything. I had decided to go the "no meds" route this time, if I could manage it. Things seemed to be moving along alright so far. We joked with the nurse that the real reason we decided to come to the hospital was because we didn't have any running water at home. Everyone got a nice laugh out of that.

My dad arrived from Philly (we had called him on the way to the hospital to give him time to get there). I was glad we were able to give him enough of heads up. When we called him, we re-assured him that we would have a baby in the next 24 hours.

The nurse came to check me again at about 6:30am and indicated I had progressed to 7cm.

Dr. Welch, the OB, came in and said things seemed to be moving along, but we could break my water if I wanted them to. No thanks. I'll just keep going and see what happens.

Things slowed down for a little bit, my mom arrived and the contractions took a break just long enough for me to get about a 20 minute nap. Ryan slept on the couch for about 30 minutes- a much needed siesta.

After the nap, things started to pick-up. Mary, our new delivery nurse (shift change), through random conversation said she was from Syracuse (go Orange!). So we had an immediate connection with her.

Around 10am, the contractions started to get really intense & I kicked my mom out (in the nicest way possible!).

We called Mary to come check me sometime after that (the time frame gets a little blurry for me in here- I wonder why!). She said I was 9-10cm, and could push as soon as Dr. Welch arrived. Ryan said the doctor took his sweet time getting there (or at least that's how he felt).

Once the doctor came, got set-up & broke my water, I was able to push through 1 contraction (about 1 long and 2 short pushes) to get the baby's head out and one more push to get the shoulders and the rest of the body out. It must have only taken a few minutes. I was so glad that I didn't have to push for very long, because although I'm sure I would have found the energy, by that point, I was exhausted.

At about 10am, I started to wonder where the pain meds were, but knew that since I had done it once, I could do it again. I knew myself well enough that if I had an epidural and couldn't stand up or move around, that I would be miserable. That is another reason I didn't want them to break my water any sooner than needed, because it would limit the amount I was able to move around. Overall, I wouldn't change my decision to do it without medication.

Ryan was a great coach throughout the whole process. We had a little discussion at the beginning about them being "good" contractions. He was trying to be supportive and tell me that I did a good job, but the way it sounded made the contraction seem - good- and well, they just aren't. So he changed the vocabulary to - "strong" or "intense". Much better. I'm surprised I didn't put huge dents in his shoulders. Although, at one point I'm not sure if he was squeezing my hand more than I was squeezing his. It's wonderful to have someone so supportive by your side.

With this pregnancy, we also made the decision NOT to find out the gender of the baby.

Again, it was totally worth it to wait! It was the most amazing moment when I delivered the baby and Ryan said, "It's a girl!". We both looked at each other with surprise and love for our new little girl!

What a blessing we have been given on this St. Patrick's Day!