I want to tell a story...

And that's the story of Elli's birth.  It all begins the morning of September 12th.  It was a Sunday.  Nate and I had plans of going to church, but being heavily pregnant, I knew I couldn't wrangle with two not quite two year olds through a church service.  So we had arranged the night before to have one of our good friends, Kristin, here to watch the girls.

When we got in the car that morning, I immediately told Nate that I didn't think I could do it.  I definitely felt off and sitting on a hard, wooden pew for an hour didn't sound appealing in the least.   I had quite a suspicion that I was in early labor.  So we drove around for a little bit, too embarrassed to go back to the house to tell Kristin that we brought her over early in the morning to watch the girls for nothing.  We eventually stopped at a restaurant to get some breakfast.

After we ate breakfast we migrated back home and let Kristin leave.  It was about 9:30am at this point.  I honestly have no recollection of what I did with myself for the next several hours.  In retrospect, the same thing happened when I was in early labor with the big girls.  I zoned out fairly large chunks of time!!

Anyway, the Packers were playing at 3:15pm and I remember telling Nate during our car ride around town how weird it would be if I went into labor during the Packer game.  It was Sunday the 12th and that's exactly when I went into labor with the twins!!  Except my labor with the twins began during a 12:00 noon game on Sunday the 12th.  And then I remember saying it would be even more weird to deliver the new baby Monday morning because the twins were born Monday morning the 13th.

If only I knew during that early morning conversation what we were in for!!  I remember sitting in the kitchen watching the game on a tiny 13 inch TV while the big girls watched Sesame Street on our 55" TV in the living room.  It was about 4:30pm or so.  And I remember being so thankful for that big screen TV to entertain the girls because by this point, I was pretty gosh darn positive that I was in labor and was pretty uncomfortable.  I still hadn't said anything to Nate because I was worried things would fizzle out.

My labor nurse from the twins' delivery texted me at 6:00pm asking me how I was doing and I responded by telling her that I was contracting every 6-9 minutes but most weren't terribly painful.  Quite uncomfortable, yes.  But not what I would really call painful.  By 8:30pm, I texted her again asking if she knew who was working the overnights because things were picking up.  Nate and I finally got the girls to bed and I timed my contractions even closer.  They were about 5 minutes apart and beginning to last much longer and become more painful.

Nate asked me what seemed like a hundred times "do you think this is it?"  And each time I responded more abruptly and more annoyed, "Nate, I don't know, I don't KNOW!"  And I honestly didn't.  I was expecting to have loads of back pain because that's what I had with the twins.  That's all I knew labor to be.  So when I didn't have *any* back pain, I was seriously wondering if I was jumping the gun.  In hindsight, thinking about how much that question irritated me and how I was snapping at Nate to leave me alone, I should've known I was in labor!!  Haha, oops.  Sorry hun.

After storming off into the bedroom after Nate asked me (yet again, mind you!) if I thought it was the real thing, I emerged dressed and ready to go.  It was 10pm and Nate was wondering what in the heck I was doing.  When I stormed off, annoyed that he asked me the same stinking question that I gave the same answer to every 10 minutes, I told him I was going to bed.  However, when I got to bed, I realized I couldn't lay down.  So I got dressed to go to the hospital!!

Nate took a couple pictures of me as I walked out the door.  I stood by the car door, waiting to have a contraction before I jumped in the car to make the drive.  Yes, I drove myself.  I figured with contractions every 5 minutes apart, I would only have to have 2 contractions before I arrived.  And being that it was late, late at night, I didn't want to call any neighbors over just for me to be sent back home a couple hours later.  Let's face it, I had 5 preterm labor admissions with the twins, which I was happy to be sent back home after.  And then I had one false alarm with them before the real deal.  So we agreed that I would go alone, hopefully establish if I was indeed in labor, and then make some necessary phone calls if needed.

To be continued...