Mattie's Story

Right after Mattie was born our computer broke.  And we've been waiting two very long weeks for it to be fixed.  I've kind of been dying, but I've read a lot and I'm all caught up on thank you notes, so I guess it really hasn't been that bad.  But now we're back in business!

My sister Leslie tells a 'PG' or an 'R' rated version of Mattie's birth story based on who her audience is.    If you want the 'G' version- we went to the hospital and about 35 minutes later Mattie was born on the bathroom floor.  If you'd like a few more details then read on.

I woke up on May 15th feeling yucky.  I had been up with Jilly for a while in the night so I was super tired and my body just hurt from carrying around extra weight for so long.  We were supposed to meet a friend at the play place at the mall at 10.  I was tempted to cancel, but I thought maybe getting up and going would help me feel better.

We had fun at the mall but while there I realized that I was not just feeling achy, these were contractions coming every 10 or 15 minutes.  They weren't too bad, and I don't think my friend even caught on because she was shocked when I texted her a few hours later that we'd had a baby.  At noon we left the mall and I called my mom and said, "I think I might be having this baby."

We got home and I cleaned up for a while, made us lunch, and we watched a few episodes of Curious George.  I had downloaded a free contraction timer on my phone and was extremely annoyed when it told me I had reached the limit of 20 contractions and had to pay a dollar to continue.  Seriously, who only has 20 contractions?!

At 2:00 I put Jilly down for her nap and laid down myself but I couldn't sleep.  The contractions gradually started getting stronger and closer together.  I texted Bryan and told him that we would be having a baby that night but he could stay at work longer, I'd keep him posted.  I did some last minute packing, cleaning, and getting ready to go.  Around 3:45 I was talking to my mom and told her my contractions were coming about 3 minutes apart.  She told me that it was probably time to get to the hospital, something that I was kind of in denial about.  Thankfully I listened to her and texted Bryan to come home from work.  Next I called a friend who happened to be driving right by our house and stopped to get Jilly (again, such a blessing!)

We got to the hospital at 4:45.  In triage the nurse said I was dilated to a 6 or 7.  They gave us a room, started my IV, and asked what seemed like a million health history questions.  At this point I was hurting pretty bad and was less than thrilled to be discussing whether any of my relatives had a history of heart disease.  Bryan was a champion- as I squeezed all the life out of his hand he answered as many questions as they would let him answer for me.  Between questions my nurse kept telling me that I needed to relax (yeah, she was not my very favorite person in the world.)  At 5:15 we texted my mom and told her that we were all checked into the hospital.

Things were getting pretty intense.  I knew I wanted to try it without an epidural but I was struggling.  I had convinced my nurse to let me sit in the rocking chair, but she would not let me move around (I was hooked up to an iv, though I wasn't receiving any medication through it yet.)  Finally I asked if I could get up and go to the restroom knowing the movement would feel so much better than just sitting there.  Once there I quickly realized that it was time to push- I could see her head coming!  I panicked and yelled to Bryan for help.  A nurse in the hall heard me and came running just in time to catch the baby's head.  She yelled and half a dozen other nurses and a doctor ran in as well.  A nurse helped me lay back and after one push our sweet Mattie arrived at 5:22pm.

Immediately I felt so relieved and so happy.  The pain was over and I felt great.  They asked me if I could walk back to the bed and I said, "yeah, of course!"  They were all pretty surprised as I easily stood up and got in the bed where someone handed me my little pink bundle.  I felt so, so happy and so lucky- she was here!  I had done it!

I kept apologizing and saying I really had no clue she was coming so fast.  The nurses seemed to enjoy a more exciting than average birth and their jokes were endless ("want some fries with that baby?")  I know to most people it sounds so crazy that I didn't realize she was coming but it just all happened so fast.  And, looking back, I wouldn't have had it any other way.  Yes, it was very intense for about 20 minutes but then I was all done and I immediately felt so, so great.  I'm now a believer in no epidural because my recovery was a breeze.  And, hello, how completely adorable is this baby girl?