Something Pink

On Friday at 4 a.m. Matthew woke me up to ask me to check on him every ten minutes while he sleeps. At least he’s original and didn’t ask for a glass of water. It was at that time that I noticed I was having mild contractions. When I got back to bed I nudged Bob awake to tell him. Neither of us could go back to sleep out of excitement so while I walked off my increasing steady contractions, he began cleaning the house. It is fair to say that Bob always begins his Fridays by cleaning the house, but he assured me that he was preparing for the arrival of the new baby.

At 6:30 a.m. a call had been put into Grandma to come watch Matthew as the contractions were getting worse, no matter how patient Matthew was at waiting for me to recover so that we could go back to playing Lego Pirates. I was still four days away from my due date and felt like there were a few last things that I still needed to do. Soon all I could manage to do was lie on the bed and get exasperated with Bob over flip flops. 

We arrived at the hospital by 9 a.m. I was four centimeters dilated which meant I labored longer at home this time than I had with Matthew. I had wanted that to happen so I was pleased but what I wanted more than anything was an epidural. Bob tried to distract me, emphasize with me, but his kindness and compassion was drowned out by my wails of sorrow and misery.  

By 1:30 p.m. I felt calm, energized, and pain free thanks to an epidural. My water broke so things were going along as they should. By 3:30 I was given the go ahead to start pushing. It was surreal how peaceful it felt at the time. A short while later Samantha was born at 3:48 at 7 lbs, 8 ounces, and 20 inches.