Welcome, Sadie Kay

I held out some intense hope that this baby would come early --as in a couple of weeks early. My doctor made mention of it since baby had dropped, and I grabbed that shred of hope and ran with it! So, when I was having false labor on September 9th at the adult session of our stake conference, I thought, "This is it. It has to be!" I'd never had false labor before, and it was coming in seven minute segments. But it never got more intense. Boo. We went to bed that night, and the contractions disappeared.

So I faced reality. The due date was the 17th, but I learned at my last doctor's appointment that we wouldn't go past the 19th if my doctor had anything to say about it. Which he did, obviously. I decided to stop putting off making appointments and such for my church calling and go ahead and move on with life. The baby would get here eventually. 

Jake reminded me of a deal I made with Paige while she was in the womb. I mentally sent her a message as to when she would come. I laughed and remembered that it "worked" with her, so maybe I should make a deal with this baby. I did. And it "worked". I happened to mentally mention that it would be really nice if he/she could come that night if they wouldn't mind...

We went to bed Friday night, the 13th, and I woke up with some pains late into the night --the 14th. I thought about that dumb tricky false labor and went back to sleep. I woke up again with pain and was irritated that I couldn't find a comfortable position. I went to the bathroom and realized that I really was hurting and that false labor had been much more kind. If it was false, I didn't care. I was hurting and decided I was going to the hospital regardless. I packed the overnight bag with a few more things, got a little more presentable, hurt quite a bit and noticed the contractions were between two and three minutes apart. 

"Jake, we need to get to the hospital." He sprung from sleep, called our dear friend Dee to come over. It was about 2:45am. I called Dr. Pierce, got myself to the car, and we were gone by 3:00. It felt like Jake's car suddenly had zero shock absorption, and I was taking it all. My doctor moved to a new hospital this year in McKinney, which I wasn't thrilled about since it was further away, but it's brand new, I wasn't switching doctors, and I could certainly suck it up for this baby and drive 20-25 minutes for appointments. We rolled in around 3:25, and I was immediately taken up to the labor and delivery floor by wheel chair. 

I was incredibly grateful for a very nice staff who got me taken care of quickly. The main nurse there checked to see how far along I was in labor. I was dilated to a seven or eight. Holy cow! This was happening fast. The nurses moved me to the delivery room so the anesthetist could get my epidural started while Dr. Pierce was making his way to the hospital. We did not have Javier, the anesthetist with the other three of our children, but we had to laugh when we learned he works at this hospital now, he just wasn't working that night. The odds... His counterpart was awesome and moved things along as Dr. Pierce came in to check me and break my water. Dr. Pierce started having me push. Jake and I figured it would be like it was with Paige where he'd come back a little later when my body was ready, but then we realized I was having this baby now. The anesthetist commented that he was doing his best to chase the pain, but I was moving along quickly. Chase it, dude, that's all I can ask.

Stirrups up, pushing happening, immense pressure, and it's a... GIRL!

Sadie Kay:

 That is quite a coat of vernix. And a flattering picture of me. And a lot of hair on that baby! And, and, that was fast!

 Miss Sadie came at 4:25am. One hour at the hospital and she was here. One of the nurses commented that she wished all births would be like this one because it was "fun". Well, "over quickly" was a nice thing for me, but I'm glad she had "fun".

 No surprise-- another huge child! Sadie was 10 lbs. and 3 oz. They said 21 3/4 inches long, but the nurse wasn't being very exact, and later at the pediatrician we learned she could have pulled the kid up to the top of the ruler thing. She was probably more like 21 1/4 inches. Still, classically large as I am wont to have them.

 My baby!

 Woo, woo --my shoulder.

 She's a sweet one, for sure.

 Chubby cheeks at birth --so smoochable:

My hospital stay was awesome. The staff was beyond wonderful to me. Gotta love extreme competency in health care, right? I was given a box filled with snacks, a robe and slippers, and a swaddle blanket from the hospital. After quiet time every day they had cookies and milk time! Seriously. A genius came up with that one. I stayed for two nights and was sent home with a family lasagna dinner from them as well. I was a happy patient.
Ward members were so sweet to make sure my family was taken care of while I was away, and I had lovely visitors spend time with me, both online and in person.
Then, of course, it was time to face reality, take my dear Sadie home, and come up with a new normal. We'll be working on that for a while.