The Story

I am forcing myself to sit down today and finally bang this story out. It's been a month (can you believe it?!?) since Parker was born and if I don't get this out now, I'm afraid I will lose some of the details in this jumbled-up, cloud-like brain of mine.

So...here goes...

Around 4 in the morning on Saturday, the 5th I got up to use the bathroom and noticed that my "mucous plug" (that's such a gross term, sorry everybody) had passed. After the false alarm I had on Tuesday, I was a little gun-shy and wanted to really make sure that this was the real thing, so I waited. I figured it would still be awhile, so I went back to bed, even though I was having contractions pretty regularly. They were coming about 8-10 minutes apart. I didn't want to wake the whole house up and I was already tired from a restless night's sleep. Around 8 or 9 that morning, I looked up "mucous plug" in my "What to Expect" Bible and it said that labor would probably happen within 24 hours. I informed the family over breakfast that morning that we'd most likely have a baby by the end of the day. They were excited, but for some reason it didn't really sink in with anyone that today would be the day.

We went about our normal Saturday morning activities. Mark cleaned the bathrooms, I did the floors throughout the house, and straightened things up. Maryn got ready for her soccer game, which was at noon that day. We decided to pack up the hospital bag and carseat and head to the game. It was probably best that we were all in Peru if something "happened" than in Tonica, so off we went.

We got to the soccer game, and I hobbled out to the field where Maryn was playing. I was really uncomfortable by this time, was still timing my contractions--now almost 5-6 minutes apart, and sitting in a lawn chair in the hot sun...what was I thinking?!? About half way through the game, I couldn't take it anymore. Avery and I headed back to the van, and we sat in the A/C until Maryn finished her game. Even then, instead of going to the hospital, we decided to head over to get some lunch at Maryn's favorite restaurant. We sat down, ordered our food, and then wham!! The contractions really hit and I got really uncomfortable. I actually got really emotional and instead of screaming in pain, I started crying. The waitress came with our soup and drinks, and Mark had to tell her that we wouldn't be staying. You should have seen the look on her face. She told us that it was fine for us to leave, and we did. We didn't have time to pay for anything, we just got out of there and raced over to the hospital.

Luckily the hospital was only 2 minutes away from the restaurant and when we got there, I was still crying. The attendant at the desk put me in a wheelchair and literally ran me down the hall and up the elevator to Labor and Delivery. In the meantime, Mark had called our emergency crew to take the girls for the rest of the day and night, and he joined me in my triage room. They got me hooked up to the monitors and were in the midst of getting my IV in. It had been about half an hour since we got there when my water broke!! Mark had been out in the hall handing the girls off, so when he got back in things were really underway!! It was a really good thing we had gotten to the hospital when we did, although all the nurses and doctor said I should have gotten there way earlier. Oh well.

The only problem was that because it was Saturday, and because it was Labor Day weekend, my doctor was out of town and I had to have the on-call doctor. He was an old-school doctor from Chicago, originally from Persia. I was a little disappointed, but really had no choice. My pediatrician was also out of town, so we had to have the on-call Ped doc too. Blah. Not ideal, but they both did their job.

They whisked me down to the OR, and got me all situated for my spinal. I was so relieved to be able to have a spinal for this c-section. With Avery, I had to have a general anesthetic and remember just being so scared and then I was unconscious for the entire thing. So I was very happy to be awake and aware of everything that was going on. I chatted with the nurses and was excited for my baby to be born, instead of feeling scared and freaking out. I had great nurses who were very helpful and I remember especially the Anesthesiologist (sp?) was my homegirl!! She talked me through everything that was happening, and was just really comforting to me throughout the entire thing. Mark joined me in the OR, and within a few minutes we heard the cry of our newborn baby girl!!

The doctors took her over to the layette to clean her and bundle her up, and as they held her up for me to see her I was immediately overcome with emotions. So beautiful, so perfect, so wonderful. I couldn't believe that she came out of me. After all the waiting, our Baby girl Brown was finally here!! I remember thinking that she looked so tiny. I was expecting a bigger baby this time because it was almost 38 weeks afterall and the ultrasounds always measured big. But she looked tiny. And she was...6 lbs. 9 ounces...actually an ounce less than Avery's birthweight. She was so delicate and pretty. She reminded me of both of the girls...more Maryn at first because of her dainty fingers and her smallness. But then when I studied her face more, she reminded me of Avery around the mouth and chin. One thing for sure was that she belonged to us...she fit right in with my other beautiful little girls.

After the c-section was over, they took me to a recovery room, while Mark took Parker up to the nursery. I got to see her after a couple hours. The feeling was overwhelming...we were so elated. A perfect day. Our Parker Faye was born, and we were absolutely in love with her from the moment she entered this world. It's such a miracle. We are so grateful.

So there you have the story of how Parker came to be. It's been a whole month since that day and it still seems like yesterday, I hope it always will. She is getting bigger now, actually out-growing some of her newborn clothes even. It's already going so quickly!! I am trying to enjoy it--every day of it--because I do know how fast it goes. I am absolutely in love!!