Millie-Bird Flies the Coop

Monday, July 19th.... 3 am:

Paul is working nights in the medical ICU and I am home alone. I wake up to roll over in bed, which is no easy feat at 37 weeks pregnant. As I roll, I hear a POP! It is immediately evident that my water has broken. My first thought, "Of course this would happen in the middle of the night when I am home alone!" I can't get Paul to answer his phone, so I call my sis-in-law, Kara, and have her page him. He calls back. Here is the conversation:

Paul: This is Dr. Thayn, I was paged.

Me: It's your wife.

Paul: Oh... Hi?

Me: My water just broke.

Paul: It did? Are you sure?

Me: If hearing a pop and having lots of water go everywhere isn't sure, I don't know what is.

Paul: Oh wow, ok. I will try to get off work.

Paul comes home and we spend the next couple of hours timing contractions.

At around 6 a.m. I am ready to go to the hospital.

They check me in and when the midwife shows up she tells me I am 4 centimeters dilated. She has a funny look on her face and feels the position of the baby in my stomach. "The baby is head up."

Paul and I look at each other in shock. "What?"

"She's breech. It looks like you will be having an emergency c-section."

Needless to say, this is not how we envisioned things to go.

I am laboring hard now and a swarm of people rush around. They ask me questions over and over, poke me with needles, and keep telling me I am going to have a baby within the hour. It's all a blur, and all I can think about is the contractions.

They rush me off to the operating room and Paul is left behind to change into a sterile paper jumpsuit.

When he is with me again they get started and a few minutes later I see Paul smiling. "There's her butt! She's out, Bel!" She is born at 8:24 a.m.

He goes to cut the cord and comes back with a little bundle. "It's a girl."

I give her a kiss. "Hi, baby."

I first hold her in recovery. She is beautiful and I can't believe she is here. I wasn't expecting her for a couple more weeks. But she IS here, and she is wonderful. We name her Amelia Caroline.

Mom and Dad fly across the country to see their granddaughter on her actual birthday. They make it just before midnight.

We soak in the events as we spend the next couple of days in the hospital. Apparently emergency c-sections don't get the royal treatment afterwards. The room is tiny, the bed screeches when I try to sit it up or lay it down, the chair in the room doesn't lay fully flat, and there is no shower in the bathroom. After 2 nights all we want to do is take our darling girl and go home. So we do.

After a week, I am still shocked that I have a baby.

At the same time, I can't believe I lived without her. We love you Millie!