In between feedings and napping (which isn’t happening as much as I would like)... I have taken some time to finally write out Reese’s birth story.
When we had our first ultrasound, Dusty and I made bets as to when Baby Harrison would arrive. I predicted October 1, even though most of my family predicted she would come in September since it’s such a birthday filled month in my family. I guessed she would hold out until October and come on the 1st. Dusty predicted she would arrive on the 7th. I don’t know if he had a real reason for his prediction, but the 7th was his guess all the same.
Fast forward 7 months. Thursday night (September 30), we went to Anderson (with my hospital bag in tow… just in case) to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Anderson (for those who aren’t familiar with the area) is about 20-30 minutes from our house. It’s also the city where the doctor’s office and hospital I where would deliver is located. After dinner with friends and a quick trip to Best Buy, we headed back to Clemson and unloaded the hospital bag from the car. Later that night, I went to sleep, but when I woke up to use the bathroom, I had trouble falling asleep. The only thing that went through my mind was the fact that it was October 1, and if my prediction was right… I could be a parent REALLY soon. I had so many questions go through my mind that night… Is she really coming today? When will it happen? Will I start having contractions – and what do they feel like? Will my water break? How long will labor last? Who will come down to visit and when? The questions kept coming, and the sleep never came back that night.
That morning, I decided that I might as well go to work for a few hours because sitting around the house thinking about the date and the baby’s possible arrival would drive me crazy. I got a little later start (because I was exhausted), but I made it to work and did what I could while there. Before I left, I made sure I tied up all the loose ends I could think of since my due date was on Sunday (10/3). I said my goodbyes (in case it was the last time for a while) and headed home to hopefully take a nap. But once I got home, the nesting started up again. I cleaned as much as I could and did everything that I could see to do before Dusty got home. When he got home, we decided that we would head to dinner for our anniversary – our three year anniversary was going to be the following Wednesday (10/6), but since we knew that we may not be able to go out then because we could have a baby by then, we thought we might as well celebrate with dinner out while we were baby free.
We headed to Anderson (again with hospital bag in tow… just in case) to have dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. We pulled in to the parking lot, and Dusty got out and waited for me to get out too. As I reached for the door handle I felt a pretty sharp cramp followed by a warm stream of liquid that seemed to be leaking from my body. I quickly opened the door and told Dusty that I was pretty sure my water just broke. I got out of the car, with fluid continuing to run down my leg, and Dusty excitedly asked… So are we going to the hospital now? I thankful had a packed bag in the car, so I told him that I would go inside to the bathroom and make sure it wasn’t just my bladder (which I hadn’t lost control of yet, but just to be on the safe side…), change my undies and get a pad, and we could go from there. But while I was inside, he could go ahead and call my sister to give her the heads up to head to SC.
When entering the restaurant, the hostess asked if we needed a table for two, where I simply asked if I could use her restroom first. She pointed in the direction of the restrooms. In the bathroom, there was a much bigger “gush” when I sat down with a continued trickle, and as I changed, I was pretty confident that it was time to head to the hospital. When I was a little more composed, I met Dusty at the door and told him we should go.
(to be continued…)
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