Welcome to the World Baby Chance!

Thursday morning was just like any other morning, rushing around to get the kids ready to go to the babysitters, getting myself ready, getting everybody fed, etc... We were getting ready to head out the door at about 8:00 am when it hit me...this was a real contraction, the kind that start in your back and works it way to the stomach! Ouch I thought...here we go again, it was going to be back labor, I just knew it, the same that I had with Kadence. I had been having several contractions over the last few weeks, nothing consistent and nothing extremely painful, just the typical braxton hicks where it feels like your stomach is tightening into a ball. I had begun to feel like the little boy who cried wolf so I didn't want to say anything quite yet to Charlie. We were both pretty eager for this baby to come sooner than later! I went about my morning routine, getting the kids backpacks packed, and getting everyone ready to walk out the door when another one hit me! And this one was just as painful. Something just told me, this was it. I kind of took it easy for a few minutes when once again, another one hit. Okay, this might be the real deal. I told Charlie to call our boss and let him know that we were going to hang out at the house for a little bit because it appeared that I was having contractions. No sense going all the way into work to just have to turn back around and head to the hospital. The contractions kept on coming. I decided it was time to start writing down the times so I could figure out how close I was getting. I didn't want to head to the hospital too early!

By this time Kadee was getting pretty excited. "Mom are we finally going to have the baby today?" I told her there was a pretty strong possibility! As the contractions continued I went into panic mode. I pulled out the vacuum and started vacuuming the floors. Charlie looked at me with a look that simply implied that I was crazy but after so many years together he knew better than to go any further and took the vacuum from me and finished vacuuming the house. The kids wanted to pitch in as well and windexed all of the windows and the kitchen table. Yeah, I was in labor and cleaning my house! The contractions were getting more and more painful so I figured I better pack a bag! Kadee was a huge help and stuck by my side the entire morning helping me with everything and anything.

After my bag was packed I decided we needed to take some pictures. This could be it and I wanted some pics to remember what it was like to be as big as I was!

At about 1:00 pm I told Charlie that it was time to go as I hunched over the kitchen island in pain! We all loaded into the Excursion and off we went. We were going to head up to my parents house to drop off the kids and then head down to the hospital. I could hear the panic in Charlie's voice as he insisted that he drop me off at the hospital, then he would run the kids up real quick and then be right back. "No we would be fine," I insisted until I had two contractions in the five minutes that it took to get from my house to St. Rose Parkway. I quickly agreed with him and we decided that we would just head straight to the hospital and my parents would meet us there.

Charlie dropped me off at the front door and I waddled into the entrance. As I was walking in, a new mother was being wheeled out with her new baby in tote and I thought to myself, wow, that's going to be me in a couple of days! I got to the reception desk and and the nurse looked at me and asked if she could help me with something, "Yeah, I think I am having a baby!" She handed me a form to fill out and I continued having a contraction right there at the desk. As I stood at the desk I overheard a couple of nurses talking about another expecting mother that was already in triage..."She's here again, this is the third time in four days!" I started thinking to myself, oh my gosh, am I sure I am in labor? I don't want to be one of those that has a few pains and is just sent home.

The triage nurse informed me that she was going to monitor me for an hour and then let me know if I would be staying or not. Again, I started thinking, okay am I really in labor? As soon as they laid me down and hooked me up to the monitor my contractions stopped! I didn't have another one for twenty minutes. I heard the triage nurse tell the other patient in triage, "Okay, you have only had two contractions in half an hour so we are going to send you home!". I thought to myself, great I am the next to go home. I am going to be a false labor reject! Then slowly but surely the contractions started again and right before my hour was up my water broke.

The nurse informed me there was light myconeum and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Here we go again, I thought. Kadence had aspirated myconeum and it landed her in the NICU for five days after her birth. All the memories of her birth raced through my head, them placing her on my chest for two seconds and then whisking her off to the respirator. Charlie didn't even get to hold her. I really didn't want to go through that again but I told myself that I needed to relax and that he would be okay, we were surrounded by capable physicians and nurses that would get us through this.

They wheeled me into a labor and delivery room and got me hooked up to all the machines. This is where we met my nurse Taryn who was awesome through the whole time. She informed me of a pretty cool fact, that Chance would be born on 05-07-09. This is a very rare occasion where the date is comprised of three consecutive odd numbers. A special day for a special baby!

Soon the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. I was alone in the room at the time which kind of scared me. Charlie had left to take the kids out to the waiting room and didn't make it back in time. He was there to comfort me with Kadence and Cole and I think the doc and the nurse could see a little fear in my eyes because they quickly started making small talk about none other than American Idol. Myself and the nurse were both bummed that Allison had just been kicked off the show. Next thing I know I could feel the stinging yet cool liquid run through my back and then a contraction hit so I focused instead on getting through the pain of the contraction rather than getting the epidural. Not long after I was on cloud nine and could feel no pain. About 20 minutes after getting the epidural I had to ask for a bed pan because I started feeling extremely nauseated. She looked at me like, yeah, you don't look to good and picked up the phone and had the anesthesiologist paged. Before I knew it I had an oxygen mask on. According to her I was becoming very pale and my blood pressure bottomed out. She quickly called again for the anesthesiologist, stat I heard her say. No need to panic, yeah right, I watch ER and STAT typically means get your butt in here something ain't right. He immediately came back into the room and put a large shot of something in my IV. Within ten minutes I was fine and felt completely normal again. Nothing like a little scare to get the adrenaline going!

After getting my epidural at about 3:00 pm, things went into slow motion. I was dilated to a four, a couple hours later I was a five. Although I couldn't feel them the contractions were not progressing. Finally, it was time for shift change for the nurses. My nurse Taryn came in with my new nurse Janine to check me. I was complete. They were getting ready to call my OBGYN, Dr. Sauter and suggested that I do a "test push" to make sure I was ready. 1-2-3-PUSH, I did and all of a sudden they started yelling stop, stop, stop. Apparently my test push went rather well and they hurried to call my doc.

Before I knew it Dr. Sauter was there and the delivery nurse and respiratory specialist were preparing the baby area for Chance's arrival. I was extremely thankful that Dr. Sauter would be delivering my third child as he also delivered Kadence and Cole.

I will spare the gruesome details but two pushes and we were done. It literally took about two minutes if even that. His official birth time was 7:56 pm. The first thing I looked for was the hair. I was the most curious about this because we had one heck of a surprise with Cole's blonde hair! Chance had a full head of thick black hair! It was beautiful, he was beautiful. They whisked him over to the baby area where the respiratory nurse worked on him for a couple of minutes. Everything was okay! He had not aspirated any of the myconeum and his little lungs were working just fine! He weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measured 20.5 inches long. I was so thankful that he was healthy and was able to stay in the room with us. Everyone got to hold him and welcome him into the world. It was a great delivery and we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy! Finally, our family was complete.Eight Pounds, Eight Ounces, 20.5 Inches Long!Proud Daddy holding his little man!Auntie Julie and Cousin Dani.Getting ready to leave the hospital. Yeah!On our way home!Look at the head of hair! It is gorgeous.All three kiddos. As Kadee explained, they are, "Small, Medium and Large!"Big brother with his new buddy.Bis sis Kadee-Bug, aka "Little Mama." She loves her baby brother.