Because the whole story is far too long for one post.

Here are some things I don’t recommend you do all at the same time: have a baby, get a new job, and move to a new home in a new city. It tends to be pretty taxing and stressful! That’s what we’ve been up to these last few weeks. It’s been busy to say the least! I can’t begin to put all the details together yet, so we’ll start with the biggest news, the baby!

I’m happy to finally be able to announce that she’s here!! We welcomed Emily Marie Shankland into our family on April 14th, 2010 at 5:22 pm weighing 7 lbs 11 oz at 20 inches long. Tall skinny girl! Today marks three weeks old and we’re just starting to turn a corner from completely sleepy baby-blob to somewhat more awake and alert little person. And boy can she voice her opinion when she wants to! I have a feeling we’re in for a ride with this one!

Our birth story is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot. It wasn’t perfect, but if I could go back and do it all over again I don’t think I’d change anything about it. That said though, we won’t be doing it again anytime soon, that’s for sure!! So here’s the story, with a few of the gory details omitted…

Tuesday, April 13, 10 pm. I had been having contractions on and off all week but nothing that lasted more than a couple of hours with any consistency. Until tonight. I’d been having them since late afternoon, but they were fairly mild and about 6-8 minutes apart. Rob left to go get his mom from the airport (good timing Eunice!!) and I decided to go to bed and rest. I thought it was just more warm-up and couldn’t be real, so I didn’t really bother paying them too much attention.

11:30 pm. Rob gets back and comes to bed with me. The contractions are still there and still pretty regular, but we decided to ignore them for now and try and get some sleep. I still think this is just “pretend labor” and don’t bother timing them. Even though I’m doing my best to ignore it, I can’t. I haven’t slept yet.

1 am. Contractions are getting stronger and seem a little closer together, so I start timing them. 3-5 minutes apart. I decide to see if I can sleep a little, without luck. Rob is next to me, snoring away. I’m a little jealous.

Here’s where I should pause… Stephanie, the doula that we’d been working with, left a message for me earlier that day that she had come down with strep throat and for me to please not go into labor for a few more days so she’d have time to recover and be able to make it to the birth. Unfortunately, the baby had other plans. I panicked a bit but we did have the number for Bobette, her back-up, just in case.  Stephanie had also mentioned that the first thing we should do if we thought we were in labor was to get in the bathtub. If contractions got stronger, there was a good chance this was the beginning of labor. If not, it was most likely just false labor. I just liked the excuse to take a warm bath. :)

1:30 am. I wake Rob and tell him what’s happening, and he decides I should get in the tub to see if the contractions get stronger or subside. They quickly get stronger and closer together, and at this point he starts to think it just might be the real thing. I’m still in denial and refuse to call Bobette or Stephanie for fear of waking them up and bothering them for no reason. Every night that week we’d gone through the “nightly contraction show” and I still didn’t think this was any different. I decide to get back in bed and try again to get some sleep. Somewhere in there I did sleep for about an hour, on and off, and Rob seemed to sleep a little, too, which ended up to be pretty fortunate for both of us!

Wednesday, April 14, 5:30 am. I finally decide that we may actually be in labor, maybe, and let Rob call Bobette, Stephanie’s backup. She tells us she’s on the way to our house and will be there within an hour. (At this point I didn’t know it, but Bobette had let Rob know she wouldn’t be able to make it due to her own medical issue and called Stephanie to tell her, too. Stephanie called another doula friend of hers, Pamala, and she ended up meeting us at the hospital later on).

6 am. The contractions are closer and closer together and average about 2 minutes apart, and are stronger every time. We decide not to wait for our doula and get in the car to go to the hospital on our own. I had also tested positive for group B strep earlier in the pregnancy, so the doctor told me I’d have to have an IV and receive penicillin during labor and birth, and to go the hospital soon rather than waiting at home for too long. So, we head down to Deaconess.

TO BE CONTINUED… (once I can get a little sleep!)