I'd been having false contractions for weeks that were becoming more and more frequent. With Lucy's pregnancy, I never had these, so they freaked me out a bit but they become so frequent that I became used to them. After James' semester ended, his program had their annual Graduation Ball, which the first year students plan. I had been asked to make quite a few desserts (3 cheesecakes, and 6 apple tarts), so I spent much of weekend on my feet peeling apples and baking. Sunday night was the Ball and during dinner, I had a couple of painful contractions. I chalked it up to spending too much time on my feet and not drinking enough water. We had a great time at the party (especially Lucy, who spent most of the night alternately idolizing the lead singer of the swing band and running away from us). The next morning, I received a text from the mom of the little boy I babysat for saying that he was sick, so we didn't need to come. I was thankful because we were so exhausted from the ball, but a little sad too, because it was supposed to be our last week with him before I stopped working (in order to get ready for the baby). I kept having slightly stronger contractions all day Monday.
Tuesday morning, I had an appointment with our midwife. I asked her if I should be concerned about all of these contractions. She checked me and said I was 2 cm dilated. She told me that things were probably "in motion," but that I wouldn't likely go into labor in the next day or so. Which turned out to be quite wrong... I didn't have to work that day either (Jack was still sick), so Lucy and I just enjoyed a free day together stopping by the thrift store, playing outside, etc. Meanwhile the contractions continued. That night I ran to Trader Joe's and realized while I was in the store that I was wincing with every contraction. I came home and told James, "You know, I might really be in early labor after all..."
That night I was up all night with contractions six minutes apart. I kind of slept between them sometimes. Call me an idiot, but I still thought, "They'll probably stop..." The next morning, James had gotten completely ready for work and was on his way out the door, when I stopped him and said, "Mayyyyyybe you should stay home." We talked about it and eventually decided that he should in fact stay home.
We spent the day timing contractions, paying attention to Lucy, and trying to get last minute things ready like finalizing who she would stay with and packing all of our bags. Around 4pm, my contractions had been steadily at 5 minutes apart for a while, so James suggested it was time to go to the hospital. I suddenly got a little weepy. Going to the hospital meant it was really happening. I think I still just could not believe our little one was coming four weeks early! I had it so firmly in my head that he was coming in June (we had even been calling the baby "Junebug"), that I would have several weeks off of work to make some freezer meals, prepare, rest up, etc. With lots of help from James, we made it to the car, and dropped Lucy off at her friend Tessa's house (friends of ours in the neighborhood have a little girl Lucy's age). Since we almost never leave her, I fully expected her to cry for the whole time we were gone, but we were told later she cried for about 5 minutes and then proceeded to have the time of her life. James and I headed for the hospital... in DC... in rush hour traffic. The hospital is a 30 minute drive away with no traffic. It took about an hour.
I did not really trust myself to walk when we got there, so James hopped inside and got a wheelchair. While James parked the car, I got wheeled up to labor and delivery. Once there, they told us triage was really busy and that we would have to wait in the waiting room for awhile. While waiting, my hands and feet started to fall asleep. I remembered the same thing happened with Lucy right before she was born. I was getting a little nervous and peeved. All of a sudden, a woman who was also in labor who had just sat down across from me was called and she walked back with the nurse. I thought "Wait, she just got here AND she can still walk." I told James to tell the nurse we could not wait anymore, and I think he was all too happy to do so. They brought us back to a room... and then left us alone again. They were gone for a while, and by the time they came back I told them I thought I was ready to start pushing. A nurse finally checked me and said I was 9 and a half cm dilated and that I could start pushing whenever I wanted. The room was suddenly a flurry of activity-- neither my midwife nor the back-up OB was there so they pulled in a random doctor. They tried to put an IV in, but I couldn't move my hands so they put it in my forearm. And the really comical thing was that they had to make me sign a Consent to be Treated form, but I could not move my clenched hands. So they squeezed a pen into my hand and James moved my hand so that I made a scribble mark on the paper.
I think I pushed under ten times, and suddenly the doctor was holding this tiny baby... BOY! I had one glorious look at him before they whisked him over to the baby bed to make sure he was okay. For those who don't know, James' family had nine grandchildren ALL girls. We were kind of wondering if we would ever have a boy. What a wonderful surprise!
Charlie had a little difficulty breathing at first, but soon that cleared up. After what seemed like a long time, they finally brought him to me and I tried to feed him. There was lots of talk of sending him to NICU if he did not improve. I was worried (since he was so small, and boys generally have a harder time with breastfeeding apparently), but he knew exactly was he was doing. Afterwards, they said his blood sugar was still quite low so we gave him a bit of a formula and soon the numbers were up. James and I marveled and tried to process a bit, and then he went off to pick up Lucy. They came back later that night for a brief first meeting with Charlie. Though Lucy was mostly happy to see and hug me, she did notice the baby and wanted to peek at him.
And here he is, being weighed in at 4lb 14oz after quite the adventure for all:
