Sarah Lynn

Can I just tell you what an adventure we had getting baby number 3 here finally?! Paige and Porter have both been early (10 days and 3 weeks, respectively) so we fully anticipated this little girl early too. I didn't expect her to come as early as Porter but I figured around the same time frame as Paige was reasonable. About two weeks before my due date I started having contractions during the day, although they weren't anything major and I was COMPLETELY miserable. I get to the point where I almost can't walk at the end because of all the pain and pressure in my pelvis. I went to my midwife appointment and she checked and I was dilated to a three! All of us were convinced that I would go into labor any second, including my midwife. Because of that, my mom, sister and her three kids drove up from Billings that night to stay with us so they could be here when things happened. Wednesday passed and nothing happened. Thursday morning I woke up more miserable than normal. I went and laid down to take a nap and almost couldn't get up! When that happened, I called my midwife and asked if she would strip my membranes to try and induce labor, which, I should mention, is what got things started with my first two. She was willing, so Nicole drove me in to her office. We came home and just waited for things to happen. They didn't. Friday came. We thought for sure this was the day. Nothing happened. Saturday came. Surely things would happen today! Nothing again. Sunday came and my mom finally decided that she had better go home so that she didn't miss any more work. We all joked that because she had decided to go home after waiting those days that I would go into labor while she was driving home. I didn't. Monday - nothing. Tuesday I went to my regularly scheduled midwife appointment. When I checked in with the receptionist, she said my appointment had been cancelled. I hadn't been notified and upon further investigation, we found out that the office had cancelled it because they were so certain after stripping my membranes that I wouldn't need it because I'd have gone into labor! They fit me in and my midwife checked me again. This time I was dilated to a four! We were shocked! I'd never been a four before without being in labor! Now she was really convinced that I'd go into labor any minute but she agreed that if I hadn't gone into labor by Friday that she would induce me Friday morning. We now had light at the end of the tunnel no matter what! Nicole and I went and walked every day that week trying to get things going, including going to the mall with all five kids on Wednesday and making them walk laps with us and going to Walmart on Thursday to do all my grocery shopping. Thursday evening we had our friends Mark and LaNeige over as a last hurrah before I had a baby Friday. As they were getting ready to leave, labor and delivery called and informed me that they were full and were cancelling my induction the next morning. I cried. When I called my parents to let them know, my mom got on the internet and read me a million "home remedies" to induce labor and then my dad got on the phone and told me accupressure points to stimulate to induce labor. Nicole was so mad she called labor and delivery back. They said that they would call me the next day if something opened up but that they could only take me for sure if I went into labor on my own. Friday morning rolled around. I got up and started having contractions, which we timed and after an hour of being 5 minutes apart, we called my midwife and headed off to the hospital. (The hospital experience is a whole other story - I think I got the crappiest nurse there!) After about 10 hours of labor total, Sarah came into the world at 5:58 p. m. She was worth the wait. She is such a great baby and absolutely beautiful! I'm a lucky mom!