James did a great job of documenting Noble’s birth and the events leading up to it, but I feel like I really should set the record straight on a few things.
1. Friday morning, my friend Paula came over and we talked about what it’s like when your water breaks (I’d never experienced it with Kayci, so had no clue). She told me there’s kind of an “animal” smell, but the books all say it’s a sweet, almost chemical smell. For the record, my amniotic fluid smells like mild skunk—just ask Kayci, who, at Starbucks, finally got up the courage to ask, “Mommy, what’s that SMELL?”
2. I didn’t feel right after dinner on Friday, but dinner wasn’t great that night so I chalked it up to funky food. In retrospect, I think it was my body preparing for labor. I did have a lot of what we thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions that night…kind of funny looking back, isn’t it?
3. At 3 am, I woke up to go potty for the umpteenth time. For some reason, I started thinking about the possibility of my water breaking. I resolved to put a garbage bag or something under the mattress pad to protect our new WHITE mattress when we got a little closer to the due date, just in case. Then I thought, if my water breaks in bed, I have to jump up so I don’t ruin the mattress. So at 4 am, I literally JUMPED out of the bed. I didn’t know I could move that fast at that point!
4. I did call the doctor at 4:10. My doctor wasn’t on call, so it was Dr. Samuels who called me back. She asked me all of the vital information, but didn’t seem too impressed and told me to wait an hour or so and see if my water really had broken, then call her back. I explained to her that I was 37 weeks pregnant and Dr. Thompson had been monitoring me closely AND that we lived in Brenham, but she stuck with the “let’s wait and see.” Well, when I got off the phone another wave hit, and when I smelled it this time, I knew I wasn’t, in fact, peeing all over everything (if you’re counting, I went through 3 sets of undies and PJs before I got to the shower). So, I woke James up. Not much time passed from the time I woke up to when I woke him up, but a LOT happened. I was thinking of all of the angles – did I really want to go all the way to Houston at 4 am on a Saturday and get everyone excited over me peeing my pants…what if we went down there and it was nothing, and we had to drive all the way back home? We had a lot to do that day. Including taking pictures of my pregnant belly with the big sister – we’d been putting it off, and today was finally the day. So, I wasn’t really jazzed about messing up our plans.
5. Now, here’s the reasoning behind my actions at this point (other than I’m borderline OCD). First of all, we’d planned to finish getting ready for Noble that Saturday. So, the things in the washer were actually Noble’s very pricey, irreplaceable Dick & Jane crib linens. I didn’t want that stuff to mildew and be ruined if we were going to be gone for several days. So, you can see that it makes total sense for James to have to do laundry then. And the dishes…well, they were already smelling funky. Again, didn’t want to come home to flies and disease with a new baby. Perfectly reasonable request, again. If you know me, you know that I do like things just so…I’m a little too particular for my own good. Honestly, in the back of my head I was also picturing coming home to a house with things out of place—would have stressed me out. It was nice to be able to “relax” that week at the hospital, knowing the house was in good shape. (Fun fact: when we got home, our awesome friend Paula had hung a diaper wreath on the front door and her kids made a welcome home banner for Kayci and hung it on her bedroom door…and she had dinner waiting in the fridge. Now THAT’s a homecoming!)
6. By the time James got Kayci ready, it was clear that this was, in fact, the real deal. I’d started having contractions, so when he said, let’s go—we’ll call the doctor on the way, I was more than ready. I grabbed a garbage bag to cover the seat with…did NOT want the CRV to smell like baby water for the rest of its days.
7. Yes, the police story happened just as James said. Only the officer said “flashers”, not “hazards.” You remember these things.
8. Not to brag, but James did break a personal record at Starbucks…he was in and out in 2 minutes, which I know because I was timing contractions. And putting on my mascara. Hey, my pants may have been wet, but a girl’s gotta have a little pride. All I could think of were the stinkin’ pictures—I was going to look tired and washed out because I didn’t have time to put on makeup.
9. And I do need to clear this up – this has been bugging me since the hospital. The only bag I asked James to get out at the hospital was Kayci’s big sister bag. That was the very important bag that had all of her stuff for the waiting room…games, art, cameras, etc. We’d only been talking about it for months and months…but in the moment, I think all James could think of was that he’d gotten me to the hospital in time, let’s get upstairs. Anyway, yes, we did have words there at the valet stand. But for the record, I’m not a dummy – I only wanted Kayci’s bag, not all of them. Please. I knew I’d go upstairs with the clothes on my back and end up with a little white bag after surgery.
That’s it. James really did a great job of telling the story (and of taking the time to get it all down…don’t look at me for that!). I just had to clear up a few things. And impressively, I think, did so holding a fussy 5 week old and typing most of the time with just one hand. They say babies can’t see very far, but I just put him down and he keeps craning his neck to look in my direction. Oh, my.
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