The day before sweet Eden joined our family was a Sunday, and a pretty typical one. Church, lunch at home, hanging out as a family, dinner at my parents etc. Except I didn’t go to church because I was having some pretty strong contractions. But they stopped before Brian and Tatum even got home from church. After Tatum went to bed Brian and I painted my belly as a pumpkin just like we did when Tater was inside it. (**side note- We had tried to paint the belly about a week before with Tatum. She just took over the job and painted Mommy’s tummy all up, then moved on to painting hers. It was the most precious ting ever!) This time we decided to make it a jack-o-lantern face instead of just a pumpkin… not knowing at the time how appropriate that would be- Eden was born on Halloween day! After belly painting (and subsequent belly washing), Brian and I watched Sleepy Hollow since it was the day before Halloween (I wanted to watch a scary movie…Brian is not a huge scary movie fan…but we are both Johnny Depp fans…so we settled on a not-very-scary Depp movie).
About an hour into the movie- around 10ish- I started having contractions. I didn’t say anything to Brian because of the false alarm earlier that morning. We got in bed around midnightish and by that time my contractions were pretty intense. I told Brian and he rubbed my back while I timed contractions (there are some pretty convenient iPhone apps for this!) Abut thirty minutes later I gave up and got out of bed. I played in the computer (pinterest!) and showered then paced the house for a while. I was in pretty excruciating pain by this time. So I work Brian up and said “Two questions: how long will it take you to get ready and how soon can your dad be here?” He got up and called Kenny (to come stay at the house with Tatum- Thanks Kenny!) and we left the house about thirty minutes later (again, Thanks Papaw for waking up and rushing to our house in the middle of the night so Miss Taum could stay asleep!)
We had to pull over on the way to the hospital during contractions so I could walk around because I think I might have imploded if I had to stay sitting. The hospital is only about 10 minutes from our house and I had three contractions on the way there… good thing Papaw gets ready quick!
Once we got to the hospital they immediately put us in a room- I guess they could tell by looking at me this was the real thing, because they didn’t check me first. After we got in the room and the nurse checked me I was already 7cm! I was pretty excited- Eden will be here SOON! But then the nurse poops all over my party by telling me I should get an epidural because they want me to wait at least three hours because of group B strep!! Youre kidding, right? No. Really? Yes. I stayed at home as long as I possibly could and now I realize I should have come in much earlier. Guess I didn’t think that one all the way through. But I as hoping for a natural (as possible at least) birth and wanted to do most of my labor at home.
The anesthesiologist got there lickidy spit so they could slow labor down. Unfortunately, the first epidural attempt was no good because it didn’t hit the epidural space. Youre kidding, right? No. Really? Yes. Okay, lets start all over again. The whole thing took about 20 minutes, which is a reeeeally long time when you are having almost constant contractions and having to ‘relax’ and sit super still.
Right after the epidural was finished my parents got there and the poor anesthesiologist was trying to explain to my mom why he had to re-do the epidural (my mom is an anesthesiologist and both my parents showed up in scrubs…they made people nervous :)).
The epidural worked to dull the pain of the contractions….but that’s it. About 30 minutes after it was finished I started feeling an intense need to push. And I would continue feeling that urge for the next three hours until the entire dose of antibiotics was in me.
Meanwhile, poor Brian is not feeling well- he was not handling me in pain very well and hadn’t slept much. By the time it was finally time to push, he was literally green and felt faint…and not because of the gore (he was totally fine for Tatum’s birth and cut the cord both times). So my mom stayed in the room with me to help. Brian was there too, but had to sit in a chair by my head.
I could feel EVERYTHING below my waist despite the epidural. Thankfully, I only had to push for about 10 minutes!
Eden Anne Maines was born 10/31/2011 at 7:25 am 6lbs 15oz. 20 ½ in
Then they laid my b-e-a-utiful baby girl on my chest and it almost made the pain of the stitching bearable :). She was beautiful, and healthy, and strong. They let me hold her the whole time Dr. Devine was working on me and as long after as I wanted. They also did all of her newborn care in the room with me, which their policy did not allow for with Tatum (Tatum was perfectly healthy also, it was a policy change). It was so wonderful that she never had to leave my side at all!!
It was pretty immediately apparent that sweet Eden got her Daddy’s lungs, because this baby could get VOLUME when she cried (still true today at 2 ½ months). Its funny how, as a Mommy, you will be proud of every single trait your baby has. Loud scream? Yeeeah! That’s my girl!
Tatum painting belly:
Night before Tatum was born:
Night before Eden was born:
Eden painted belly: (our art skills seem to have retarded)
Headed to the hospital...feeling the pain!
My 'team!'
Tatum is holding Eden's hand...so sweet!
Kenny and Sharon brought Tatum up to meet her baby sister later that day, and she was UNBELIEVEABLE! I was worried about what she would think of her Mommy holding someone besides her, but she was so natural about it! I was not holding Eden when Tatum came in the room so she got to come sit on Mommy’s lap first. Then Brian brought Eden over to us and put her in my arms. Tatum looked at her for a minute then said “I need to kiss my baby”. She has loved her every moment since! (though she has not always loved having to share Mommy and Daddy’s attention)
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