Becoming a Family of Four

I woke up thinking it was going to be a normal Saturday morning until I was laying in bed and thought hum either I just peed myself or my water broke, and then it happened again and again. I got up and just kind of wondered and pondered, but I thought well if it did break surely contractions will begin. So I waited and didn't say anything to Kyle. Then while eating breakfast, at about 9, I had a contraction and then an hour later it happened again. So I told Kyle we would just wait and see what happened. We took Zeke to little gym then came home, the guys mowed grass and I did laundry before making us lunch, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking like seriously my water broke or I peed myself like three times this morning. I may or may not have called my Doula (also known as a birth companion and post-birth supporter, and  a nonmedical person who assists a woman before, during, and/or after childbirth, as well as her spouse and/or family, by providing physical assistance and emotional support) and we made a game plan. I decided I was going to just go about the day and see how things went. I just didn't feel the need to go sit at a hospital all day and I really didn't want to walk in to labor and delivery and not seriously be in labor. Finally, as the boys were both napping I finished up laundry and decided that once they woke up we would take Zeke to Sharon's and Kyle and I would go to the hospital because what if, what if my water did break?! And in the back of my mind all I could think about was my doctor telling me if my water broke I was to go to the hospital immediately. 

So it was now 4 pm and we headed to Sharon's, we called no one and told no one other than Sharon and Waynette because I truly didn't believe we were in labor. So we get to labor and delivery and they take us to triage. Contractions are far and few in between and were nothing I couldn't just take a deep breath to get through. So I'll try to keep this as pc as possible, but in order to see if my water broke the nurse literally used a piece of paper and it came back as negative. She walked out and said she would go talk to the doctor and as she walked out Kyle said, "if your water broke at 8 this morning how will that little strip of paper tell anything?" Then about 10 minutes later the nurse came back in and said the doc ordered another test that would go to the lab, because if my water did break at 8 then the strip test wouldn't be accurate. Man I have a smart husband. :) I'll spare the testing part, but we had to wait about 30 minutes for the results, in that time my doula (Heather) showed up and Waynette was waiting in the parking lot. At this point I was still telling Kyle I wasn't in labor and it was pointless that we were there and in that moment the nurse walked in and said "the test was positive and my water did break." It took several minutes for it to sink in that we were in fact going to be having a baby at some point that night or the next morning. As we moved down to a delivery room Kyle went to the car to get our delivery bag and Waynette and then I called my parents to let them know that we were in fact in labor. I was still in disbelief, but how could my water have broke and 9 hours later my contractions were still minimal. I may have been in disbelief, but Kyle told me he knew days before we would be having a baby over the weekend and when I asked how he knew he said that growing up every time a cold front would blow in his lambs would go into labor. I was like you're kidding me right?! But nope a cold front had blown in that Friday night and how would you know I was having a baby that next day.

Luckily my OB had to come to the hospital to do a c-section so she would be there to check on me. At this time we were still all hanging out, Kyle and Waynette were playing cards and my doula had me doing squats and then I rolled on a workout ball to try and help move Zoey down and work my hips... Hatton (OB) came in about 10:15 to check me and see how things were going. She was a little disturbed that my water broke at 8 am and I waited till 4 pm to go to the hospital, but we were all good and fine. :) As she was checking me she said there was another bag of water or what she called a fore bag that had formed and she needed to break it. She broke it at 10:23 and nearly instantly I could feel Zoey start to move down and the contractions kicked into high gear, but before my doc left I reminded her that she almost didn't make it to deliver Zeke when she was just next door in her office; therefore she better make it a quick trip back to the hospital when it was time. :) Once she broke that water we went from 0 to 100 in a matter of a few minutes. It was all happening so fast, in between contractions my body would just shake and I didn't like it, but my doula and Kyle told me that it was my body just working through the pain and hormones etc to not fight it, just let it be and it would only do it in between contractions. Then it hit, I felt the need to push, but it had only been like 30 minutes since Hatton left. The nurse came in and checked me and we had gone from like a 3 to a 7, things were happening. Not long after I asked for the demoral (sorry I don't know how to spell it) shot that would go in my IV and it would help take off a little of the pain/edge. However, things were happening so fast the nurse didn't want to give it to me b/c it could affect Zoey and I vividly remember looking at Heather and I said I'm not sure I can go all night like this and she looked back at me and said "honey you're going to have a baby within the next 30 minutes" and I just started crying. I told Kyle we're going to have a baby, we're going to have a daughter and in that moment we were all crying.

Not 10 minutes later I again wanted to push, but they wouldn't let me. I asked if the nurse had called Hatton and she assured me she had and I asked her to call her again b/c I was ready to have a baby. :) Finally Hatton was there and I pushed through two contractions and at 11:44 pm Zoey was here! She came out beautiful and perfect. Kyle cut the cord and they laid her on my chest and again we were all crying, we were now a family of four.

So what started as a completely normal morning turned into a fast and furious nighttime delivery. Once we finally got down to recovery we kind of laughed because Kyle told me if we would of gone to the hospital earlier in the day we would of had a baby hours earlier, but who knew. :)

So here are a few of her first pictures.

Zoey Corlis Pate
September 19, 2015
11:44 pm
6 lbs 15 oz
19 inches

The next day Zeke came to meet his new baby sister.

Dr. Hatton

Going home!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind, but I'll post more about that next week. We really can't believe it's been three weeks since we became a family of four, but we love this little girl with all of our hearts, especially her big brother - he seriously can't get enough of her!

Pate Family of Four!
Kyle + Mary + Zeke & Zoey