For the past year, life has been wonderful and hectic. We were incredibly blessed to have a new, beautiful baby join our family. Eden was born on her due date, May 27th 2013. Here's her story...
I woke up on Sunday morning, determined to go to church despite feeling enormous and uncomfortable. I knew the baby would be along in the next few days, and I wanted to squeeze in one last Sunday before life got busier. As I was in the shower that morning, I started to cough a lot, I felt something in the back of my throat, so I spit it out. Shockingly, it was a blood clot the size of a large walnut. I was a little worried, but felt fine otherwise, so I forgot about it and went to church. While at church I was feeling pretty crampy, but nothing alarming.
That night, while asleep, I felt sick like I was going to throw up. I went to the bathroom and coughed up yet another blood clot, then threw up. I was exhausted and went right back to bed. Minutes later I felt a sharp pain on my side. I would feel this from time to time during my pregnancy but it would usually subside after a minute or so. This time the pain wouldn't go away. I tried changing position, but again, the pain persisted. It got worse and I began to cry. I reached over and nudged Dave and with tears in my eyes I said "I need to go to the emergency room. Something is very wrong!" Dave jumped out of bed and dialed the midwife, explained the situation, and was told to get to the hospital right away. We called my mom and told her to come so she could look after the other kids. Dave quickly gave me a blessing and we were on our way.
I was in the car, scared and in pain, but what was worse is that I wasn't feeling the baby move. Was the baby ok? Was I ok?
We pulled up to the hospital and met the midwife. The first thing she did was check for the baby's heart beat. It was the best sound I had ever heard! That tiny baby was ok for now, and after a brief exam, so was I. We all gave a sigh of relief, but the midwife and doctor were both unsure what the blood clot was all about. They decided that I should stay in the hospital until the baby was born. The problem was, I wasn't really having any contractions. Perhaps a few mild ones, but nothing like real active labor. Around 7 am, Dave headed back home to switch cars with my Mom. We wanted her to have the car seats just in case she needed to take the kids anywhere, like say, the hospital to meet the new baby. While he was gone, the midwife (Anne) thought it would be best to break my water to get things moving along and I agreed. When Dave returned he held my hand and Anne broke my water. I was very emotional and started to cry. Having my water broken would mean that this was REALLY happening. A new miracle would be here soon, most likely my last miracle. I was happy, excited, and nervous as heck.
Soon the contractions started. They were very mild at the start, but made me feel very nauseous. For whatever reason, when I would lay down, they felt much stronger, and when I stood they went away, or became weaker. Hours went by, and no baby. Rosie had asked if she could be present when the baby came so around lunch time my Mom brought her to the hospital. They waited in the family room, luckily Rosie is a patient girl. The contractions began in intensify causing me to throw up a few times, but the contractions were far apart. The breaks in between seemed longer than my past pregnancies and would nod off to sleep during the breaks. It felt like I was going to be in labor for a long time. I was exhausted and feeling like I just wanted to have the baby already. I kept on thinking "this labor isn't as strong as I'm used to and these breaks are long. Am I ever going to have this baby?" I remember laying on my side, in pain and wondering when the baby would come. I was worried about Rosie and my Mom waiting for so long outside and feeling anxious. As I laid there I felt an overwhelming feeling that the baby was a girl. I felt a voice say to me "you're having a girl. She is precious to Heavenly Father and he's having a hard time saying goodbye and letting her go." This brought peace to me and I calmly laid on my right side and breathed through the contractions. Around 4:00 pm my other midwife, Rhea made it to the hospital. It was her day off, and she really wanted to be at the birth. She was in Toronto earlier that day and rushed over to be with me. As she was in the hallway with the other midwife filling out paperwork, I felt an enormous feeling of urgency. It was as if I went from slow contractions to BABY IS COMING NOW! I told Dave that I needed to push and he ran out to get Rhea and Anne. It felt like he had been gone for an eternity and for a split second, I thought I might be having the baby alone.
The midwives got their gloves on and got into position, as did Dave and I heard my Mom and Rosie enter the room and stand behind the curtain. After a few intense pushes the babies head was out! Rhea said "here she is!", which was funny since nobody actually knew yet if she was indeed a girl. Then, there she was!!! Dave was there to catch her, and quickly handed her to me. Tears filled my eyes as I held such a beautiful precious baby in my arms. Rosie and my Mom came into view. My Mom was also crying and Rosie had such a beautiful look on her face as if she was thinking "there it is!". We asked Rosie to come take a look at the baby and to tell us all what it was. She was so happy to announce that we had a GIRL! She had been praying for a sister and she got one. Was she ever excited. I felt like I was blessed with everything I had ever hoped for. A girl, two boys, and now another girl. She was beautiful! She was perfect! Love filled my heart the same way it did when each of my children were born. I couldn't be happier! We named her Eden Kelly, a name I had picked out long before I was even pregnant with her (I'll save the name story for another post.)
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