John, Jennie, Rian and Gunnar: An August 27th Birth Day

When I woke up and realized that my water had broken while I was sleeping, I had that immediate nervous feeling of excitement. Our baby girl was coming today! It was Birth Day! I woke John up with a "want to have a baby today?" although it took him a minute to realize that I was serious. I took immediate action and started gathering the rest of the stuff on my hospital bag checklist. Then I placed a call to my sister Cassy to see if she would babysit Rian and Gunnar. Luckily I caught her at home, because they were leaving to Salt Lake for a family reunion a few hours later. Her husband came and picked up our kids which was a huge lifesaver for us. After another phone call to my Parents, I finished getting ready and we were off to the hospital by 11 am.

Once we arrived at the hospital and checked in, I learned that my OB Doctor Hartman was out of town. I was really nervous about this, because I had a previously bad experience with the particular OB that was now going to be delivering my baby. I just had to go with it. I kept telling myself, "It's going to be okay, he just has to catch the baby, right??" We started walking the halls to hopefully induce some contractions. (as I was not having any at this time.) The first time the nurse actually checked me I was already at a 4+ and 80% effaced. I told her that once I got to 6 it was pretty much a done deal, so she prepped the room 'just in case'. Then, an hour later I was still at a 5. She told me if I didn't do anything soon they would give me pitocin (which I really didn't want). At 3:30 or so, my parents had made it to the hospital (which was a huge surprise, because they had to drive 3 1/2 hrs to get there.) So my Mom and I started REALLY walking the halls. My Dad and John were watching TV in the waiting area, so we could wave at them between each lap.

I had a stop watch on my phone we used to time the contraction intervals and to see how long it was taking us to make a lap around the hallway. They were 3 1/2 minutes apart and never got any closer. I really thought they would be giving me the pitocin. I didn't feel like walking anymore, so we opted to go back to the room. To my surprise, the next hour when they checked me I was at an 6! The nurse said that she would notify the Dr. so he could be on his way. I think I had 2 more contractions and then I pushed the call button to tell the nurse I was having A LOT of pressure. (I told my Mom at this point that I thought she should go and get John from the waiting room so he didn't miss the birth of our daughter.) The Nurse checked me again and I was at an 8+ and 100 % effaced. The nurses all went into motion prepping for the delivery and the Dr. still wasn't there. The nurse then called in another nurse, just in case the Dr. didn't make it in time. I was very pleased by the nurses this time around. They were all aware that I was planning a natural childbirth and were very encouraging. One of the nurses looked me in the eye and said to me, "Do not worry. I CAN deliver your baby!" Although, not a minute later, Dr. Marriott came walking in in shorts and a ball cap.

The delivery went rather quickly and thanks to an awesome Dr. (despite my previous encounter), I had a 100% natural delivery with no episiotomy or stitches. At 6:26 pm, our baby girl was here and she was beautiful! We named her Harley Jordan Pace (after my brother Jordan). She was 6 pounds 10 ounces and 18 inches. My parents came in just a few minutes later while the nurses weighed and cleaned up our sweet girl. I was so glad they could be here for this special day. Happy Birth Day Harley!