It has been a full six weeks since Baby Sprinkles was born, but I have been so busy that I haven’t had any time to sit down and write this. To be honest, the only reason I am writing this now is because I am back to work now and am sitting at my work computer!

SHORT STORY: False labor for two weeks. Wake up at 3 a.m. with contractions. Realize it is the real deal around 6:00 a.m. Get to the hospital at 7:15 a.m. I am at 7 centimeters. Immediately get in tub. Labor for less than two hours. When it is time to push, I get on the bed. I labor down on all fours. Baby is posterior, so lots of back labor. I push for 25 minutes. Baby is born at 9:25 a.m. completely med-free!

(EXTREMELY) LONG STORY: Up until the day baby was born, I had exhausting false labor. For two weeks I had contractions, some of them extremely painful and some of them totally bearable. One day, I had contractions for 16 hours straight, and still no baby! It was definitely trying for me. Night after night I was up laboring, hunched over the bed. I started to get extremely frustrated. I began working from home because I lost all desire to leave the house.

On November 24th, my husband and I spent the entire day cleaning the house. We cleaned from top to bottom. I had a hunch that the baby would be there in less than two days. While we were cleaning, I felt such incredible pressure that it was hard to walk. I had to waddle, and sat down often. I also had a lot of discharge that day. I had already lost my plug weeks earlier, but the discharge was so bad I needed to continually change liners. I also went #2 at least six times that day. It was so strange… I just kept going and going and going (I know, TMI). That night we went on a date. We saw Catching Fire (and while we were watching I had more false labor) and then went out for dinner. I am so glad we chose to do it that night, or else we never would have gotten the chance!

That night I woke up at 3:00 a.m. with an excruciating contraction that lasted for over two minutes! It was constant pain. However, I was able to immediately fall asleep and didn’t have another contraction until 4:00 a.m. I thought to myself “if these contractions are an hour apart, it’s just more false labor.” However, this one felt different. The pain was more intense and accompanied by a lot of radiating back pain. I got up and walked around, and had another contraction about 20 minutes later. I woke up my husband and told him that I was sure it was more false labor, but I was going to get up and shower just in case. I told him to text my mom and let her know to be on call. I kind of puttered around (totally not believing this was real) and my contractions slowly got closer together. I got in the shower around 5:30 a.m. (I shaved my legs and put on self tanner. I didn't want white legs!!!)

In the shower, my contractions literally increased to two minutes apart. I called to my husband to tell my mom to come over---It’s baby day! I got out of the shower and couldn’t even time my contractions because they were so incredibly close together. I text my mom and told her “GET HERE NOW!!!!!” My mom arrived at 6:30 a.m. Willa usually doesn’t wake up until 8:00 a.m., but I think the commotion woke her up. I am so glad it did, though, because I was able to see her before we left for the hospital. My last cuddle with her as an only child. I was in horrendous pain, but I still sat her on my lap and sucked it up for a few minutes so we could get those precious moments together. My DH took a picture, and I am glad he did.

We drove to the hospital (about a 5 minute drive) and checked into the ER. I pretty much shouted the whole car ride. We got to the ER at 6:55 a.m., and I was checked into triage at 7:15. I think they would have made me wait in the ER longer (they were super understaffed that day) but the ER nurses thought I was going to deliver right there! They kept exchanging nervous glances and making calls up to Labor and Delivery.

Anyway, I got into my triage room at 7:15 a.m. and they checked me right away—I was 7 centimeters! I immediately shouted to my husband “OH MY GOD! I AM DOING THIS!!!” I was in shock that I was already in transition and doing it all on my own. I felt so proud of myself. After that, I started to get shaky and irritable. I remember the show Jake and the Neverland Pirates was on the TV, and I kept shouting for someone to turn it off. The nurses then wheeled me into a labor room. On the way to the room, my nurse got distracted and rammed me right into wall in the middle of a contraction. I screamed and swore at her. All the nurses laughed. I was not amused.

When I got in my labor room, I immediately got in the jetted tub. The jets felt so good on my back. THE BACK LABOR. OH MY GOD THE BACK LABOR! At this point I was totally zoned out. I asked DH to turn on some worship music for me, and I sat in the tub in silence. I breathed quietly through each contraction, trying to visualize how soon my baby would be in my arms. The pain was radiating from my back, down to my hips and the outside of my upper thighs. It was completely surreal. I asked my husband to not say anything and to not touch me. So he just sat on the toilet next to me. (boy, it sure was easy for him!) When contractions were horrible, I hummed.

I stayed in the tub until I felt pressure, like it was time to push. My doctor checked me and I was at a 10, but still had half an inch to labor down. I then got on the bed, where I did practice pushes on all fours. That was really the only bearable way to do it for me. I did that until her head was all the way down….then it was time to REALLY PUSH. I rolled over onto my back and began to push. It was just me, DH, and a nurse. I can’t even describe to you what the pushing felt like. I was like an out-of-body experience. The pain of the pushing was 10000 times worse than the pain of contractions during transition. I kept pushing myself off the foot of the bed and trying to get away from the pain, but nurse kept telling me to curl into the pain. I felt like I couldn’t do it. I cried! I wept like a friggin’ baby. I wanted to be able to get up and walk away and take a break for an hour.

My OB came in and encouraged me. It really was a mental game—I needed to convince myself that I could do this. Finally, after giving it everything that I had, she was born POSTERIOR at 9:28 a.m. After 25 minutes of pushing and 2 hours after being checked in to the hospital. Her cord was wrapped around her neck and she was really blue for a while, so there were a few seconds of craziness. The doctor unwrapped the cord before she was even fully out of me. I then hemorrhaged. Because I didn’t even have an IV, there was a moment of “discussion” between the nurse and the OB about how they were going to stop the bleeding. It went on long enough that I asked “Is this getting dangerous? Should I be worried?” My OB responded “that is not for you to worry about, dear.” I was not pleased with this answer! I started to cry again because I was scared. Eventually they gave me some shots of Pitocin in my thigh. She then stitched me up with only two stitches (big difference from the 32 I had last time). It took a good 2-3 hours before they stopped checking me constantly and the concern about the bleeding seemed to die down.

Within a minute of being born, she latched and was able to nurse. We nursed for over an hour! I nursed DD my entire pregnancy, and so I still had some milk. We had a couple hours of really special bonding time as a family.

About six hours after baby was born, big sister came and visited and showered her with kisses. I never knew my heart could know such incredible love. To see my firstborn whom I love with everything that I have give the new baby so much love and affection....totally mind blowing. It made me so proud I see her as a big sister. There is indeed room in my heart to love both of these girls and their daddy more than words can say.

Recovery was incredible. I had zero pain afterwards. I literally needed no ibuprofen or Tylenol—nothing!!! Within five days I was able to walk around, go shopping, go to the mall, etc. I felt so blessed to be able to have such an awesome recovery after having it so rough the first time around. 2.5 weeks after she was born I was wearing my pre pregnancy jeans. No idea how that happened.

I feel so blessed to have had a complication-free delivery. I actually look back on the entire experience with fondness.

Anyway, INTRODUCING MAXINE WINTER. Beautiful baby girl with dark brown hair. Came into the world at 8 pounds, 9 ounces, 19.5 inches.

She's now six weeks old and she made momma proud by sleeping a five hour stretch last night..