Since my recollection of one week ago today is much different than Mommy and Daddy’s, I thought I’d let Mommy do a guest post.

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Here is the story of how Della Jolee Rau came into the world, from her mommy’s eyes…

Last Saturday night I went to bed around 11:30 and started getting really sharp pains in my very lower back. I’d been having a sore back while sleeping for the past couple weeks, so thought nothing of it, especially since it still went away when I got up, went to the bathroom, and went back to sleep. But I was up a lot more that night than usual, and the pains were worse than usual. I finally got up again at 5:30 Sunday morning and just stayed up because I was annoyed with waking all the time, and by then the pains had moved around to the front to be super low cramps. It almost felt like even my hip bones were sore they were that low. So I showered, threw in some laundry, and did a little cleaning, all the while thinking I could just take a nap and catch up on sleep once the cramps subsided. Good thing I shaved my legs in that shower too, ha! 😉 The cramps got more intense, but stayed very randomly spaced, so the last thing I was thinking was labor pains – I just thought I was going to have diarrhea at some point that morning (sorry, gross I know). By about 8 I woke Ryan and just said I feel like crap with these cramps and didn’t get any sleep last night, so I might have to call the doctor this morning to see what’s going on. Of course right away he thinks baby is coming, but I was still not even considering that and just thought I was about to poop any second. I finally called the doctor at 9 (I had to get my chores done first!), and the on-call doctor called me back at 9:15; my regular doctor was on vacation last week and into this week, of course. So I explained to her what I’d been feeling, and how now I’d started having some bloody mucous. That had tipped me off that I *might* be having some labor signs with all this, but I was still totally thinking it’s just cramps, nothing more. So she said if the contractions get stronger and are about 3-5 minutes apart for an hour to go ahead and go in to labor & delivery, or if I start having heavy bleeding to go in. As soon as she said “contractions” I thought wait a minute, I said I’m having cramps, not contractions! Anyway, I told Ryan what she said, he said, “I bet this is the start of it”, and he went to shower up and continue to snooze on the couch while we waited. At 9:45 I was sitting on our futon, since it was the only thing with a hard upright back that I could brace against, and Ryan looked at me as I was wincing in pain and about to cry and asked if I wanted to go now. I said no, the doctor said to wait an hour; I was still thinking this wasn’t labor and they were going to make us go back home anyway. Finally at 10:15 I felt like my bottom was going to explode and each time the cramps came I had to stop everything and just stand there until they passed. So we grabbed the bag, car seat, pillow, and camera, and headed to the hospital. I swear to God that ride got bumpier overnight!! And of course our 10 minute drive was hampered by the slowest drivers ever, 8 million bicyclists hogging the road, hitting every red light on the way, and even a cop waiting for speeders. I thought, you have to be kidding me! Are we ever going to get there? I was holding onto the handle above the door for dear life and trying to have as little weight as possible on the seat since I felt like poop was going to explode out of me at any second, and poor Ryan kept looking at me with fright and trying to hold/stroke my hand to keep me calm. All I could keep saying was, “This really hurts.”

We got to the hospital and of course the valet parking guys aren’t there on the weekend. I told Ryan to just drop me at the door and park quickly so we could go up together. No way was I going in there alone! I went inside and was just kind of standing there grimacing, so the lady at the front desk got me a wheelchair. Ryan got back and wheeled me up to labor & delivery; fortunately I’d pre-registered because there was no way I could even answer the desk lady to tell her my name. We got upstairs and the lady at the window paid no attention when I rang the bell, but fortunately another nurse came out and let us in. She took us into a triage room to check me out, and made me undress to change into a robe and get in the bed (what?? I can barely breathe and you want me to remove all my clothes?!). I explained to her what had been going on, by this point I had no idea when things started getting consistently painful (9, 9:30, who cares??), and so she checked my progress. Of course this was done right during a cramp (see, I was still calling them cramps in my mind – baby was definitely not what I was thinking), and I practically jumped off the bed and said oh that really hurts! She said well, you’re a 9 with a bulging bag. WHAT?!?!!? That means this kid is coming out in about a minute right? Right. I said, “Oh my God, no wonder it hurt so bad this morning!” I was only 1 cm dilated at my doctor appointment that Thursday, as I had been the week before too, so I was convinced we would make the due date of this Monday, August 9, no problem. So now I was thinking holy crap, we really ARE having a baby today, and in about 5 minutes! She asked if I’d thought about pain medication (why, I have no idea, because we both knew it was too late at this point), and I said I’d wanted to try to go as far as I could without any, but I’d really like some now since it hurt so badly. No answer from the nurse when I told her that – hmm, that’s odd. 😉 So they called another nurse in, paged the doctor with whom I’d spoken that morning, and wheeled me into an actual delivery room. Thank heavens they didn’t make me get onto the other bed in there because I don’t think I could have stood at that point. We got into the delivery room and there were immediately 7 people in there surrounding us, including the doctor. I was SO relieved she got in there so quickly. They strapped the monitors on my belly, and I said to the nurse, “So it’s too late for an epidural isn’t it?” She sympathetically looked at me and said, “Yes, I’m sorry.” I instantly thought oh no I have to do this all by myself with no meds?!?! I can’t! Ryan asked if he should go get the bag and camera at this point and I said yes, this baby’s coming very soon! Of course, as soon as he left the room the doctor said she could break my water and I could start pushing, which would make me much more comfortable. What, didn’t you just see my husband leave?? No way – we have to wait for him to get back, this is our first baby! I asked if one of the nurses could run and try to get him, but of course they didn’t see him in the hall anymore. Now I was starting to get a little frantic because the pain was ridiculous by that point and I was terrified that Ryan was going to miss the birth. I kept saying no, we have to wait for him to get back, I cannot have this baby without him here, so wait we did. He was probably only gone 5-7 minutes, but of course it felt like an eternity since my bottom and insides were on fire! The second he got back I’m afraid I kind of looked at him with sheer terror in my eyes, and the poor guy looked like a deer in headlights. The room had changed 180 degrees in that short time he was gone from ok, you’re going to have a baby today, to ok, you’re going to have a baby RIGHT NOW! As soon as he took his position back by my right shoulder as hand holder, shoulder rubber, and cold wash cloth refresher, the doctor broke my water (woah!!! Had that happened anywhere but on that table I would’ve completely freaked out – it felt like a tidal wave of hot water came out) and it was go time. So they told me to let them know when a contraction was coming (fine, by now I’d accepted the fact that they were really contractions), let it build up, take a deep cleansing breath and blow it out, then take another deep breath, hold it in, put my chin to my chest, and push down with all I have like I’m having a bowel movement. Ok, if you say so. I kind of heard the instructions and kind of didn’t since all I could think of was OW THIS HURTS!!! Now here’s the best part – 3 rounds of 3 pushes each time later, we had a baby!! Actually the last round where they got her out they made me do one last push, so 4 total, and I said, “I can’t!” The deal was 3 pushes each time, all of which made me feel like I was going to pass out and hyperventilate, and now you want me to do 4 this time? No way on earth. But I did that last one, and I could feel the head come out. HALLELUJAH!!! The doctor said, “Jocelyn, look at me, look down here.” I had my head back on the pillow from sheer exhaustion at this point and said, “No, I don’t want to.” She said no, just look down here and see your baby. What? My baby?? And there she was, just as they were lifting her out. Unreal. The doctor asked Ryan if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord, which he politely declined, but then she asked him if he wanted to tell me what we had. He said, “It’s a girl.” Woah, what’d you say? A girl?? I was 100% convinced that we were having a little boy, so that surprise was incredible. Oh my gosh, it was all over, and we had a little girl!! That was definitely not what I was expecting to do that day! 🙂

They laid her right on my stomach while they finished everything up down there and I had to pass the placenta, and all I could think was wow, we have a baby girl. So now what do we do? 🙂 Now they were all done, I was all done, they took Della to get weighed and wiped off, they gave her back to me to start trying nursing (which worked right from the start, thank goodness), and then everyone left the room. Ryan and I looked at each other and literally said, “Now what?” We were both absolutely shocked that all that had just happened. We said that definitely did not follow the plan. It was supposed to go like this – I start feeling contractions, we stay at home for a day while they build up, then we go to the hospital and wait a few more hours as real labor progresses, and THEN we have a baby. Not oh I’m having some cramps, ow these cramps really hurt, go to the hospital and have a baby immediately! I guess Della had a different plan for us. 🙂

When our original nurse came back after an hour or so to take us up to the mom & baby floor where we’d spend the rest of our stay she said that had to have been the most whirlwind delivery she’d ever seen. We checked into the hospital at 10:50 and Della was born at 11:17! We didn’t even have time to answer all their paperwork questions or even get our hospital bracelets on before she came. I was just so relieved it was all over I couldn’t stop smiling. Well, that and the fact that she’s the most beautiful little thing ever. 😉

So there you have it – Della’s birth story. We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday morning. Ryan actually went home to sleep both nights and I had them take Della to the nursery, which I think was the best decision I could have made. I said she’ll never know the difference, and I can try to actually sleep those first two nights. They brought her back in each time during the night to feed, so that worked out great. And our first week back at home has been pretty awesome. The first night was hard because she’d had shots before we left the hospital which knocked her out basically all day, so all night was when she wanted to be up feeding. But since then she wakes about twice during the night to feed after the last one before bedtime around 10-11, so I’ve been able to get about 6-7 hours of sleep total between those. Then with naps during the day I feel really good. And my physical pain has really been fairly non-existent. I was obviously sore Sunday, and then my neck and arms were really sore Monday from straining so hard. But I’ve only taken ibuprofen a couple times all week. The nurses kept saying how easy we made their jobs because we never needed them for anything. 🙂

Ryan is the proudest papa ever, and he is just so adorable with this little girl I can’t stand it! It completely melts my heart watching him with her. I have definitely loved having the 3 of us here together all week. He has Monday off too on his birthday, so that will be great. Momo Jenni is coming back up for the rest of the week starting Tuesday, so it will be nice not having to be by myself again right away when Daddy has to go back to work.

Happy one week birthday our sweet girl! Mommy and Daddy love you so very much, Della. Thank you for making us into a new little family!