I gave birth to all four of my kids during long holiday weekends: I went into labor with Big GuhGaw on Labor Day; JieJie came two days after Christmas; Second GuhGaw was born over the Memorial Day weekend; and you are my Veterans Day weekend baby. Welcome to the world, little girl! You are finally here! Your older siblings were all born before I was 37 weeks pregnant, so I thought you would be as well, but you stayed in my stomach the longest, for 38 weeks and 6 days. I guess you weren't in as much of a rush as the others!
What was a bit of a rush, though, was your delivery. Since you are my fourth baby, my doctor advised that when my water broke, you might "drop right out" of me. Um, yikes. So for the last couple weeks of my pregnancy, Daddy and I were a little on edge about when you would be arriving. The hospital is about 45 minutes away, without traffic, so if it was rush hour or my water broke at home, we probably wouldn't get there in time. We even asked PoiPoi to start sleeping over at our house so that we wouldn't have to worry about waking up all of your siblings and shuffling them into the car if I went into labor in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, the timing of your birth worked out perfectly (and I actually did end up going into labor in the middle of the night). On Saturday, November 9, I was jolted awake at 2:30am by an especially painful contraction. Then I had another really bad contraction at 3:30am and thought, "This is it." I woke Daddy up and we left the house around 4:45am. There were practically no other cars on the road so we reached the hospital pretty quickly, which was fortunate because my contractions had escalated from one an hour to one every 10 minutes. By the time we reached the registration desk in the Labor & Delivery ward, the contractions were coming back-to-back and when the doctor examined me in the exam room, I was already 9 cm dilated! My water hadn't broken, though, so when I gave the doctor the go-ahead, she broke it for me. And then the "fun" began.
I have serious labor amnesia because even though I have given birth multiple times, I really keep forgetting just how much having a baby HURTS.When I was in labor with Second GuhGaw, I specifically remember telling Daddy in the car on the way to the hospital that I didn't want anymore babies because ohmyGODithurtsoBADLY! Fast forward a few years and, well, that statement clearly didn't stick! I didn't get an epidural when I had JieJie and Second GuhGaw and I didn't get one with you, either (I could have but the doctor said that you would probably arrive before the drugs even kicked in), and ohmyGODithurtsoBADLY! Contractions cause such an intense physical pain and it's crazy that while you are going through said intense physical pain, the doctor and nurses are also telling you to hold both of your legs up in the air, not make any noise (if you scream, it takes away energy that you should be channeling toward your lady parts) and push a very large object out of a very not-large hole. I am really grateful that my labor is always so short--you arrived at 6:38am after two hours of close contractions and just three rounds of pushing. You weighed 7 pounds, 3.5 ounces, measured in at 19 1/4-inches long and were already opening both eyes soon after you were born!
It hurt so much when you were coming out but I forgot about the pain the instant the doctor said, "Meet your daughter!" and I opened my eyes and saw your beautiful face right in front of me (labor amnesia strikes again). When the nurse put you on top of my chest, you were so warm and sticky and perfect (even though you promptly peed on me). As with your siblings after I gave birth to them, I marveled at the fact that you, this tiny little person, had actually been growing inside my stomach. And now you're here and I can't stop staring in awe at your itty bitty everything; I mean, JieJie has dolls that are bigger than you are! You are absolutely amazing and Daddy and I already love you so much!
Love,
Mom
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