Amelia's Birth Story: Part 1

When Expectations Can Be Bad Things

Our son, Jonathan, was born September 23rd, 2008, three and a half weeks early. Our second daughter, Eliya, was born February 9th, 2010, two weeks early. To say that I expected this baby to come just a wee bit early would be an understatement.

This is my fourth baby in less than five years and we had just moved across several states and were in the process of unpacking and setting up our new home so I definitely wasn't taking it easy during the last few weeks of my pregnancy.

On Friday, August 5th I was trying to nap when a crampy feeling started to accompany my frequent Braxton Hicks contractions. Within 20 minutes I experienced 6 of these crampy but not painful contractions. I walked down the stairs to tell Tim that something was feeling different and while I wasn't in labor I felt like I could possibly be going into labor soon.

At this point I decided that it was probably time to take a break from the unpacking to pack a bag to take to the birthing center. I also took some time to pack a few changes of clothes for the kids and decided to jump into the shower. When I got out I began writing out a schedule for our kids to give to whomever would be taking care of them while I was in labor (we have a few different people on stand-by due to work schedules).

By the time I finished writing down some general information I realized that my Braxton Hicks contractions had slowed down to about 1 every 20 to 30 minutes. Also the crampy feeling had subsided. While I was a little disappointed I felt like it had still been a good sign that I would probably go into labor before too long and if nothing else we had finally packed our bags and prepared a little more for going to the birthing center.

We spent some time the following day at my parent's house. During our time there I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had lost a large section of my mucus plug. I took this as even further proof that our baby would be joining us shortly.

Then two and a half weeks passed.

Here's Part 2...

...you may also want to read Emahry's, Jonathan's, and Eliya's birth stories. They are all so different, proving that each pregnancy, labor and delivery is completely unique...just like each child.

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