9/15/2017: Today I am almost 38 weeks along with my 3rd pregnancy. Last week I went to my appointment and was told that I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. Today at my appointment I was dilated to a 4+ and 80% effaced. The doctor told me that if I was dilated to a 5 they wouldn't let me go home and would have me go over to the hospital to deliver. So, that got me thinking that I would probably have the baby sooner rather than later especially with my track record of having babies so quickly.
9/17/2017: Today was Sunday. I am not going to lie, I'm surprised that I haven't had this baby. But, I haven't even had any Braxton Hicks for the past couple of days, which is crazy because I've had them pretty regularly since week 20. After church I didn't feel great so I went a laid down for an hour. When I woke up I felt like I needed to clean everything. All the while I had some MAJOR Braxton Hicks happening, to the point that I would have to stop and wait through each one before I could keep cleaning. I even started timing them and noticed they were coming pretty regularly. They were painful, but not to the point that I couldn't breathe. I knew mom and dad would be driving home from Grover today, so I called mom and let her know that it may, or may not be go time. By the time they got to my house, all of the contractions had stopped. All together. So, I made the decision to have mom go home, I would have felt horrible if she stayed and I didn't have the baby. Plus, I had a few people on duty to call in the middle of the night to help with the boys, so I knew we'd be okay. Well, the contractions started up again at about 11pm and kept going until 3 am. They didn't progressively get worse, so I knew that it wasn't serious, but I felt horrible and had to go to the bathroom constantly. I also felt sick to my stomach pretty much the whole time. When everything stopped at 3am, I fell asleep and woke up the next morning exhausted and completely disappointed.
9/21/2017: This morning I woke up at 3am to some pretty strong contractions. I was shocked at the difference in intensity in these ones, compared to Sunday night. I mowed the entire front and back yard yesterday, and that really got my Braxton Hicks going so I spent an hour trying to decide if these were getting worse, or if I was psyching myself out, like I had a few days ago. Once 4am hit, my contractions were so intense and so close together I woke Cory up because I knew that I needed relief soon. So he got up, we got everything packed and I called Mindy Tolbert to come and sit with the boys. My contractions were so bad that I didn't think that I was going to make it to the hospital. For whatever reason, this time seemed to hurt more than the last two. Which I knew isn't true, but I think the 3 1/2 year gap made me forget. When we got to the hospital Cory went in and of course no one was at the desk. I couldn't sit there waiting so I started walking in by myself, with the car sitting there running. It felt like forever, but a nurse came running right out with a wheel chair and I just remember thinking, "I don't want to ride in a wheelchair because she's going slower than I could walk," but I did it anyways. She kept asking me questions and I kept asking her to repeat them because I couldn't concentrate on anything but the pain. I had my eyes closed the whole time. At this time Cory ran to park the car and met us upstairs. I got undressed and into a gown and was TERRIFIED to get checked. I was in so much pain that the thought of them checking me had me crying. But, I put on my big girl pants and they checked. I thought for sure I'd be at a ten with the pain that I was in. But they told me that I was dilated to a 5 and 100% effaced. I wanted to DIE. With my other two, by the time that I was at the hospital I was dilated to a 7 both times, and I thought for sure I was in more pain this time around. But I wasn't as far effaced with the first two. Anyways, I got my epidural right away and remember the anesthesiologist telling me that I wouldn't feel relief for about 20 minutes. Little did he know, that I'm such a light weight when it comes to pain meds and I only felt one more contraction before it was instant relief. They made me lay on my right side (most of my pain was in my right side and my right back), but they forgot to roll me to the left side when they should have. It wasn't a big deal because I did get rolled and didn't have any pain on the left side either, but I only mention it because after delivery I didn't have feeling in my right leg for a long long long time! Anyways, an hour after I was checked the first time I was dilated to a 9! So I went from a 5 to a 9 in one hour. The whole time I was feeling nauseous, and with my first two I had already thrown up a few times. The doctor came in and said we were ready to push. I pushed through two sets and then needed to throw up. I just threw up through the entire delivery. It was not attractive. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the first thing I said once baby was out, "I bet that was the most attractive delivery you've all been a part of." But my beautiful baby was here. 7lbs and 7oz and 20.5 inches of baby boy. When they put that little guy on my chest he literally held up his head and looked right into my eyes.
This little boy has been so sweet since the minute he came into our lives. The nurse told me that it was shocking to her how aware of me he was. Anytime I talk he looks right in my direction. When I hold him he holds his head up and looks right at me. I would be lying if I said I didn't absolutely love it.
Once Tate and Parker got to come and meet their baby brother I could actually feel that our family was all together. Tate and Parker were so excited and so proud. Each of them only wanted to hold him for literally 20 seconds. When they left, Tate gave the baby a kiss on his head. I asked Parker if he wanted to give the baby a kiss and he looked at me and said, "No, he is the most disgusting, his lips are tiny." We're definitely adjusting.
Naming this baby wasn't as difficult as Parker was. We never talked about names super serious because of the last time. We just kept a running list of names that we took to the hospital with us. When it came time to actually name him we crossed off every name on the list super fast, except for three. Levi, Garret and Mason. I knew that I wanted Mason, but Cory had already told me that was his least favorite of the three. We had to sleep on it for one more night. The next morning, Cory said he felt strongly that his name should be Mason Lynn. So our beautiful baby boy had his name. And he is our perfect little baby.
