Radio Silence

Wow. The last 3 weeks have flown by. I had great a list of holiday posts, and projects that I wanted to tackle. But, then this little guy came along...

And, the world just stopped spinning for a while. Even with 3 other kids, it always seems to be forgotten how everything changes with a new baby in the house. We're soaking in every minute of it. 

Dixon Reece Loyd arrived on December 14 at 10:03 am. He was a big boy at 8 lbs 14 oz, and 20". The doctor and nurses kept remarking how big his was. But, he still seemed so tiny to me. In retrospect, I wonder just how tiny the other 3 were since he was a giant by comparison. 

And, I still can't get over how much he looks like his older brother, Dallas. That's Dallas on the left, and Dixon on the right. 

All of my kids were born early, even if only by a few days. I never made it to my due date. But, Dixon held on until the bitter end, and then some! He was actually due on December 12th. But, that day came and went. No baby. I was scheduled for an induction on December 19th unless he was born before that. 

The morning of December 14th started off like any other. I woke up, had an irregular contraction here and there. Nothing regular. Nothing strong or painful. The Mr. and I decided that we would go out, and run a few errands. Get some last minute Christmas things, and groceries before the baby was born. But, first... a bath. I wasn't in the bath for more than 5 minutes when I felt/heard a loud "pop." My water had broken. It was 9:15 am. Remember this. 9:15.

That was also a first for me. With all 3 of my other kids, my water never spontaneously ruptured. The doctors always had to break it in the hospital. So, I immediately got out, and told my husband that we needed to go to the hospital. Now. Still... no contractions. 

As luck, or lack thereof, would have it... everyone that we had lined up to take the 3 older kids was out of town. Because, of course, Dixon would be born on the ONE day in December that my daughter, Hazel, had a cheerleading competition. At least we had the common sense not to attempt to drive to Lexington for that one, and sent her on her way with friends. With no other options, Bobby ran next door, and asked the neighbors if the boys could stay there until everyone else got back into town. Even if it had only taken him 2 minutes to go over there... it was 2 minutes too long. 

I've had enough kids to know how things go, and this wasn't going well. The contractions started while Bobby was next door. And, they never stopped. No every 5 minutes. No every 2 minutes. It was one NON. STOP. CONTRACTION. 

By the time Bobby got back, and got me down to the car... I knew there was no way we were making that 30-40 minute drive to the hospital at Ft. Campbell. In fact, I couldn't even get in the car to get to the hospital down the road. Call 911. Please. 

At this point, I was seriously concerned that I was going to give birth underneath our carport. The ambulance couldn't get there soon enough. When it finally did... those poor EMT's. Two men. I was in so much pain, I could hardly catch my breath, let alone answer any of their questions. I kept telling them that I needed to push. With sweat pouring down his brow, the one unfortunate gentleman that got tasked with riding in the back with me kept begging, "Please don't. We're almost to the hospital." 

We got to the hospital at 9:55. Dixon was born at 10:03. 

No epidural. No pain medication whatsoever. They didn't even have time to give me an IV or hook me up to fetal monitors. Pretty much my worst nightmare of a birthing scenario. I have always been in awe of all of my friends that had natural births at home. I could never do that. No way. Except that, as it turns out, I COULD. And, I did. And, it was incredibly empowering.

From start to finish: less than an hour of labor. None of the nurses believed that's how it went. I'm not even sure the doctor did. Surely I had contractions for a while longer than I thought. Surely, my water broke earlier than it did. Surely it took us longer to get to the hospital than we thought. But, no. Only Bobby and I know that it truly DID go down like that. 48 minutes. That's all it took. 

As it turns out... it's called precipitous labor. Labor that is complete in 3 hours or less. It's rare. Only 3% of pregnancies result in it. And, only 1% result in labor that is complete in an hour or less. Google is your friend. At least I know I'm not crazy now. And, that there weren't hours of contractions that I had somehow missed. Or that I hadn't lost count of hours from the time my water broke until I made it to the hospital. And, now I know why it has been nearly 3 weeks, and I'm still in WAY more pain, and finding it much more difficult to get around than at this point postpartum with my other 3 kids. Precipitous labor puts your body through the wringer. Bodies aren't meant to go through labor that quickly. And, mine will be paying for it for a while longer.

So, we're just taking it easy around here. My family is still on vacation until the 5th. Things will get back to their regularly scheduled programming around here at that time. Until then, I'm going to relish in a few more days of this...