She's magic, that one

This is the story of Salem Anna’s birth.

Talk about over due! And I don’t mean Salem. Although that applies to her as well. But when it comes to this story, its definitely better late than never!

I feel like I have to start off by saying that I am still in shock that I have a December baby. My due date was November 16th but OH MY GOSH did I know that I was going to have an October baby.

“Oh you better get to the hospital quick with your third!”, “third babies always come early!”, “do you have a plan if you don’t make it to the hospital in time?”. These were all things I heard. And I heard them many, many, many times while pregnant. These types of comments combined with way too much googling convinced me that not only would she never possibly go past her due date, but she would arrive way ahead of time.

October was constantly on my mind (hence the colors I picked for her newborn photos in the hospital!). So I still laugh over the fact that I have a December baby.

Yes my third baby was late. Not only the latest of all three of my babies but I had to be induced for the very first time.

At my 40 week appointment I was told that I could finally schedule a date to be induced. At that point I was not dilated at all (I mean, AT ALL) and there was zero progress happening, despite my best efforts.

So the night of December 3rd arrived. I woke so anxious and excited that morning. This would be the day I would finally meet my girl!

That day I was told to call around 5 p.m. to make sure they had open rooms. We were told they were very busy and to call back around 6 p.m. Clearly I wasn’t the happiest about this because the hopes of meeting her that day seemed further and further away.

We were finally told to arrive at 8:00 p.m. We said our goodbyes to the boys and told my mom to be on standby. I still had a feeling that things would move fast once I got there.

We arrived and checked in. After getting situated and receiving cervidil we were told by the nicest nurse to get some rest and they would be back in about 8 hours to check me.

EIGHT HOURS! I think my husband and I’s jaws both dropped at the exact same time.

Called mom and told her to stand down. This was going to be a much longer process than we thought and December 4th was looking like the earliest Salem would arrive.

The next morning, December 4th, they came in bright and early to check on things. At that point I was still *only* dilated to a 3 so they began the Pitocin. Things started to pick up a little from there.

At this point I had two things on my mind. 1) I wanted to meet my daughter 2) I hadn’t been allowed to eat since 6:00 p.m. before arriving at the hospital and it had now been 14 plus hours since then, and I wanted to eat!

Time seemed to move quickly that day. Glenn snuck me cheerios every time I asked and we did our best to pass the time. Around 3:00 the contractions were getting pretttttty bad. I received my epidural shortly after and before I knew it, it was time to push. That part snuck up on me quickly. I remember telling Glenn she was about to be here!

After 3 contractions worth of pushes- we had our girl!

It’s all still so vivid to me. I was so overwhelmed with happiness. She was FINALLY here. And wow, she was perfect.

The first 45 minutes of her life were spent completely uninterrupted on my chest. Something I am beyond happy I decided to do. Skin to skin, the first latch, sitting there with my husband soaking her up. Moments I will carry in my heart, forever.

She definitely didn’t arrive the way I pictured she would or even the month that I thought she would. But her timing was just that, hers. And it ended with me getting my best girl. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.