An Unexpected Delivery

On Saturday, March 20^th at 3:04 PM “Operation Make Eddie a Big Brother” was marked as complete! A sweet baby girl, named Josephine “Josie” Elizabeth, was born 2 weeks early weighing in at 6 lbs 11 oz and measuring 19 inches long. You can scroll straight to the bottom to see pictures of the adorable little bundle of joy, or you can read along if you’d like to hear about her unexpected entrance into the world.

On Thursday, March 18^th I went for my weekly OB check-up and final growth ultrasound. I went to the growth ultrasound first and everything measured great with the baby. The only hiccup we had was that the baby’s head was so far down into my pelvis that the ultrasound tech couldn’t get an accurate measurement… we’re talking so far down that I had to be tilted back on the table to pull the head up enough to be measured! This should have been hint #1 as to what was going to happen at my OB appointment…

Next, I went to visit my OB. Since I would be 38 weeks the next day my doctor decided to do my first cervical check. He did a quick exam and then quickly asked “When are the parents arriving?!?” I told him that they would be arriving around 8 PM on Saturday to hunker down and wait for the baby to make an entrance. To which he replied “I don’t think we’ll make it that long. We miiiiiiiight make it, but I’m not sure you will.” I was 90% effaced, 2 cm dilated, and the baby’s head was as far down as it could go without making an exit. I said, “Well that’s convenient, because my husband is heading to Jacksonville tomorrow morning to pick up our new puppy so I’ll have no one here if I go into labor.” He then said “Your husband can’t go. If he leaves town then he is playing with fire.” So, Dr. Franz was THAT confident that labor was coming very shortly.

I left the appointment a little surprised by the news. A baby can always come at any point, especially in late pregnancy, but I was expecting to have a couple more weeks ahead. Especially with Eddie having been born 6 days late! So, I quickly called L&R in Chicago to give them the news. Of course I started with “Now, don’t freak out…” but it’s hard to not freak out when you’re several hundred miles away and your baby could be born at any minute. L said that she and R would chat and decide their course of action, but for that moment they were keeping their original plane tickets and would arrive in Tallahassee around 8 PM on Saturday. L texted me later that night and said that they decided to switch their flights and would be leaving the next morning (Friday) and should be in Tallahassee by 8 PM Friday night. She didn’t want to risk missing the delivery

On Friday I hit the 38 week mark. Jeff cancelled his plans to drive to Jacksonville and my Mom and Grandmother offered to pick up and bring our new Great Dane puppy to us. I was under strict orders from Jeff to stay in bed while he took care of the kids. Any time I would move around I would have occasional mild contractions, so we were hoping that self-imposed bedrest would help buy us time. Finally, around 8:30 that evening, I received confirmation from L & R that they had arrived safely and were settling into their rental. Phew! We didn’t go into labor without the parents! Shortly after that Jeff and I decided to go to bed early “just in case we need to be rested”. Sure enough… we needed to be rested!

Just 8 hours after L&R arrived, at 4:30 AM, I woke up thinking “Did I just pee myself or did my water break?!” LOL As I prepared to hoist my round self out of bed I felt another small gush of water and said to myself “Nope! Definitely didn’t pee my pants.” Then the chaos of getting to the hospital began. Since this was my 4^th pregnancy coupled with the fact that I was already effaced and dilating Dr. Franz wanted me to come to the hospital ASAP if my water broke. He expected that it would be a very quick delivery.

There was no time to wait on a babysitter, so I quickly dressed while Jeff pulled the kids out of bed to come with us to the hospital. We called my college aged cousin and his girlfriend and told them to just meet us at the hospital instead of our house. Then we dropped the news on them that we’d need them to take Eddie with them too. The original plan was that Eddie would stay with his grandparents at the rental house when I went into labor, but with things happening 2 weeks early, L’s parents weren’t in town yet. So, thankfully, Josh and Lexi were willing to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to take on my crazy 6 & 8 year olds, plus a potty training 3 year old that they had never met, and an 8 week old puppy who had just arrived 12 hours earlier… with no definite time frame of when someone would return. They are the real MVPs of this whole situation!

Once we made it to the hospital and handed off our two kiddos, Jeff and I headed into triage. We checked in and immediately started asking questions about who would be able to attend the delivery. We had previously been told that only two people could come in due to Covid, but it never hurts to ask right?? Well, we were told by the triage nurses that only one person could be there. A few minutes later I was told by a nice nurse that L&R had just arrived and that security had let them into the hospital. The nurse said that getting through security was a big deal, so she quickly moved Jeff and I up to the labor and delivery floor and stashed L&R in a room across the hall from us so that no one would ask questions about the extra people in the building. It was just about time for shift change, so the nice nurse from triage told us to just lay low and wait for everyone to get situated. So we did. Jeff and I patiently waited for our new morning nurses while our stowaways were hiding across the hall for about an hour. Finally, a nurse came in to get all of my machines and iv stuff situated. She said she wouldn’t be our permanent nurse, but that our assigned nurse was running behind so she was helping out. Once she seemed settled, I broached the question again… “Can I bring the baby’s parents into the room to say hello? I haven’t seen them yet.” She said “Sure! They can come over and stay as long as you’d like.” (Internally I did a happy dance.) Then I said “Well, I was told I could only have a limited number of people. So if they come in, then my husband would have to leave and not return, right?” To which she responded, “No, everyone can stay. I’m the charge nurse. I make the decisions on this floor, so you’re good. You won’t have any problems. “ HALLELUJAH! We just happened to get the charge nurse and everyone would be able to attend the delivery! You have no idea the relief that brought for all parties involved.

At this point we were several hours past my water breaking. I was a bit surprised that we weren’t farther along or already done delivering. My past deliveries were relatively short, and the one other time that my water broke Everli came quickly flying into this world like the unpredictable tornado that she is. I kept saying, “I feel like this is taking forever.” The contractions weren’t ramping up, the pain wasn’t bad, and I went loooong periods of time without any contractions at all… all very odd for me. By late morning my doctor decided that I should start Pitocin to try to establish regular contractions. I low key started to panic because I had never needed any interventions during my previous deliveries and I had only ever heard horror stories about how painful contractions could get on Pitocin. I didn’t mind the medicine… I just didn’t want to feel it. So, we agreed that I would get an epidural first before we started meds. Problem solved.

After another long period with not so steady contractions, we were finally ready to deliver. The contractions still weren’t coming in a consistent pattern, but they were strong enough to have made progress. We still had to wait long periods between contractions when pushing, which was strange. Push, then wait…. wait impatiently for another contraction… push, then wait… why couldn’t we get consistent contractions even with pitocin?!? It was a bit frustrating.

Eventually it was time for the little one to enter the world! Dr. Franz agreed early on in the pregnancy that L could help deliver the baby. He is a doctor affiliated with FSU’s medical school, so he has medical students all the time. Teaching someone to deliver a baby is nothing new to him. So, when it came time, Dr. Franz pulled up a stool and told L to sit down. She quickly said, “No, YOU sit down!” She just wanted to catch the baby at the very end, but Dr. Franz was ready to give her a full on medical lesson. LOL! So, they agreed that Dr. Franz would do most of the delivery and that she would step in closer to the actual delivery of the baby. With just a few very spread out pushes, L brought a beautiful baby into the world and had the honor of announcing… IT’S A GIRL! R stepped up to cut the cord, and just like that, my mission was complete. L & R had their family of four, and Eddie was a big brother. At that moment, after two life changing journeys for one amazing couple, this stork officially entered “retirement”.