Her Early Arrival
Ryan and I were both so relieved to know that with this delivery, we would have everything planned out, especially since we would need to have someone watch Jake while we were in the hospital. Of course, in the back of both of our minds, we were both a little paranoid that something would happen and all of our plans would go out the door. Thankfully we made it to at least the day before the planned c-section before anything happened.
Tuesday morning, I woke up having contractions that were a little different from the Braxton Hicks contractions I had been having for a while. With Jake, I didn't go into labor on my own, so I really didn't know what "real" contractions felt like. I ended up calling a friend to ask her advice and then called Ryan to just give him a heads up in case I really was going into labor. I also called my mom, who was on her way up to stay with Jake, to see how far away she was. Unfortunately, she was still about four hours away. The contractions started getting closer together and more intense, so I decided to call my doctor to see what I should do. She recommended that I go to the hospital and at least get checked out, so I called Ryan, who was thankfully already on his way home. I finished getting ready, packed the rest of our things and began to realize that we probably needed to get to the hospital fast. I knew that when I had to stop doing things to breathe through contractions, I was probably in actual labor. Thankfully, after we dropped Jake off at my friend Ashlee's house, we were on our way to the hospital. Once we were admitted, and they hooked me up to the monitors and checked me, they told me I was dilated to almost a 5, fully effaced, and contracting every 2-3 minutes. If I had been able to have her naturally, they said she would have been there soon. Thankfully, my doctor was able to get to me quickly and Gabby was born within two hours of being admitted. I'm not sure I could have handled too many more contractions without pain relief : ) I should have never told Ryan that I was a little sad that we would never experience what it was like to go into labor and have to rush to the hospital. I definitely could have done without the contractions, but at least it makes for a more interesting birth story than just going in for a planned c-section.
Big Brother Jake
Jake has been really excited about having a little sister, but we just knew that when she arrived, that would all change. All I can say is that at least for now he has been the best big brother we could have ever hoped for. When he came to visit her at the hospital, he was all smiles and was very sad to know that he couldn’t take her home with him. Now that we’re home with both of them, he is so good with her. He wants to hold her a lot, he’s been understanding of the fact that I have to feed her often, and he tries to cheer her up when she’s crying by saying, “It’s alright Gabby, your big brother is here.” He just seems so in love with her, and I can’t wait to see how their relationship grows as they both get older. I do realize that there will be rough days, and those could be coming soon, but for now, I am just going to appreciate how blessed we are that he enjoys being a big brother.
