Welcome Eden!

With a due date of June 1^st/2^nd, and two little boys who arrived 10 and 16 days early, most people (who don’t know Alisha) assumed she would just be sitting still and not doing much in those last few weeks. Well they would be wrong. If this was our first child, that might have been the case, but with it being the third, we still had activities planned, like our first camping trip of the year, Collin’s 7^th birthday party and a trip to LA for a cousins wedding. If you think about it, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a birth story that involved having to break down a campsite in freezing temperatures because you were born 17 days early, or that after celebrating at your aunt and uncles wedding in Los Angeles, the plane going back to Minneapolis had to make an emergency landing because you decided to arrive 10 days early. That was a trick question.  The answer is NO! Thank goodness we got back from LA and didn’t make the nightly news.

All the while we were in LA, family and friends inquired about the baby and Alisha’s response was always that she was ready but one more week would be ideal, allowing her to finish wrapping things up at work.  Well as the week wore on, it was looking more and more like our little girl was going to listen to her Momma. Friday rolled around and Alisha had a doctor’s appointment at 1pm.  At 1:23 I get a text message that the baby will probably be arriving in 12-24 hours. When I arrive home Alisha is on a couple of conference calls.  When she is done I ask about the appointment. She mentions that the doctor said she could go to the hospital now because of how far along she was, but she didn’t want to since the contractions weren’t very regular or organized.

We started keeping track of the timing of them around 4pm and they still weren’t very organized or consistent.  We would get to a point where they would occur every 15 minutes and then it would drop to 9 or go up to 20 minutes. We knew that we would be going to the hospital but we weren’t sure if we could make it through the night, so we talked to Collin and Owen to let them know that if we needed to leave tonight or in the middle of the night, Stephanie would come over.  For those of you who don’t know, Stephanie babysits the boys from time to time and they absolutely love her.  Well, when the boys heard this they became very excited and about every 10 minutes would ask how soon Stephanie was coming over.  With the clarification that Stephanie was only coming over if we needed to leave and go to the hospital, they encouraged us to leave. Bedtime rolled around for the boys and we still hadn’t headed to the hospital.    

The car was packed with all the items we needed. As the evening wore on I downloaded an application to keep track of the contractions. They were getting to a point where I figured we would be going sometime in the middle of the night.  She was already taking after her two brothers.  I decided to go to bed and after about 30 minutes of sleep Alisha woke me at 11:30pm to let me know that we needed to go to the hospital. Stephanie arrived a bit latter and was greeted by Samson barking his head off, as he does with anyone who comes to the front door, including me when I get home.  We then headed to Fairview Riverside. Although this was the same hospital where both of our boys had been born, additions and remodels had changed it since that time.  We entered through the children’s emergency entrance and made our way to security where I received a printed visitors badge and then we were allowed to go up to the birthing center. By this time the contractions were every couple of minutes and strong. 

When we got up to the birthing center and were being shown to our room, Alisha made sure that the nurse knew that she would like an epidural and could she please get the request in as soon as possible.  With Owen’s birth, things were a little delayed, to put it nicely.  The nurse assured us that she would and the call was already in to the midwife.  It is just shy of 1am and I sit there twiddling my thumbs, feeling utterly useless, as there is nothing I can do as Alisha is bearing the pain of contractions. Since we had parked in the spots reserved for emergency patients, I went to move the car to the parking ramp. I get back up to the room and realize that it would have been a good time to bring up the bags we had brought with.  So I make another trip down through the emptiness of the hospital to get our bags. 

When I get back up Alisha is in the shower, as this is helping with the pain. She asks me to get the iPad and turn on some upbeat music.  Standing in the bathroom with Justin Timberlake playing on Pandora, the midwife arrives.  Margaret was on call that evening and had to come all the way from Woodbury. Alisha gets out of the shower to be checked out and then back in to help with the pain.  Margaret explains that she wants to make sure Alisha is progressing along before the epidural is given because she has seen it where the epidural has stopped the progression of labor.  Things look good so the nurse puts in the IV and it only takes one try. Bags of fluid are hooked up and Alisha is closer to pain relief.
A short while later the anesthesiologist arrives and it is time for the epidural.  He preps his kit, gets the bed into position and starts the procedure.  I stand to side and in front of Alisha as he is working and all I can do is pray that he gets it in correctly and everything works smoothly. An injection of medicine and a pump to keep it flowing and Alisha should have some relief from the pain.  Which she does, but it is only the right side. It works so well on that side, that she doesn’t have much use of that leg. The nurses assure her that there are some things they can do help the medicine get to the other side and if that doesn’t work they will get the anesthesiologist back.   They place her on her side hoping gravity will help.  Alisha tells me I can go to sleep since there is nothing I can do.  I flip the chair into the fully flat position and catch some sleep.

When I awake it is early in the morning and time to have a baby. The anesthesiologist came back after I was sawing logs and was able to ease the pain on the left side. I get the video camera out and start filming when Alisha starts pushing around 6:30am. With Owen, it seemed like once she started pushing it took no time at all for him to come out. I think that maybe our little girl will come out even quicker. That wasn’t the case.  At first it seems like she is moving down fine but then it stops. Alisha pushes but the baby isn’t moving much.  I watch the battery life on the video camera and think that I may have to stop filming to ensure I have enough battery for when she is born.

Alisha is asked to switch from one position to the next and flipped every which way with only one leg that worked under her control. Never complaining, just focusing on doing whatever she could to help see her baby girl enter the world. Margaret asks how long has it been since Alisha started pushing. I can see on the camera that it will soon be an hour and the nurse informs her of the same thing. She lets us know that after an hour she will have the doctor come down to see if we need suction to assist getting our daughter out.  It seems our little girl has her head tilted to the side rather than straight down. The doctor arrives and has Alisha push a couple times and her head moves.  No suction is needed, as the baby ninja is no longer stuck.

The doctor leaves and we are close to seeing our daughter.  Every push now reveals more progress.  My heart swells and tears enter my eyes as I see her head come out. With the last push she rotates herself and lifts her arms up, reaching towards her Momma. A healthy cry comes from her lungs and Alisha takes her and holds her tight. Tears of joy are running down both of our cheeks. At 7:44am, after nearly 80 minutes of pushing, Eden Collette has finally arrived. I cut the cord and then get to hold her skin to skin on my chest. We enjoyed the time alone with Eden and sent out messages to family and friends about her arrival. About and hour and a half after she is born I take her over to the nurse so she can get her weighed and measured. She is 7 pounds 5 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She is bigger than both of her brothers were, but she also stayed in longer. We have a little bit more time before we get moved, so we have some breakfast, get cleaned up and gather our things up to be shuttled up to the post partum floor.

The suites were amazing with floor to ceiling windows, ambient lighting, glass tile on the walls, solid surface counters, fridge, microwave and a couch that turns into a comfortable bed. We got set up in the room and enjoyed some quiet time with our daughter and a couple naps.  After experiencing the hospital food at breakfast we decided to choose something else for lunch.  With Davanni’s visible from our wall of widows and my love for pizza it was a simple choice. The afternoon quickly slipped by and it was time to go get her brothers.  I made it home at 4pm and then Collin, Owen and I grabbed some Subway to take back to the hospital with us. The boys were eager to see Momma and their new sister and find out her name.  With the revelation that it was Eden Collette, Owen announced that he knew that since it was on the wall in her room.  They both were sweet and wanted to touch her. After we ate dinner we watched the new version of Cinderella and then it was time for the boys and I to head home.  We said goodbye and made our way to the car.  The boys were both sad that Mom wasn’t coming home.  Since she was born in the morning I let them know that the following morning we would be able to go and pick up Mom and Eden and bring them home. 

The next morning after a quick breakfast and clean up, we head back to the hospital. We got the room in the middle of Eden having blood taken from her foot for her bilirubin level to be checked. She wasn’t enjoying it so the boys and I did some laps until it was done.  Then it was just a waiting game until we crossed off all the things on the list to get discharged. We took some pictures of all of us together and the boys got to watch two more movies. When we close to getting the all clear to leave it was almost 1pm.  The nurse gave the final discharge instructions to Alisha and the boys and I did 7 laps around the wing to help expend some of the energy that had built up from sitting still for 4 hours. We loaded up a cart with all of our bags and then put Eden into her bucket car seat. It had seemed so tiny when it was sitting in the house. It was hard to imagine that both the boys had fit into a similar one when they were born. When we put her into the seat though, it seemed as if somehow the seat had grown or she had shrunk, for now she look so tiny strapped into it. 

With the bucket seat in the stroller, Alisha getting a wheelchair escort, and the boys pushing a loaded cart, we made our way to our car and got everything loaded in.  After a little more than 36 hours in the hospital we were on our way home, excited for the changes that a daughter would add to our household.