The story behind Zion Priscilla's birth (grab a drink, this is long!)

My due date was Oct 4th.  I figured I would be over due and I was fine with that... until my friend who was due 3 days after me had her baby early.  She was born Sept 27th.  Then everyone at church was sure I should be having my baby too.  Yeah, that was fun.

In my mind I didn't expect to go past Oct 9th.  That was Keturah's birthday.  I thought it would be neat to have two sets of birthday buddies.  But... it wasn't so.  Mentally I struggled through her birthday.  Physically I was feeling great.  I pushed through and we still managed to have fun celebrating my little girls 3rd birthday. :)

October 10th came and so did my first contraction.  I laughed because the 10th was the day my dad guessed baby would arrive.  For some reason it just amused me that he would be right.  My contractions started in the morning...around 6:30.  They were hardly noticeable and 11-45 minutes apart.  That is no kind of pattern!  Despite walking a lot they fizzled out as the day went on.  No October 10th baby.  I went to bed early, expecting to wake up in the middle of the night with contractions.

And that is exactly what happened.

I got up to use the bathroom at about 2:00am.  Pretty much the same time I've been getting up for the last few months. When I crawled back into bed I noticed a contraction that was just not quite a braxton hicks.  I had downloaded a contraction timer app on Roger's phone and decided to time some of them.  They were 8-10 minutes apart.  I woke Roger up around 3:00.  By 3:30 I had text our friend who was going to come stay with the kids to see if she could start getting ready to come over.  Contractions were about 8 minutes apart at that time but it was going to take her 30 minutes to get to our house and then it would take us 30 minutes to get to the hospital.  I was really second guessing myself though because the contractions were 8 minutes apart but I was handling them well.  I didn't know how long they would go before they got closer together.  Our friend, even though she assigned me a special ring tone and text message alert, didn't hear my text.  I sent her 3 and decided to just wait it out a little bit longer.  At 4:30 Roger and I decided we'd better call... contractions were 8 minutes apart with an occasional 4 minute one thrown in there for fun.  She answered right away, (yay!) apologized like crazy for not hearing our texts, and made her way to our house.  Roger got everything loaded into our van and we waited for her to arrive.

We woke Joseph to go sleep in Keturah's bed.  We were worried about her reaction to waking up without us there.  (as it turned out, she was fine... but you never know!) ;) Joseph, or course couldn't fall back to sleep.  (sorry kiddo!)

So our sitter arrived at 5am and I gave a few instructions.  Contractions picked up pace as we were leaving the house.  They were now 4-6 minutes apart.  The drive to the hospital was peaceful - even with the constant contractions.  I was still handling them well and was really hoping I wouldn't show up at only 4cm or something crazy.  (why do pregnant women do this to themselves?  How many birth stories have you read where the woman just doesn't believe she is in labor? I have read way more than I can count.)

At some point on the way over I told Roger that something felt different.  I wasn't feeling pushy... but something was happening and I was so glad to be on the way to the hospital! (It was at this point that I finally believed this was it) :)

So we arrived at the hospital at about 5:20 (our official check-in time was 5:25).  Roger asked if I wanted to be dropped off but I said we could walk in together.  There was a parking spot right up front, I could do it.  Well before I opened the door to get out I had a contraction.  Then I had to stop right in front of the ER entrance.  Then again once we walked through the first set of doors.

I was grateful that we left the house when we did!

So we walked into the ER and there was no one there.  Not even an employee behind the check-in desk.  I was in no shape to be patient so I went up to the window and hollered for someone.  A lady appeared and I asked if I needed to check-in before going up to labor and delivery.  Sadly she said I needed to.  I don't think she found humor in my "let's make it quick" statement.  We got checked in (actually had to answer the question "why are you here?") and then had to wait for L&D to come and get me.  I wasn't allowed to walk up, I had to be rolled up in a wheelchair.  As uncomfortable as it was to sit, I am thankful that I was wheeled up.  It was a long and windy maze to get up to the L&D floor!

By 5:45  I was in my room and had answered a slew of questions.  I found out that my OB, who I waited 2-5 hours to see at every appt, was not available that day so I would have Miss Newbie on-call OB.  It figures.  But really, I didn't care, just someone catch, ok?

So another 15 minutes or so of getting an IV and bloodwork, all while being strapped to the monitors and forced to stay in bed.  Let's take a minute to talk about the IV.  It was the WORST IV I have ever had.  They put it in the crook of my arm.  I couldn't bend my arm, I couldn't straighten it out.  Any way I moved it, it hurt.  I don't know what that nurse was thinking!  I was deep into focusing on the contractions though so I couldn't speak up and say anything about it at the time.  There were a few contractions where I wasn't sure what hurt more, the contraction or the bad IV (due to my death grip on the bed rail with that arm) ;)

Sometime around 6:15 I was done being poked and prodded.  They also checked me at this time and found I was 7cm.  (to be accurate, I'm not sure if it was 6:15 or closer to 5:45 that they checked me.  Whenever it was, I was found to be 7cm)  I asked if I could get up and a nurse gave a half-hearted yes.  I think she was still talking but I felt another contraction coming and I didn't want to have another one lying down so I quickly let Roger know I needed help getting out of the bed NOW.  He was on top of things and before the contraction was too much to handle, I was on my feet, leaning over the edge of the bed.

The nurse said a few things and then instructed us to push the little red button if/when I feel pushy.  One contraction later I was telling Roger that while I don't feel like pushing yet... the pushy feeling was totally there now.  So he pushed that magic red button that made the nurses come running. Of course, they wanted me to get back into the bed.  I wanted nothing to do with that!  I said I didn't want to push yet, I'd like to wait it out and that I'd get in bed but not on my back.  So I crawled in on my knees, leaning over the back of the bed which was raised in an upright position.  I was checked and at a 10.  They asked if I wanted my water broken. I hemmed and hawed but ultimately I said yes.  The urge to push grew and I couldn't "wait it out" any longer.  The Dr wanted me to lay down but I was having none of that.  She could ask me 1000 times, I wasn't moving.  The pushing was intense but so totally different than how Keturah's birth went.  With Keturah, once I started pushing there was no stopping.  The only break was to take a breath and push again.  With Zion I was getting breaks in between.  The nurse kept counting to 10 and wanted me to push 3 times with each contraction...blah blah blah.

It doesn't work that way when your body is pushing and you are just along for the ride.  About half an hour after I felt pushy, at 6:45am Zion was born.

 I will never get over how bizarre it is to go from the intense feeling of contractions/pushing to instant relief once the baby is born.  It's just unreal.

I wasn't facing the right direction to be able to hold her right away so we had some juggling to do while I got turned around and settled into the bed. One of the first things I said after turning around was "can we remove this IV now?!"

Zion and I were able to snuggle for well over an hour.  The IV came out soon after she was born.  I felt great once that thing was out.  While Zion and I snuggled, Roger and I talked names.  We weren't certain what baby's name would be.  Had she been a he we might still be discussing names!  :)  We decided on Zion Priscilla because of its meaning.  Well, we also like that its not common.. but the meaning is what we were more focused on.

Zion (note: I had no idea that people pronounce this various ways. We pronounce it like "lion" but with a "z")  The word Zion occurs over 150 times in the Bible. It essentially means “fortification” and has the idea of being “raised up” as a “monument.” Zion is described both as the city of David and the city of God. As the Bible progresses, the word Zion expands in scope and takes on an additional, spiritual meaning.

Priscilla feminine of Prisca meaning “primitive,” hence, “worthy, or venerable,” as belonging to the good old time.  



And that is the long version of Zion's birth.  It was an answer to prayers.  We are so blessed to be her parents.  Her brothers and sisters adore her.  This is the life.