Mallory’s Birth Story (Part 1)

Today I am sharing a special post. I usually stick to food and recipes around here. Every once in a while I document personal milestones. Today is definitely a post for the latter.

Posting this story is partly selfish because I want to have these life snippets documented someplace where I can look back and reminisce.

Also, I share partly because I love reading these more personal posts on other blogs.

Lastly, I love to look back on big moments and see if there was any lesson in it for me to learn.

The Last Weeks

The last few weeks before our daughter was born were pretty chaotic. I was having a lot of pains associated with pregnancy – indigestion, sciatic nerve pain, and just feeling huge.

On top of that, though, my life over those weeks was feeling like a bad country music song! Even my little fifteen year old dog Maddie died. My mother has been having some health problems and was trying to schedule some surgery out of state, and my grandmother was hospitalized down in Florida with multiple health problems. My husband was pretty sick with a sinus infection. There was just a lot going on!

Sunday January 3, 2016

So it started out like any other Sunday. My husband, son and I went to church. I knew there were going to be a lot of friends that were surprised to see me since I was four days past my due date. I was right!

I felt huge, and I had some trouble finding anything to wear. You know you are big when your maternity clothes are getting too small!

I spent a lot of time getting hugs, encouragement and well-wishes from friends…and cracking jokes about how my offspring apparently likes to arrive fashionable late. I listened to birth stories from other mamas. And my husband and I debated with our friends if we would make it to our scheduled induction date on Tuesday.

We went home and ate some leftovers for lunch, just like we do most Sundays. I put my three-year-old son down for a nap. I cruised Pinterest a little bit. And then I tried to lay down for a nap too.

I could not go to sleep! My mind was racing too much, plus I was having a hard time getting comfortable, thanks to some awful indigestion.

So I got back up and got on my laptop to do some blog work. I worked for a little while on the couch, with HGTV on in the background. I am pretty sure I was watching Fixer Upper. Side note – I heart Chip and JoJo!

I put my laptop aside and got up to go to the bathroom, when suddenly I felt a weird gush and my pants were soaked all of the sudden. Did I just wet my pants…or did my water just break, I thought to myself. I went in to the bedroom and woke up my husband and told him that something was happening.

I called the hospital, and they told us to come on in. Mark called his parents to come on over and watch our son.

I tried to keep my cool. I took a quick shower and packed up the last few items in my hospital bag, all while trying not to leak amniotic fluid ALL over the house. Did you know that you continue to leak for hours after your water breaks?! I didn’t know that. I guess I always just thought it was one big gush and BOOM. You were done.

You want to hear something funny? I sat on one of those puppy training pads on the way to the hospital…LOL! They were probably nine years old, and I have no idea why we still had any of those, since our dog is 10 years old! But it sure did come in handy to keep me fron ruining my car seats.

Before we left the house, we took a few moments to snap a couple of pictures on my iPhone.

Here is our last picture as a family of three. I am huge!

And here is my last belly shot.

As we drove to the hospital, I started to get really nervous. I was flashing back to all of the pains and experiences from the first time I gave birth. I tried not to worry, but every mama knows this feeling. I just wanted my baby to be okay and safe and in my arms.

To Be Continued…

Read Part 2 here!