The Story

Well, I guess it’s time for the story! :) 

Obviously, Miss Audrey came a little earlier than we had planned for… she wasn’t due until April 14th, and I had a scheduled c-section on the 9th.  So we were planning on at least one more week before she came… apparently God had other plans!

Tuesday we got the sad news that my Grandpa Price had passed away, so we headed up to IL on Wednesday.  As far as pregnancy goes, it was a pretty normal feeling day- I felt like a whale, but nothing different from the past week or two!  We got to Grandma & Grandpa’s house around lunch time, which was good because there was SO MUCH FOOD that they needed help eating it!  :)  Seriously, someone would come every 30 minutes with more food, and it was never a small amount- it would be a 20 pound bbq tray, or a giant meat & cheese tray, or a huge bag of cookies.  It was crazy.  Anyway, being surrounded by all this food, I ate too much, so Josh and I went for a walk.  We took it easy, just wandering up the road and a path to the big pond and back.  Nothing abnormal.  We even spotted the first May Apples, which I always love because they mean spring and my birthday! :) 

We really just stayed around the house all day, with more aunts and uncles filtering in and out, telling stories, eating more food, and giving lots of hugs.  My uncle Clint was so funny, because every time he looked at me he’d kind of frown… he was so worried about me going into labor.  Maybe he knew something I didn’t…

Towards evening, the women all ended up sitting around the kitchen table, while the men stood around and talked by the barn.  All of the wonderful weather meant everything had bloomed, so my allergies were (and are) killing me, so I headed to the van to get my contact case so I could switch to glasses.  As I’m standing at the back of the van, I suddenly have the sensation that I peed my pants just a little.  A little weird, for sure, but not that unusual when you’re 38 weeks, and I figured it would stop.  But as I reached up to shut the van door, it didn’t stop, it got worse.  I thought “Uh oh… and now I have to walk past all of the men standing by the barn, and all of the women sitting around the kitchen table to get to the bathroom.  And I think this might be my water breaking… You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

But, not wanting to freak everyone out if it wasn’t my water breaking, I walked past the men as carefully as I could, without making eye contact (which wasn’t hard, since it was getting dark!) and headed inside.  I plastered what had to be the fakest looking smile on my face and walked past the women at the table as carefully as I could, trying not to duck-walk too much as I continued to feel like I was peeing my pants.  I got to the bathroom and sat down, and there was lots more… and it definitely wasn’t urine.  I knew Josh was too far away, so I called for my mom, and told her, “Either I just peed my pants or my water just broke.”  To say she was surprised would be an understatement.  But she headed outside to get Josh, which was funny by itself- that group of men just scattered, laughing when she said “Josh, Liz needs you, she’s in the bathroom, she thinks her water just broke.”  Josh was dumbfounded, but headed inside.  By this time, all of the aunts knew, too, and everyone was trying to decide which hospital to go to.  Finally we decided on Carbondale, not the closest, but pretty close and probably the best of the ones in the area.  My aunt, Sarah, said she would lead us there, and we decided Mom would come, too.  And, with that, we were off, leaving Grandpa Price in charge of Laney, and pretty much forgetting to grab anything we might need at the hospital, except my bag with my toiletries, which I was still carrying!

As soon as my water broke, I started having real contractions.  I’d been having contractions for a couple of weeks, but they were all high on my stomach, nothing real.  These were real, and they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  We got to the hospital in about 45 minutes, which was interesting because, with such a long drive, we had plenty of time to call or text anyone and everyone who would need to know.  There were a lot of surprised people that night! 

We got checked in through the ER, and upstairs to the Labor & Delivery area.  The nurses there were really nice, they double checked to make sure I was really in labor, and called the ob/gyn on call when it was pretty clear I was!  The cool thing is that Josh’s cousin, Steve, got to come see us, too, because he goes to school in Carbondale!  So he got to hang out with Mom & Sarah in the waiting room while they took me and Josh back to the operating room. 

Having a c-section while awake was definitely a different experience than being knocked totally out like I was with Elena.  It was really nice to have Josh there with me.  It wasn’t exactly comfortable, that’s for sure!  I didn’t feel any pain, but they make you lay with both arms straight out, which gets uncomfortable after awhile.  And they are pushing and moving parts around, and I could feel it, even though it didn’t hurt.  So that was all a little weird.  But the anesthesiologist stood by my head and told me what was happening, and when to expect a lot of pressure and pushing, so that really helped.  And there was nothing as cool as when I heard her cry for the first time.  It’s like the rest of it all just disappeared with one good scream.  And, boy, did she scream!  I was very impatient after they got her out, because they still had to sew me back up, and all I wanted was to be with my little girl.  I could see where they were taking care of her, but I couldn’t really see her. 

Anyway, after they got me all fixed up, they took me to the recovery room, where I had to stay until I started to get feeling back in my legs.  I tell you what, I was not a fan of  that whole epidural thing.  I mean, seeing as how they took my uterus out of my body and I didn’t feel any pain, that part I liked! :)  But the whole being numb from the waist down thing was kind of scary.  The recovery nurse kept asking “Can you move your legs at all?” and I’d try as hard as I could, and nothing would happen.  Not a fan of that, it made me a little crazy.  I felt a little better when I could finally wiggle my toes… not exactly moving my legs, but at least I felt like something was coming back!  And, of course, it did all come back eventually. 

After the feeling came back, I got to go to my room and finally meet my little girl!  Mom, Josh, Sarah, and Stevie all came, too, and it was so amazing.  I couldn’t believe how little she was, and how much I loved her already! 

I spent the next several days in the hospital, obviously… which meant I missed Grandpa’s visitation and funeral.  But I had lots of visitors from that side of the family, and I know that Audrey brought a lot of much needed joy to everyone. 

The hospital itself was wonderful… I mean, it was still a hospital, but all of the doctors and nurses we dealt with were wonderful, and took very good care of us.  It was a little scary to be having this baby so far from home, but we were so reassured by our doctors and nurses.  It was the coolest thing, to see how God put these doctors and nurses in our lives, because we just kept finding Christians, and people who had personalities that matched our needs.  The doctor that operated on me (Dr. Walker) was really nice and soft-spoken, but also had a really good sense of humor, which we appreciated.  And he freely talked about how this baby was God’s timing to help out the family, and he was very understanding about the weird situation we were in.  And the nurses all took really good care of me.  What a blessing!

Dr. Walker actually let me out a day earlier than I think he would have normally so that I could spend some time with my family before heading home on Saturday.  So they took out my staples and I headed home on Friday afternoon.  Or, at least to Grandma’s house.  I took it easy Friday evening, and Saturday morning, and then we headed home Saturday early afternoon.  It was a long trip, cars and bouncing are not very comfortable with a new c-section!  And we were under orders to stop every hour so that I could walk around for 10 or 15 minutes.  So we stopped several times, including in Warrenton at the Carter’s outlet, because Miss Audrey is so small we didn’t have many clothes that would fit her!  Plus, we weren’t planning on having her for Easter- so we didn’t have an Easter dress for her! 

Finally, we made it home Saturday night… with our new little girl and quite the story!  Josh blames me for the whole going-into-labor thing, because I had said something about how a scheduled c-section wasn’t much of a “story,” you know, like a going-into-labor, “my water broke in the middle of….” story.  Well, we have a story now!! :) 

So, there’s the story, although I’m sure I’ve left out details… not quite according to plan!  But, as my doctor said when I called and told her, “the plan is always to have two healthy people when were done, and we’ve got that. “  Praise God for that, and now we’ll learn how to be a family of four!