Aislinn's arrival

Aislinn arrived at 3:40 am on Tuesday, June 23rd of 2009. She was little 6 lbs, 3 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long... our smallest child yet.

Monday started out like any other day of the summer... I got up good and early actually to get Corbin ready and off to Scout Camp. Breakfast took longer than expected to prepare so he was eating on his way out the door, plate in hand.

Then Matthew called me to say he wasn't going to be getting off work on time and could I please bring him some breakfast? So Celeste and I packed up some food and climbed into our great big '76 Ford Bronco and headed over there. After exchanging vehicles we headed home to go about our day. During the drive I suddenly felt extremely tired, like a heavy tiredness just settled upon me like a weight. I shrugged it off as best I could and went to eat my own breakfast. About 30 minutes later, Matthew came home from work. I felt so worn out, I just sat on the couch for a while. I had a doctor's appointment, but I was so tired I called and cancelled it. While I was sitting there, I felt a noticeably different, labor-like contraction. All the contractions I'd had during this pregnancy had been up high, causing me to stop and almost double over gasping for breath.

I had promised Celeste that while Corbin was at Scout Camp that we'd go to the park for lunch since the school district here serves lunch in the park free of charge to all school-aged children during the summer months. I even promised to walk over to her friend, Aubrey's house to see if she could come play and have lunch with us. I was so tired though I could barely move a muscle, but I couldn't bare the thought of disappointing my little girl, so I forced myself up, and headed down to the park. Matthew suggested that I take the car because I was tired and 4 days from my due date, but I assured him that I'd take my cell phone and call if I needed anything. I was moving very slowly, but we made it. Aubrey was going swimming, so she couldn't come. We didn't stay very long though. My energy felt so zapped, I just really wanted to go home and rest.

When we finally got home I made some phone calls and took a shower, finished up packing my overnight bags and did some laundry,then tried to sleep. As soon as I lay down I felt 4 contractions, back-to-back 1 minute apart each. After that they went to 8 minutes, 15, 9...... the doctor had told me when I'd asked to wait until contractions were 3-4 minutes apart before heading to the hospital. Well, I couldn't sleep at all so I got up and ran some errands, then came home and did some more laundry.

Once I returned home I tried once again to nap, but no luck. I was just too uncomfortable. So I got up and enjoyed the dinner that my wonderful Mother-in-law had prepared while I had rested. Then I sat down on the couch and watched a couple movies. At this time, my contractions were about an hour apart for 3 or 4 hours. Nothing too strong at all, but definately noticeable. We knew that this baby would be here in the next day or two.

At about 10:30ish I finally went back to bed. I snuggled up next to my husband before he got up for work at 11. He asked me if he should call in to work? "Well, no.. I've had two other babies and this takes a good long while. I'll call you when it's time" I told him. So off to work he went. Contractions:30-40 minutes apart. Still I couldn't rest and it was making me very grumpy. 1:50 am came and I went and sat back on the couch thinking that maybe they'd ease up for a while like they did earlier and I could nap. 20 minutes later while I was texting Matthew since personal calls aren't allowed at work and it's hard to talk on the phone during contractions anyways, they started being 2-4 minutes apart. Well since they'd been so erratic, I thought maybe I'd watch and see if they'd stay that way for atleast 30 minutes to be certain it was time. At 25 minutes, though I was uncertain, I texted him that maybe he should come home now. He texted me back to say that his replacement was on the way and would be there in like 10 minutes.

Right after that I decided to go lay back down in bed and try to relax in the meantime. Pretty much everything was ready: overnight back packed? check. laundry all washed? check. blanket and pillow for my patient man? check. sack lunch for him to snack on while he waited? I had forgotten that, but he could pack some ramen or something real fast when he got home before we left.

Before much longer my contractions were suddenly alot stronger. Very intense. I could no longer breathe calmly through them. I couldn't relax my body as I had learned to do during my last delivery. They were so intense that I was gripping my hair and the edge of the bed during every contraction. I texted Matthew that I "changed my mind and don't want to do this anymore. I'd like to take it back" which of course it was too late for. He assured me that it'd all be over soon and we'd have a new baby for it. He still wasn't home yet and suggested that I get his Mom to come down and sit with me till he got there if I needed. He'd be home any time though I was sure and I could tough it out just a little bit longer, then we'd go to the hospital.

Not long after I decided to take my husband's advice and I used my cell phone in between a contraction to quickly call his mother's cell. No answer. Ok, I'll call our residential house phone that's in the room next to hers. She always hears the phone at night and if I let it ring long enough, she'll think it's important and get up to answer it. Right? It rang and rang. I let it ring while I suffered through another agonizing contraction. After about 20 rings I decided she wasn't going to pick up for whatever reason, so I crawled up the stairs and knocked on her door. As soon as she answered from within that she was up! I hobbled back down to my room.

I'm sure she surely wasn't expecting to find me at the stage of labor I was in. It was excrutiating and I couldn't help but cry out in pain every time a contraction hit. She asked if she should call the ambulance. I told her that Matthew would be home soon and we'd go to the hospital so I'd just wait. A few minutes after, my water broke during another intense contraction. Well, with my other two children, I had hours yet after my water broke so I would have figured this baby would be a while. Not so! Right after it broke, I could tell this baby's birth was immediately impending and even though I wasn't doing any pushing, I couldn't hold back or relax enough to stop it. Matthew wasn't even home yet! I told Robin that maybe she should call the paramedics after all. She immediately got on her cell and made the call. I was still sure Matthew would be home any minute and we'd go to the hospital. I texted him to let him know that he had better hurry! My water broke and we were calling the ambulance. He panicked since his relief wasn't there yet. He called his supervisor to inform him that he was leaving anyways, even without his relief. The man agreed with him. Just as he was driving off, the replacement showed up.

10 minutes later, the paramedics arrived. Robin had been preparing to have to deliver her new grandbaby herself so she had all the essentials assembled: clean towels, a pair of sewing scissors I had handy on my dresser, a ribbon that she found there also.... I'm very grateful that she's a level-headed woman and didn't panic or freak out in any way. She calmly but quickly readied herself to do what was needed on the spot. I don't think I would have realized until too late that I wasn't going to make it to the hospital, and then what would I have done? Had Corbin call 911? I doubt at my present state-of-mind that I would have had the clarity to do so. I would have kept on thinking, "Matthew will be here any minute and we'll go to the hospital". The paramedics arrived just as the baby was about to be born. They hurried to set up for an at-home delivery. NOT what I had expected to happen at all!. I had wanted a nice relaxing bath in a big tub, some relaxing music that I had packed, and a quiet atmosphere without fear of waking my children. I definately felt deprived of that.

Two contractions later and with only one actual push on my part, baby Aislinn was born. Matthew raced in the door just in time to cut her cord. He was very upset at having missed his 3rd child's birth and that I had had to go through it without him. The paramedics then wrapped her up in towel, placed a little hat on her head, and wrapped a blanket over the top of the towel. She was handed to her father who let Granny and the big brother who had woken up during the commotion, see the new baby. Celeste had a fan going in her room that drowned out alot of noise and slept through it all.

After that, I was loaded into an ambulance, and baby and I were whisked to the hospital. She was wide awake, sucking on her fingers and looking around. I tried to rub her little body to keep her warm from the chill night air. Even in June it can be entirely too cool for a wet newborn. Especially since it had been raining daily for 3 weeks.

When we got to the hospital, Daddy and the nurses took our new infant into the nursery to give her a bath and warm her up, give her the Vitamin K shot and a little bottle while Mommy was attended to.

The entire first two days while at the hospital I'd hold my new baby in disbelief that not only did I have a brand new life bundled up in my arms who was mine, but that I'd delivered her at home!

She was really cold for the entire first day and the hospital's inadequate tiny t-shirts that they use for both a shirt and pants and their thin receiving blankets weren't sufficing to warm the child up. I asked Matthew to bring some warmer blankets and clothes from home for her, so Robin got to pick them out and brought them along for a visit.

The kids weren't really all that impressed with their new sister. I think they had believed that she'd be born a toddler, already able to walk and talk and play and eat foods in baby portions. This little tiny thing wasn't much fun for a 6 and 8 yr old. Definately not the new little toy they'd been expecting.

Labor officially started at 2:10 am and she was born a mere 1 hr, 40 minutes later at 3:50. So fast it took us all by surprise. Our little Aislinn was in quite the hurry to get here! I can tell already that she's going to be her own little person and will want to do everything different from her brother and sister, just to be different. Next time, we're going to be ready at the first signs of labor!