Milayna's Story

She came with the rain. Milayna was not due until July 21st, and I didn't expect her to come early--neither of my other two were early. Elsie was a bit late, and Jacob was on time. So I totally didn't think that the contractions I was feeling on the 14th were anything serious for quite some time. I had been having Braxton-Hicks for MONTHS, anyway, so I wasn't particularly paying much attention when I did have contractions. But on the 14th the contractions started around 10-ish in the morning, and instead of just being "pressure," they began to be a little painful, which doesn't normally happen with my Braxton-Hicks. I still thought that they would resolve themselves, and they weren't regular at all, all day.

I blame a lot of that on the rain, though. It has been super dry here, but with the onset of monsoon season, we've had lots of cloudy or partially-cloudy days, lots of bluster and wind and even thunder and lightning, but still almost no rain. Things would pick up and pretend to be about to rain, and we might get a few drops or a very fine drizzle for about 5 minutes, but as far as real rain that lasts more than 15 minutes and actually gets things wet instead of just makes it humid. . . we hadn't had any of that yet this year. That is, we hadn't until the 14th. It was cloudy and windy a lot during the day, even some thunder, and I expected more of nothing. But surprise! It really did rain! And for more than 5 minutes. It rained good and hard starting sometime in the afternoon, and it kept up for hours and hours. The real thing! It ebbed and flowed a little bit, sometimes closer, sometimes farther away, and sometimes more or less strong, but it did keep up.

What does the rain have to do with the baby? Well, some people may say it's bunk and there is no scientific proof, but some people claim that storms affect their bodies in interesting ways--maybe it's something to do with changes in barometric pressure or something really subtle that we don't consciously notice. But I swear that as the storm increased in intensity--harder rain, more thunder closer, etc., my contractions would get stronger and last longer. And when the storm was less intense, so were my contractions. There was no textbook gradual increase in duration and intensity outright--my body was definitely all over the place according to how the storm was. Like I would have contractions 7 minutes apart, and then 3 minutes for a while, then back up to 10 minutes apart, then 2 minutes. It was crazy.

I was kind of hoping that it wasn't the real thing yet, because I was a week early, and I still had lots to do, as I was counting on one more week to get things done! My house was a wreck, and all the big projects I had done to clean needed at least touching up (e.g., re-mopping the floors as they were nasty and sticky again, vacuuming every room again). I was also waiting for things to be a little more consistent, and at least being on an average of 2 to 5 minutes apart between contractions, but that didn't happen until around 7-ish. So I had more time to do a few more things, which was nice. We got some laundry folded, I got some letters written that I'd needed to, Josh did a ton of dishes and cleaned out our trash can, etc. I didn't get anything "big" done that day, but I did get a few little things done that had been gnawing at me.

We called in to the maternity ward at the hospital to give them a heads up with what was happening at like 7 P.M. and get their "go-ahead" to come on in. The nurse I talked to was very understanding and said that she had had one that didn't give her regular contractions, either, but that since I usually delivered fast, and since this was not my first baby, I should probably just get things together, get cleaned up, and come on in. We put together the last few things for the hospital bag, gave last-minute instructions to Josh's sister who was watching the kids, printed out the Sunday program (that is my ward assignment right now), called Josh's parents to let them know what was going on, and then left. We made a quick stop at Josh's parents' house and Josh and his dad gave me a sweet blessing for the labor and delivery. Then we got some gas on the way to the hospital, ran into Walmart to grab a package of diapers since we hadn't had a chance to get any yet, and finally made it to the hospital. It was about 7:30 when we got there.

I was dilated to about 4 centimeters when I got there--not hugely far along, but definitely progressing. So they got me into a birthing room (actually the same one I had Jacob in!) and a lovely hospital gown, and we waited. I opted to go natural again like I had with my others, so we were left pretty much alone for a lot of the time, which was kind of nice. They periodically checked me and monitored contractions. We got to watch some old black and white movies on the T.V.--none that we had heard of, but pretty clever and funny--they were the only good things on! Anyway, things did keep progressing steadily, and I did get to walk around a little, which was nice to be able to do, and finally I was at a 10. The nurses called in the doctor (who, incidentally, was not my OB, who was out of town for the weekend, so it was a different OB, but whatever. . . at that point, you really don't care), and he broke my water (I have never had my water break on its own--partially because of really strong membranes, but also partially because I have always had enough fluid that the baby's head couldn't put enough pressure on the bags to break them). After that, it was literally 10 minutes, 2 strong pushes, and the baby was out! : )

Milayna Rose Freeman was officially here at 11:34 P.M. on Sat. the 14th of July! She was all covered with a ton of vernix (that's the waxy stuff that coats babies' skin in the last trimester)--probably because she was a week early. There was a little meconium in the fluid, so they did do a little extra checking and thorough syringing of her nose and mouth to make sure that she was okay, but things were fine, and soon I got to hold her.

She was healthy, no problems. She weighed 7 lbs., 4 oz., and was 18 1/2 inches long. She did have a little trouble figuring out what to do in regards to nursing at first. It took probably a good half hour or hour before she caught on, but since then has been a little barracuda! She latches on like a high-powered magnet. She is very calm and sweet--she doesn't really cry unless she thinks I'm taking too long to feed her. She is darker-complexioned than any of my others were, and her hair is very dark, too--almost black. I may yet have a brown baby! : )

We are loving our new little princess, and the kids have been overall very sweet and loving and gentle with her.

I have been super sick all throughout this whole thing--I have had the nastiest cough/flu/bronchitis?/conjunctivitis. . . It started days before Milayna was born, and has continued throughout. I am finally starting to get better, but it has been a LONG haul and ROUGH. Note to self: try not to be sick the next time you have a baby! Thank goodness that Milayna has not gotten sick yet, and hopefully the other two kids will be out of the woods soon!