Natalie's Story, Part 1

On April 28th we were blessed with our little girl Natalie Marie Baylor. Now, almost 3 weeks later, I finally have the kiddos on a schedule and I have a few free minutes to tell you her story. True to Baylor form, she made quite an entrance.

Natalie's timing was actually pretty good. Sean and I were sure she was going to come early. We were thinking a few days either before or after Nathan's birthday on April 17th. My mom was scheduled to arrive on April 18th to visit and help watch Nathan while I was in the hospital. But her flight was canceled due to the volcano and she wasn't able to come until April 25th. Sean and I had no idea what we were going to do with Nathan if I went into labor before Mom got here. We were SO lucky to have her here to help us out!

On the morning of Natalie's birthday, I started having contractions at about 5:30 in the morning. Well, they didn't really feel like contractions, it was just pressure. I thought the pain was just from holding my pee because I didn't want to get out of bed. Nathan woke up very early that morning, 6:15, so I got up and started moving around and the pressure turned into definite contractions. I told Sean, who was still sleeping, that I was having some contractions and that today might be the day. He just said "okay" and went back to sleep. He later told me he thought he was dreaming so that is why he didn't get up. By 7:00, my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, so I went back upstairs to wake up Sean. I told him was having really strong contractions and I needed his help watching Nathan. I think it finally hit him because he shot out of bed and said, "Okay, let me brush my teeth." He was so cute. I think he was still half asleep. By 7:30, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and very strong. We woke up mom and told her that we were going to the hospital. Looking back,I can't imagine what we would have done without her. Everything happened so fast, we wouldn't have had time to drop Nathan off some where or wait for someone to come over.

The hospital, on a good day, is about 20 minutes away from our house. Of course, we were trying to get into town at rush hour. Our 20 minute trip turned into a 35 minute trip. My contractions were coming very strong and fast at this point. Poor Sean, he was trying to find short cuts and ways to get around traffic and I am squeezing his hand telling him to pay attention to me and to talk to me. We finally arrived around 8:30. I went into the "pre labor" room while Sean went to administration to tell them we were there. Because we do not have German insurance benefits, we are deemed "private" patients so our process was a little different. Sean practically had to swear on his life that we would pay the bill!

While he was gone, the midwife began asking me questions. She noticed that my contractions were pretty strong and about 1-2 minutes apart so she wanted to check to see how far along I was. At 8:30, I was already 5 cm dilated. She looked at me and asked, "Did you just get here? Did you arrive in an ambulance?" I said yes we just arrived and no, we drove there from our home. She looked at me and said, "Oh shit!" I just started laughing!! The midwife was awesome! She asked where my man was. (The German word for husband is man) She said she hoped he got back soon. At about 8:45 they moved me to the delivery room and Sean finally got back. I wish you all could have seen his face when I told him I was already 5 cm dilated and we were going to the delivery room. His eyes got really big! At this point I began asking about the epidural. The midwife then informed me that oh there isn't enough time for that, that will take 2 hours and I am not going to last that long. It was then my turn to say "Oh shit!" The midwife said she would do her best to get the anesthesiologist there. She then check me again and at 9:00, I was 7 cm dilated. I told the midwife, get me the drugs now! The anesthesiologist got to my room around 9:00 and started to get me hooked up. She took forever! She actually had to insert the needle TWICE because the first time she didn't get it in right. While she is doing this, I am having severe contractions and am fighting the urge to push. She was only able to give me the starter medicine. There wasn't enough time to actually hook me up before I delivered. I didn't go numb until AFTER I delivered Natalie.

Sean then realizes he parked in Emergency parking and has to go move the car. The midwife looks at him and says you better be fast. I think Sean felt like he had run a marathon at the end of this day. He literally sprinted across the hospital campus and was completely out of breath when he got back. He was back for about 2 minutes before I started to push. This was at about 9:15/9:20. At 9:32, my beautiful baby girl was born. We did not know what we were having so the moment we realized we had a baby girl, both Sean and I began to cry. She was perfect. She didn't even cry. Sean was able to cut the umbilical cord, which he was not able to do with Nathan, and I was able to hold her the minute she was born. Although Natalie is our second child, our experiences with her were completely different. It was truly amazing. I was in labor with Nathan for almost 24 hours and pushed for 3 hours, so to only be in labor for 4 hours and push for only 10mins felt VERY fast.

Duty calls so Part 2 of Natalie's story will be posted soon!