STELLLLLAAAAAA!!

The day before I went into labor, I was seriously going down the slide at Kees park with the girls. I honestly just felt really, really good. Aside from being hot ALL THE FREAKING TIME and knocking over Audrey with my stomach all the time, I could actually forget from time to time that I was pregnant. I guess that's only fair since I felt like death for the first 20 weeks...

As I said in the prior post, I was on a big "carpe diem" kick in the weeks prior to delivery, thinking I'd be on house arrest for the better part of the next few months once I was outnumbered 3 to 1. So on Tuesday I was sliding at Kees Park, trimming the bushes in the front yard, and playing with the girls... Went to the doc Wednesday and he just advised me to "NOT GO OUT OF TOWN" but I was feeling so good I thought I might stay pregnant another month or so. Surely you'd have to feel lousy when you were about to give birth, right?

On Wednesday night I went to a moms night out at Bayou Ceramics, still feeling fine. And then I stood up to leave, and something was NOT fine. I had sprung a leak! I couldn't get to my car and home fast enough. I couldn't decide if I should go to the hospital or wait--didn't want another false alarm like I had with Audrey, when they basically told me the baby squished my bladder and I had involuntarily peed myself. LOVELY.

Still feeling great, so I opted to try to catch a little sleep and see how I felt in the morning. WELL, at about 3 AM, the contractions started, so I plopped my butt on the couch and watched TV while documenting the contractions. For about 2 hours they stayed 6 mins apart, so I decided to get all my stuff ready to roll and take a shower before waking anyone up. I DID NOT want to spend any extra time at the hospital than was necessary, and I hated to make people get up and come over in the middle of the night if it wasn't urgent. But by 5:30, I figured I'd better get Jay rolling and get over there JUST IN CASE. Because at this point, I still wasn't 100% it wasn't false labor. You'd think by kid #3 you'd have a better clue, right?

After a brief drive thru run to get breakfast at Burger King (because I knew they wouldn't let me eat once I got there) we made it to Cabrini. In fact, it was the real deal, and at 1:12 PM, little Stella Grace made her arrival on scene, all 5.5 pound of her! And it's a good thing she was a girl, because I STILL didn't have a boy name picked out. We had options, but I wasn't settled (and honestly, never had been even back to when I was in labor for Amber).

And to all those mamas who had their babies with no epidural, I don't know how you did it. I had the epidural all 3 times, but THIS time, it was not nearly strong enough. And by the time I realized we needed to amp up the meds, it was too late and she was RIGHT THERE. Holy mother of pearl... But thank goodness she came out quickly. Hats off to you that go it sans drugs. WOW.