I admit it—Valentine’s Day was never a big celebration for dh & I until 5 years ago. I was pregnant with #2 and she was due February 17th. I was a bit anxious for her arrival because I had my midwife appointment at the birth center on the 13th and there was no sign of her arrival. I wanted to be able to have my baby at the birth center and they had a rule that if you were more than 2 weeks late they couldn’t deliver the baby there. I went to my La Leche League meeting that night and the ladies told me all the tricks they had done to try to induce labor. I went home hopeful that we would in fact have the baby before our time was up.
I went to sleep like usual that night. I awoke at 2 am to go to the bathroom (not an uncommon event at this stage in pregnancy) only I had a serious contraction! Dh (the night owl) was still up so I went in to talk to him and proceeded to have several more contractions—I was in labor! We called dh’s parents to come over so they would be with 1potato when she woke up. We called the midwife after an hour of serious labor and she recommended we stay home a little longer and that I get a shower. I was having terrible back labor and dh had to push on my back during contractions to make them bearable. He read scriptures to me and sang some hymns softly to me. We had taken Bradley classes for this labor and dh was a wonderful coach and helped me relax. 1potato slept until it was just about time for us to leave. The midwife suggested we come at 7 am when the birth center opened so they could check me. So we left the house just in time to hit morning traffic! That 30 minutes was the worst part of the entire labor! (Dh even spilled his coffee all over his leg while backing out of the driveway.)
We got to the birth center and I could barely walk into the office. The midwife checked me and was suprised to find that I was already at 7 cm! They wheeled me over to the birthing room across the parking lot and I went into transition while dh was parking the car. An hour and a half later our special Valentine was born.
Valentine’s Day has never been the same yet! I can’t believe she is 5 already!
