The Wallace Word: One Week and One Day Ago...

Sweet Baby Mills was born! Here's the whole story!

It all began last Sunday afternoon (1/3)...we stayed up until 3am the night before playing Monopoly with Adam and Kelley, so we slept in on Sunday. That afternoon I started having some little cramps so we decided to time them and they were right at 5 minutes apart for many hours. While they were a little uncomfortable, they were nothing major at all, and I remembered Leah telling me that when it's a true contraction you won't be able to talk through it, so I knew this wasn't it. We talked to family members and Kelley came over for a while, but we didn't mention it to anyone because we didn't want to get their hopes up, and again, it seemed like nothing at all. It was Nicholas' last day of night float at the hospital, so he went into work at 5pm, and I went to see 'It's Complicated' at Cinebarre with three sweet girlfriends! Nicholas almost decided not to go into work, but I promised I would call if things worsened, and, after all, I already had movie plans! :) The cramps continued, but I didn't really notice them too much during the movie. Once I got home I got busy washing baby clothes and the sheets on the beds, sweeping, and vacuuming - I was actually vacuuming the nursery when I looked up and realized it was 1am! The cramps had gotten a little worse, so I decided to take a hot bath. While I was in the bathtub, they started coming three minutes apart consistently, and getting slightly worse, so I thought maybe the hot bath could be making things worse and hopped out around 1:45. Then, HOLY COW, they got A LOT worse!!! I laid on the bed from 2 to 2:45, contractions seven minutes apart, until I couldn't make it through a few without almost tearing my pillow to shreds...then I made that call to Nicholas at the hospital and said, "I really need you...do you think you could come home?" He rushed home and was bouncing off the walls when he got there. The bags were already packed but he was running around trying to get a few last minute things together; it was funny to see him so worked up! He had also called the doctor on call on his way home, so we were all set to go. Up until this point I was still thinking to myself "I hope this is the real thing and they won't just send us home!" Now, I was beginning to think that the day was finally here!
The pain got really, really bad, and my stomach was really, really upset. Conveniently enough, my water ended up breaking in the toilet (sorry for the TMI), although I wasn't sure at the time if that's what it was, but they confirmed it once I got to the hospital. At around 4am we were off to the hospital! I hadn't imagined it this way, but it was very movie-esque...Nicholas ran red lights, I was trying to breathe slowly through the pain that was coming every 2 minutes, it was a crazy rush!!! He had to call both of our families to let them know we were on our way because I could not even speak during contractions. We pulled up to the ER and Nicholas helped me out and filled out some brief paperwork. They came to get me in a wheelchair (my first ride in one, ha!) and up to the labor and delivery floor we went!
Once we got to the room, I changed into a gown and they hooked me up to the monitors. The nurses came in and checked me and confirmed my water had broken, and I was 3.5cm dilated and 90% effaced. My contractions were every 2 minutes like clockwork...this was the most painful time! I had to wait until I had a full bag of IV fluid before I could get the epidural. Around 5:20am I got the epidural and thank the Lord in Heaven above, it was like a night and day difference! Here I am AFTER the epidural:

This is me trying to reenact how I felt before the epidural...Nicholas said this doesn't do it justice though, haha...

I had every intention of putting on makeup before I went to the hospital, but at 2:45am when I was having horrible contractions, I opted for no makeup and just taking my makeup bag along instead...unfortunately it wasn't touched.

They came in to check me 30 minutes after the epidural and nothing had changed. I was worried things had possibly slowed down, but at 7:30 they came in and I was at 6 cm, at 9:00 I was between 8 and 9, and then at 10 they said it was time to start pushing!!! I asked if we could wait just a few minutes because my mom, grandmother, aunt, and cousin were almost there, and I wanted to see them first! Luckily, the nurses said that would be fine because they had to set up the room for the baby's arrival anyway. This is before the fun game of "pushing" began!

With Mom and MaMa

With Myra

With Linda (Lulu), Jennifer and Nicholas

Ladies in waiting...ready to hear the good news!

And after 35 minutes of pushing, James Phillip "Mills" Wallace, II arrived into the world! I was scared about the "pushing" part, but thanks again to the fabulous epidural, I couldn't really feel anything besides a teensy bit of pressure right when he came out!

What a miracle!

just seconds after he was born...