My due date was Friday, July 24. The day came and went with a few contractions, but no labor. I had been waking the mall or a variety of air conditioned stores daily for a couple of weeks in hopes of getting things going. My neighbor and I had also been walking our neighborhood. She was determined to help me have this baby. On Saturday evening, Kirk and I set out to walk the track at our nearby middle school. By the time we went to bed around 11:00 pm, I was having contractions but they were still sporadic. I told Kirk that I would keep timing them while he got some sleep. I was able to rest for a while. Around 3:30 am, I woke up having painful contractions, so I got up and started timing them again. They were still sporadic, but happening between 8 and 2 minutes apart. By 6:00 am, I couldn't do anything during a contraction, so I woke Kirk up and told him that we might be needing to head to the hospital soon. He got up and started getting himself ready and getting our things together.
We arrived at the hospital around 8:00 am and were escorted to the best room in the labor and delivery wing, the only one with a private hot tub. We had been praying that we would get that room, so we were very thankful when the nurse took us right there. I was dilated to between 3 and 4 cm and was almost fully effaced, so the contractions were definitely working. I continued having strong contractions and Kirk helped me a lot by rubbing my back (which hurt tremendously during contractions) and encouraging me. I could not have done it without him there. The nurse got the hot tub ready and I was able to sit in it for an hour or two until it was time to start pushing. Once I got out of the tub, things went really fast. My bag of waters was still intact, so the doctor broke it and within probably 20 to 30 minutes, Kirk Richard Quinlivan III (we're calling him Trip) was born. He arrived at 12:08 pm. Kirk got to cut his son's umbilical cord and a couple of minutes later I was able to hold and nurse him. He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19.5 inches long.
The whole experience was great. We are so thankful for how well and relatively quickly it went. We had a wonderful nurse who was very helpful and kind, but was also able to be firm giving directions when she needed to be. Our nurses in the recovery room were excellent as well.
Here are a couple of pictures from the big day:
A couple of funny things about the stats:
- For almost the whole pregnancy, Kirk was telling people that my due date was July 26 instead of July 24, which ended up being the day Trip arrived. I guess he knew best and I never should have corrected him!
- At the baby shower with my coworkers, one of the games was to guess when Baby Q would be born. One lady actually wrote that she thought he would be born at 12:08 pm. How crazy is that? Another coworker guessed correctly that he would weigh 7 lbs 4 oz and someone else predicted that he would be 19.5 inches long.
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