Little Prince's Birth Story - Part 1

It took me nearly three months to be ready to really sit down and write out the story of our Little Prince’s arrival. And it’s taken me several more weeks to know what to say, where to start, how much to share. I had to ask myself whether the experience was something I was willing to share in depth or whether it was a thing to be glossed over and simply told in the briefest of tales. In the end it's a bit of both. I realized that I both want and need to share the story, but that simply because of the personal details, some portions may be very lightly brushed over. To begin, we have to go back…

The last time I posted (in the spring) I was sitting pretty at 2 months pre-due date. I was still in the stage of really enjoying pregnancy. I hadn’t really started stressing out about ‘being ready’ for the baby to arrive and was generally feeling good about everything. I was excited for our new arrival and just starting to seriously think about possible names for our coming bundle of joy.

Now don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you that the last two months were suddenly horrific or that the pregnancy took a turn for the worse. Neither of those things happened – the remainder of my pregnancy continued much as the first 7 months had: with few worries and, in comparison to my previous pregnancies, quite smoothly. In fact, I approached my due date happy if somewhat uncomfortable in my skin and confident that I was well equipped to handle anything that came at me during labor, delivery, and through those first few transitionary weeks after a new baby arrives.

As with all my earlier pregnancies the end of this one approached with multiple bouts of prodromal (or “false”) labor - the first occurring nearly 6 weeks before my due date. It was an irritation to be sure but not anything to truly stress over. In all honesty, those hours/days of early labor pleased me because it was a thing that was “the same” as what I’d experienced before. Plus, I knew those pains were preparing me for the real deal. And as my due date drew ever nearer, I did all the things one does to ensure they’re ready for the next step.

I packed my bag. I packed the baby bag. I got the car seat ready, the crib ready, and washed and readied all the baby clothes, blankets and stuff. My mom and I washed walls and shampooed the carpets in our house in preparation. This time around, I ensured that I took each of the older kids out on “Mom & Me” dates, getting one-on-one time with each, and I even squeezed in a couple date nights with Heli Dad too. We went for walks, went to movies, cooked together. We simply spent time together as a family and I honestly just enjoyed those days during the first couple weeks of May when I knew the baby could come any time and would change all of our lives.

The closer my due date got the more truly ready I felt.

There was some trepidation as Princess’s birthday approached that I’d go in to labor and either miss or ruin her party plans. Fortunately for all involved, I did neither and as soon as the last friend was dropped off after her Friday night party I was told I could “feel free to have the baby any time now!”

We planned to spend one last weekend together as a family – doing yard work, going for walks and hanging out. And we did. 

More or less. 

Little did I know that the changes we all anticipated happening with the birth of the newest, youngest member of our family would be far more impacting than we ever could have dreamed.