Birth Story Part 1

Coral's birth story starts on Sunday, Aug. 31st, the day before Labor Day in my mind. I was scheduled to be induced that day, and would have been 40w3d pregnant. We were ecstatic, nervous and all other sorts of emotions. It was super trippy to think we were becoming parents the next day. Or so we thought. 

We had a few Saturday plans to get ready for baby, but mostly wanted to relax. I was so ready to be in labor, minus the small fact that I was terrified of pitocin. Not sure why, but otherwise, bring on baby was how I was feeling! 

I walked with Jessie and the girls. My sister, BIL and niece and nephew were coming into town from Austin so we cleaned the house.  I was so excited that a UT skirt from 2006 fit me and took this picture. 

I ALMOST posted it with the caption "we are becoming parents tomorrow!!!" on social media but luckily did not. I decided announcing my induction date to the interwebz was a lot of pressure.  We told all immediate family members, and most close friends what the deal was - and I was happy with that. 

Matt grilled steaks for my last meal since I was instructed to start fasting at midnight. I wanted lots of protein to keep me energized. We watched college football all by ourselves and had a calm night. Bags were packed, and the hospital could call us as soon as 4 am.  If we had not heard back from

them by 6:30 am, we were to call them and get our time slot.

Believe it or not I actually fell asleep at 11. I woke up every hour to check the time, and by 5:30 am I was fully awake. I laid there and waited til 6:30 am. Then I went to the nursery and nervously made my first phone call to the hospital.

"No we dont have a bed at this time, Call back at 9 am." 

Okie dokie. I did just that. 

"No we don't have a bed right now, but things should begin to lighten up around noon. We are working on it, have talked to Dr. Leeds-Richter, and we'll call you." 

Noon came and went, and at this point I was antsy and a bit pessimistic. I told Matt "let's just go to the movies. Let's pack everything up, and wait it out at the movies." He said ok, but then dodged the request which clearly meant, no Tess, that is crazy. I got the hint and dropped it. Finally at 1 pm we cracked and called.  

That's when things got sketchy. 

"It is not looking good, we will check with ginger, and give you a status update. We'll get you a firm answer within 30 minutes." 

1 hour later. Still no call.  We called them again, since they clearly were in no rush to call us.

"We officially need to cancel. There simply isn't any room. Be at your Doctors office at 9 am on Tuesday morning. Resume eating and monitor fetal movement." 

I then shared some not so nice words with said hospital staffers, and hung up on the stupid lady named ginger mid- sentence. 

We called our parents to let them know; nope- Today is not baby day. We texted everyone else.  It was pretty much the most awful news to share, especially while our phones were blowing up with "good luck!" "Can't wait to see the baby," "keep us posted!" ect ect. I didn't want to respond to anyone, but after a few hours I forced myself to let people know. I copied and pasted the same text to all folks who had inquired.  It was all I had the energy for. 

After moping around for a solid 3 hours, we decided to go eat spicy food and see a movie. Just to get out of the house. My picky eater husband chose a Cajun restaurant in highland village. We talked at length about the day. We were both emotionally exhausted, and decided that maybe the scheduled delivery was too much of a production for us. Since everyone would be off for Labor Day, it seemed a parade of people were ready to meet us on what would have been day 2 of our hospital stay. We were feeling overwhelmed by it all, so maybe this was for the best. 

We also talked about how little Coral was probably stubborn and slow like her daddy, and we truly didn't think she'd come on her own. She would need to be evicted on Thursday (the rescheduled induction date).  We weren't even going to hope for anything sooner. 

Well... apparently Little Coral was listening and laughing at us.. Because not even 12 hours later little girl decided she was coming into this world. All on her own... 

Part 2 coming soon!