Wednesday, March 06, 2013 seemed like it would be just another day in the Sheffield household. As the day progressed I began thinking that maybe it wouldn't be as routine as I would like it to be. It was Sterling's spring break and since we were going to be having a baby early the next morning, he stayed home so that we could do some final "new baby" preparations. For me that meant cleaning the house so that when I came home from the hospital I could feel happy about the cleanliness of my home. For Sterling that meant packing bags and getting things organized for the trip to the hospital. For the baby girl on her way it meant putting mommy into labor and seeing just how far she could push us.
At about 2:00 pm I started having some contractions but since I had never been in labor before I didn't know if it was anything that I should be worrying about. They were really painful but I was only having two an hour so I figured I would be in the clear until the next morning for the c-section. I called Labor and Delivery because they were so painful that they would make me cry (and people I like to think that I am not that big of a baby) and asked them if I should be concerned. They told me to count them and if they were 8-10 minutes apart for two hours then I could be admitted for monitoring. They told me to rest and drink a lot of water and that would help me determine if it was real or false labor.
As the next hour went by the pain increased and so did the frequency of the contractions. At first I was getting excited because it meant we would have a new baby before Thursday and then another contraction hit and I wasn't excited any longer. I did just as the nurse told me and got into bed, bottle of water in hand, and tried to relax. Each time I would have a contraction I would have to jump out of bed, pace around the house, breathe like a crazy lady and wait out some of the worst pain that I have ever experienced in my life. This went on for the next couple of hours and though my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart, sometimes less, Sterling and I weren't sure if we should go to the hospital. Our c-section was scheduled and that is how we wanted it to stay.
At 4:00 pm Sterling and I started to seriously discuss whether or not we should be headed to the hospital and I had determined that if I had one more contraction that we would go. I like to think of it as inspiration to use the restroom but it was probably just my bladder needing to be emptied that landed me on the toilet. While emptying my bladder I started to have a contraction and I leaned to the side to try and decrease the pain. Please don't ask why leaning to the side decreases the pain from a contraction because it didn't. As I was sitting there in pain and thinking that I would now have to go to the hospital, it felt like someone popped a balloon inside of me and all of a sudden more water than flows over the Hoover Dam was escaping my body and filling to toilet to what I imagined would be a point of overflow. It just kept flowing and just when I thought it had stopped, it would start again.
I called out for Sterling and told him that my water broke and that is when the frantic walking in circles trying to make sense out of everything began. My vanity kicked in and all I could think of was to get a pad so that when we got to the hospital and I had to walk in that I wouldn't leak water everywhere. If your water ever breaks, please be aware that a pad is NOT going to hold all of the water that is going to leak out over the next couple of hours. Sterling quickly rounded up everything we would need to go to the hospital. He also managed to get the boys up and semi-ready to go with a friend that was now on her way to the house. He packed everything into the car and was ready to go. What did I do...I got a pad.
I then went over to the neighbor's house in kind of a last minute effort/hope that someone would be there to sit with the boys until Susie arrived, she was about 15 minutes away and I didn't think I had that kind of time to be waiting around. We were so blessed because the nanny was there with the neighbor girl and was more than happy to come and sit with the boys. Keep in mind that while Sterling was in "productive-get things done mode", I was in "chicken running around with her head cut off mode". Instead of waiting for Karah and Ava to come to the house I went and sat in the car. I quickly realized the error of my ways when Karah was staring at me like, "So what do you want me to do now, just walk into your house?"
I got out of the car, showed them into the house, apologized fifty times about the inconvenience and then walked out to the car again. This time Sterling was behind me and we were ready to go. Off into rush hour traffic we drove to get to the hospital and have a baby.
On the way to the hospital we discussed which entrance we would use. We talked about when we should notify our families. We talked about the crazy amount of water that is released when your water breaks. We talked about it all. For me it was a way of distracting myself from the fact that we were about to have a baby and even though it was scheduled for the next morning, I didn't know if I was ready.
We arrived at the hospital, valet parked the car (this is one of the many things that I love about Vanderbilt, "free" valet parking) and walked up to the Emergency Room check-in desk. I don't know if they know that emergency means quickly because as massive amounts of water were soaking my pants and soon the floor the receptionist was taking her sweet time checking in the girl in front of me which seemed to have no problems at all. I started to get self-conscious about my soaking wet pants and not because I really cared but because there was a girl that couldn't stop staring at me and looking all nervous. I tried to hold my purse in front of me to cover up the evidence but since my purse didn't stretch down below my knees it wasn't doing me any favors. I felt like the kid in first grade that peed her pants and hoped that nobody could tell even though it was glaringly obvious. In fact when the nurse from Labor and Delivery came to get me she literally looked at my pants and said, "You must be Miss Sheffield." Was it that obvious...YES!
We finally got checked into a delivery room, the nurses start prepping me for the c-section and all along I kept leaking fluid. How could there possibly be more fluid? I don't know but there was and it just kept coming. At one point I apologized to the nurses because I didn't know if I peed all over myself or if it was just more water leaking out but I felt badly because at this point I was unable to decipher between the two.
At about 6:30 pm they took me in to the operating room and starting getting me ready for the c-section and at 7:37 pm they pulled out the sweetest little baby girl that has won the hearts of everyone in our family. We couldn't be happier than we are right now with our perfect little addition.
Introducing Anela Malamalani Sheffield...
