the birth of Eloise Claire | part 1

Well, we ALMOST got our 23rd of the month birthday baby.... Almost!   Hudson's birthday is 5/20, porters is 2/21 and Amelia's is 4/22.  We were rooting for 5/23 for this little one but we missed it by 2hrs and 16 minutes.  Although..... if she were a west coast baby we could have made it haha!

This past week had been a rough one.  Is been feeling pretty depressed and withdrawn, just done with the world.  Done being pregnant.  Done being huge and uncomfortable and grumpy.  Our house had been torn apart to have new floors put in, so that was irritating me (having furniture in all the wrong rooms and nowhere to walk comfortably through).   

Saturday, Ryan and the boys went over to a friends house to help put a railing on their deck. Amelia and I stayed behind, cleaning the house and we took a nice nap in the afternoon.  After our nap, we went with Jamie and the boys to play putt putt golf.   It was nowhere near as fun or relaxing as i had imagined.  Amelia was either a hole in front of us or behind us, or in the middle of the boys' way.  Hudson just wanted to putt putt and have fun (he'd only gone one other time), and the 3 older boys argued most of the time about keeping score and who was cheating and what not.  After golf, we took all 5 kids to Meijer (mind you I already needed a drink by this point) and then headed back to Jamie and Tony's house to grill dinner. 

The evening was relaxing... Us girls chatted, the guys had some drinks and grilled, the kids played in the yard.   Great evening.  Around 8 or so noticed I was leaking fluid a little.  It wasn't like I was losing my bladder.... I've been dealing with that crap for the past 3 months.  I called Paige and asked her what to do...  She suggested wrapping it up there and heading home soon.  I didn't think it was that urgent of an issue.  I just rolled up some toilet paper to soak up and little leaking and voila haha!  Around 9 I started having some mild contractions.  Mind you, my husband had been drinking all. Freaking. Day.   So he was totally lit.  It's a long weekend, we've been with friends all day.... My due date isn't for 2 more weeks.  All of a sudden, I started just gushing water on the floor.  Holy embarrassing.  It was quite hilarious as well... All the kids are like "why are you peeing on the floor?!" Haha!   

Luckily, Jamie and Tony offered to keep the boys (well actually all 3 kiddos but I wasn't sure if Amelia would stay in a strange place), so I texted my sister to have her pick Amelia up.  At this point I was just wanting to get home so I could leak fluid in the privacy of my own home, not with our friends bath towel stuck between my legs in a crowd of people.  Imagine, though, my drunk and overly concerned husband freaking out about me driving home.  Our friend Mike was insistent he would drive us to the hospital.  Kids are running all around, wondering what the heck is going on.  I'm trying to find Amelia, waddling through the yard with a bath towel between my legs, growling at Ryan and Mike that I am So Fine To Drive Myself Home.  Hahahaha!  It was a hot mess.  

We finally got on the road (we only live about 10 min away) and by the time we got home and I had thrown some random clothes and necessities in a bag (why do I never have any idea what to pack??), my contractions were getting pretty strong and uncomfortable.  I texted my birth photographer (who was 2 hours away) and let the hospital know we were on our way. 

Stay tuned for Part 2.