Tuesday, July 26th was my last day at the firm. I cried a bit and stayed late that day to write personal notes to everyone in the office. I cleaned out all my things [I think] and have tried not to think too much about the work that is left for the new girl to handle. It was hard but I feel completely at peace that it was the right thing to do.
Wednesday and today, I'm trying to spend as much non-responsible time with Jericho as I can. Only a few errands and things to do around the house. Mostly I just want to stare at him and memorize his face and talk about super happy things. I've also gotten super clingy. Anywhere we are, I insist on holding his hand, his arm or resting with my feet on his lap. Maybe if I hold on tight enough, he might not actually leave.
Tonight, around 6:30 pm, I get admitted to the hospital. This time is subject to change based on any other women that are in "real labor" and therefore must get admitted before me. Boo. I will not be allowed to eat once I get admitted so sometime prior to 6:30, I need to eat a great last meal with Jericho. I'm thinking Cookout [b/c there's one near the hospital]. When I get admitted, I'll get put on some sort of magic delivery prep drug for 12 hours.
Friday, after the 12 hours are up, hopefully early morning, they'll start me on petocin, another magic delivery drug. And then we wait, or not wait, until game time. And then we pray a lot that baby girl comes quickly, or at least within the same day so that we don't risk Jericho leaving before she comes. And then we'll have a baby. We'll be happy and crying and smiling and hugging and updating people via text messages.
Saturday, Jericho leaves. Luckily, I will see him in a month. He gets a pass in September for four days before he flies to Iraq and baby girl and me and mother-in-law fly to Albuquerque to rendezvous with Jericho at his older brother's house [4 hours from the base in Texas]. After that, I say goodbye for six months.
Sunday [hopefully], baby and me will come home. I'll leave my house with a husband and no baby. I will return with a baby and no husband. My lovely mama will be with me. And baby will do her best to wonderful and cute and enthralling and distracting so I'll forget that I'm sad about other things.
Most people have life changes throughout various stages. Me, I like to take mine out in multiples. It'll be like ripping off a band-aid. Just do it all at once. We'll all build a lot of character and a lot of love. After this week, everything in our family will be new and different. I'm excited and nervous and anxious and sad and happy. And I'm grateful that I will not be going through one second of it alone.
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Holy junk, Kelley, I have friends coming over in three minutes. Can you please NOT make me cry?
ReplyDeleteI hope that every step of this plan works out exactly like you want it to. I would recommend the epidural if you are set to induce. It helped me to relax a lot so that baby could do her work. I am so happy for you and your new addition to the family, and I'm so happy that Jesica, Kristi and Jami are your neighbors. Let's pow wow soon...
Can I just offer one piece of advice? (Everyone's labor is different and they're all obviously your choice how to handle them... but here's my two cents from going through the same thing you're about to do)
ReplyDeleteThe cervidil which is probably what they'll give you tonight is easy, no pain. It effaced me to 100% in no time. Then the pitocin is what dilates you, so it brings on the contractions. The contractions I had up until the pitocin were fine, totally managable. Even on the pitocin they were fine for the first few hours. I started at 6am and then around 2 or 3pm they, literally, went from fine to the worst pain ever, in less than 30 seconds. There's no break between contractions either, so they become very intense quickly. I'd heard all this before, and I heard that many people say get the epidural sooner rather than later, but I wanted to see how long I could go... well by time the anesthesiologist came, I was in so much pain, it was insane. So I would just suggest the sooner rather than later approach to you as well if you're wanting the epidural. If not, then more power to you! I wanted to try it naturally, without drugs but those things were a beast and I was a weakling!
And just as an FYI, the epidural at first should numb you pretty good, but by around midnight I was feeling contractions again and pressure that was pretty uncomfortable and they don't give you more drugs. It's so that you can help push the baby out, but I thought I'd stay numb the whole time, so I was pretty upset to be feeling those suckers again! (:
Good luck! As short or as long as your labor may be, you'll do great and you'll have a beautiful baby at the end! That's what kept me going, well that and the idea of sleep. But my labor went on for over 34 hours... so sleep was kinda trumping cute baby until I saw her. Then it was cute baby again. (:
Good luck Kelley! I hope it goes quickly so you two can have the most time possible with your little one before Saturday. I can't wait to hear all about it and see pictures!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! I hope labor is easy and fast! I second the epidural. I am seconds away if you need anything during this new transition.
ReplyDeleteI'll be thinking about you!
ReplyDeleteThe only of the four I had induced was Annabelle and they didn't give me a prep drug, so I'm not sure what that is. Doc just broke my water and when contractions still wouldn't come, I told him to go ahead and start the pitocin. It was intense but I got an epidural which worked wonders(sometimes, depending on the person, it will relax you and speed up deliver time-which is me. Other times they slow down labor. Hard to know when this is your first time). Annabelle came an hour and a half later. We'll keep you all in our prayers.
ReplyDeleteI just read this and realized that what you're writing about has already started. I was also in tears after the second paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI wish the best for you -- that everything goes as planned, that your baby is happy and adorable {I'm sure she will be!} and perfectly healthy, that Jericho gets some good bonding time before he has to leave, and that the future is much easier than it looks right now.
For the past several months I've had all kinds of people telling me, "If you ever need anything, let me know." And although I've never taken most of those people up on their offer, it was comforting to me to know that they wanted to help. So, because it might be comforting and because I really do mean it, if you ever need anything, I'd be more than happy to do whatever I can.
I don't know you (I think i found you through Mary? Maybe?), but my husband is in the military and leaves frequently, mostly for 6 months at a time. He left when our son was just barely three months old. I thought I would share a couple things that made it a little easier for the both of us while he was gone:
ReplyDeleteTake videos every day. I would put them on facebook so (if he had reliable internet) he could view them right away, and then I would put them on a memory stick and send them every week. I can't even tell you how much it meant to him to have those. Even though he was away, he didn't miss the big stuff. Max was a completely different baby when he came home (he took his first steps just hours after my husband landed!), and the videos helped so much.
Plan an activity every day. This kept me from moping too much. Your emotions are already crazy when you have a baby, and a husband leaving can push you over the edge. Having something to do kept me distracted, and helped the days pass by a little faster. We would window shop, have movie days, go out to lunch with friends, etc. As Max got older, I got memberships to the local children's museum and the zoo and we go to each every week. I've noticed that the mom's that plan something for every day seem to be a little less stressed out, too.
Get some alone time. If you have family or friends nearby that can watch your baby, take advantage of it. You can also get free childcare through CYSS on base during deployments. Trust me, you and your baby need a little break from each other every once and a while and it does wonders.
Good luck. The days they leave are the worst, but I can't even describe how wonderful it is when they come back.
This comment is way late. People always say stuff in the midst of depression or tragedy like "I had to be there for my kids." So true! Not that I've had major depression or tragedy. Only minor normal stuff. Like when Justin goes away on a week long business trip (I know - I shouldn't even complain. It's nothing compared to soldiers' wives.) and I used to just sulk and forget to eat and be miserable for the whole week. And now, I have to create normalcy for my baby. It actually helps. Good luck. I don't envy you in the least bit. And congrats. Sydney is perfect.
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