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On the Friday before Gina’s due date we learned that Kara was breach (butt down) and were scheduled for a C-Section on her due date. We were a little bummed out that Gina’s recovery time would be longer and that much of what we learned in our baby classes wouldn’t be used… or so we thought. Kara decided to surprise us: On Sunday, June 19th, we went to church as usual and performed during the service (Gina sings and I play guitar in the praise band). During a particularly energetic song, Gina started to feel a little… weird. We went home to have lunch prepare for a Father’s Day visit with my family when Gina started feeling contractions… real ones. Excited to use some of our training, we started timing their frequency and duration. We quickly reached 5-7 minute intervals, but the duration was still around 30-45 seconds. After an hour-or-so, we decided to go to the hospital and check in… since Gina wasn’t supposed to go into labor due to baby being breach. [peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jKDfrjSgHXo/V2d8e1d05jI/AAAAAAAA8Sw/Z4-KklA4n4Aw426-iYrgw7TP1uLT8dS-QCHM/s144-o/IMG_2109.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/106726501754907162579/6301650718860961233?authkey=m95zN97S54Q#6298139473091028530″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”IMG_2109.JPG” image_size=”2448×3264″ peg_single_image_size=”w500-c” ]

After checking in, we were ushered to a triage room where Gina was hooked up to some monitors, got checked out, and then told to go back home. I thought Gina might take a swing at the staff! When asked when we should come back, they said “… when the contractions are 5 minutes apart and stronger…” We ended up going to the parking lot, watching “House” on Netflix for a while, then going to a market and walking around/buying some water to drink. Not sure what to do next, we just went home. Once home, we tried to eat lunch and wait it out: more Netflix and a few phone calls to alert family of the false alarm. Gina called her parents and after a brief conversation, hung up and immediately her water broke. Big time. For real. No mistaking what just happened. Our previously calm demeanor stepped up to “go time”: while Gina got cleaned up, I took care of the new laundry tasks. We were definitely anxious and our next trip to the hospital was definitely more hurried, but still calm. This time it took longer to get into a room… at least it felt longer. Our nurse took a little longer than we liked to hook up the monitors (again… compared to the first visit). After we explained our concerns, she stepped it up and we heard Kara’s heartbeat. Our nerves calmed, we settled in and waited for the staff to confirm that labor had begun. Once that was complete, we were scheduled for an… um… unscheduled…(?) C-Section at 9:00. The next 40-ish minutes were a whirlwind: operating room (OR) cover-alls, spinal anesthetics, waiting outside the OR, then in the OR seated next to Gina. It seemed like just a few minutes later that we heard Kara cry… loudly. Our daughter had arrived and our biggest adventure together begins. [peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HIU96DscVvI/V2mBQavfOnI/AAAAAAAA8WU/lLNeJHQk83wHefj51EGNAYsIxspMeqbOwCHM/s144-o/IMG_2115.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/106726501754907162579/6301650718860961233?authkey=m95zN97S54Q#6298707672910740082″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”IMG_2115.JPG” image_size=”3264×2448″ peg_single_image_size=”w500-c” ]