The Wolf's Den: Micah Gardner Wolf

Welcoming our Wolf Cub #4, Micah Gardner Wolf!

Micah was due on January 25th, the same due date I had (and I was born on February 3rd). With my track record of being 10 days, 10 days, and 14 days late with the other three kids, I fully expected he'd come on my birthday or after. So on the night of the 23rd when I felt contractions, I didn't think much of it. I'd been having on and off contractions for the last month, and I wasn't ready for a baby yet. But by 10 pm, I couldn't ignore the pain and knew these weren't going to stop. So we got the kids up and loaded them all in the car and took them to the Malones house (thanks guys!). We stayed there and talked until almost midnight because I hate hospitals and want to stay as little time as possible in them and because this hospital charges for each day's stay starting at midnight! (apparently my even my body is cheap because it waited until after midnight to birth Kyla and Micah! :)
This labor felt very similar to Kyla's and Cooper's so when I got to the hospital I was sure I was at the same place I was with them (at a 10 and ready to have the baby in 30 minutes or less!). So the nurse was very casual in getting me checked in and I just laughed inside picturing her reaction when she checked me and I was a 10- doesn't she know this is my 4th?? I know my body! She finally came around to check me- here was my 'I told you so' moment!
"Looks like you're at about a 3 and 80% sweetie"
Pause for stunned silence.
"um, did you just say a 3...or an 8" (at this point I was sure I mis-heard her).
"Yep, you're a 3."
"NO, no, I know a 3 pain, this is NOT a 3 pain."
She smiled, stood, and left me with my shocked horror. A THREE?! I don't consider myself to be a wimp and having had two other children naturally, I was dumbfounded! For the next 30 minutes the contractions seemed unbearable. The pain was what I remember right before I was pushing with the other two. I called her back in...these had do be doing SOMETHING.
My hope was that I'd shock her by 30 minutes later being the 10 I knew I should be!
Alas, a 3 again.
At this point, it was a little after 1:00 AM and I was exhausted. If I had to keep going with these contractions at the same rate of progression, I wasn't going to survive!
15 minutes went by. I asked for an epidural.
She then added salt to my progressively painful 'wound' by telling me that I hadn't been technically admitted yet since I had to be at least a 4 for them to move forward with an epidural. So, she checked me again. This time the only hope I had was that I was at least a 4, or that she'd be nice and just say I was. But to my relieved surprise, her eyes got wide as she said I was at least a 6 now. The nurses helped me into the labor and delivery room and asked for the bloodwork to be done for the epidural. Bloodwork? Oooh...yeah, we don't have time for that.
I realized at this point my body was going to listen to me and make this last part happen fast. The nurse came in to do the bloodwork and I asked to be checked. Another 15 minutes had gone by since the last check. Although I did see her roll her eyes, she decided to appease my request.
Here came the wide-eyed look of the nurse I had been waiting for all night! A 10! Yessss! My body didn't completely fail me, it was just procrastinating!
We had just enough time to get the midwife in the room (who came in running, I might add) and equipment set up before I was ready to push. However, I have an issue of my water not breaking easily, and when it does- look out! I knew if she just broke my water, it'd just take a quick push or two. I did even nicely warn the nurse standing next to her that it was going to spray...she didn't believe me... Her face as she looked down at her wet scrubs was priceless! Game time! One solid long drawn out push and he was HERE! :) Born at 1:48, A 'small' 7 lbs 8 oz.
Welcome to the world our wonderful, EARLY Micah! We love you!