Tim asked if I wanted to give Ben his bath because it would probably be the last time I could do it for a couple weeks, so I said sure. It was just after 7:30 in the evening, and I was sitting on the edge of the tub, getting the water ready and taking off Ben's clothes. When I bent over to get his shorts, I felt a pop, then a small gush. I quickly stood up and stepped back into the tub. "Tim, I need you!"
He rushed in and I said my water broke. He immediately responded with "How much, what color?", and checked his watch. 7:35pm. Tim was surprised because he was expecting contractions to start first, like with Ben. We both were.
My belly didn't feel any different, and I didn't feel any different, so I took a shower. Tim called our friends who were planning to take care of Ben on baby day, but told them to take their time in coming over. Tim gave Ben his bath, and I gathered Ben's last minute things to add to his bag. Our friends arrived, and we explained to Ben that Federica was coming and that he was spending the night with Salvatore and Valentina. That all went really well, and they left with Ben at about 8:20.
By now I had started having some light, irregular contractions. I started heating up our leftovers that we had planned for dinner, and went about packing my last minute things to add to my suitcase. By the time we sat down to eat at about 8:30, I was quickly losing my appetite, I asked Tim to start timing my contractions. I was able to eat some, thinking I would need energy for a long night.
We missed timing my first hard contraction, then he timed the second one at 8:38, then a third. Those first three were less than a minute long and just under 4 minutes apart. The next five contractions were over a minute, and about 3 minutes apart. I don't remember what Tim was doing at this point (he later told me that he was hanging up laundry, which I guess is important, as long as you're not the one having the contractions). I finished packing my bag, and was sitting on the bed, right in front of a fan, feeling miserable. For the last couple of those five contractions, I asked Tim to come rub my back, just like he had to with Ben. Then I had one that lasted over two minutes, and double peaked. I told Tim we had to leave now. I didn't tell him that I felt like I would want to push soon. We got out the door at about 9:15.
We had timed our walk to the hospital to be 10 minutes, but in labor it took a few minutes longer. I had a handful of contractions on the way, but I couldn't tell how many because they were all running together, and I couldn't tell when one stopped and the next one began. My legs felt shaky for a minute about halfway there. Tim kept asking if I wanted to stop, and I kept saying no, and eventually just ignored him when he asked. Really, I was scared that if I stopped, that would be it. (For the past month, my biggest worry was that I would have the baby on the sidewalk.) And, I think it felt a little better to keep walking through the contractions. We did have some towels and blankets packed right on the top of the bag just in case. I'm sure I was a sight walking down the sidewalk (it was still light out), with one arm curled around my water bottle, and my other hand pressed into my back, and I can only imagine the look on my face.
By the time we got through the impossibly slow elevators and up to the third floor of the hospital it was about 9:30. We rang the bell, a nurse answered, and I told her I was having contractions. Note that from here on out, all our conversations were in Italian, using our limited Italian, with a tiny bit of their even more limited English. She asked if it was our first child, and it seemed to us that she was wondering what we were doing there and if we knew what we were talking about. She took me back, but made Tim wait out in the hall. She first had me use the restroom, and I felt like I wanted to push. Then she started hooking monitors up to my belly, and I stopped her and told her to check for dilation. She did, then gave me a funny surprised look, and said you're there. I asked 10?, and she said yes. Tim was still out in the hall at this point, so I persistently started asking for him. Finally someone went to go get him, and a few more nurses came in and hurriedly starting preparing things.
I was trying not to push until Tim came in, because I didn't know how fast she was going to come out. When they went to get Tim, they said something in Italian about her being born, and for a second he thought maybe she had already been born, but then they said something about pushing. They made him put on shoe covers and a green gown over his clothes. When he came into my room, we were both relieved to see each other. I told him I was at 10 cm, and he was shocked.
I think my contractions slowed down a little while I was pushing, allowing me to rest in between. They had me on my back to push. I told them I wanted to lay on my side, but they wouldn't let me. They were not nearly as flexible as the midwife I had talked to there in the spring. I am not even sure who was in the room. I think it was one midwife, one doctor, and a few nurses. Tim was at my side, telling me how good I was doing, and trying not to lose circulation in his hand.
I pushed through about four or five contractions, and then she was born. They put her right on my belly, and Tim cut the cord. It was 9:56 pm.
We just held her and looked at her, and finally Tim said "good thing we left for the hospital when we did." I guess before we left for the hospital, he had been thinking we would watch a TV show or something to wait for things to pick up, but I knew we had to get there. Still, we were both completely shocked at how fast she came. It still hurt a lot, but there were a lot fewer contractions in 80 minutes than there were in the 18 hours of labor I had with Ben. And all those memories of the pain got fuzzy as soon as I was holding my precious baby girl.
Federica Grace Robert
3.08 kg ~ 6 lb 12 oz
49 cm ~ 19.25 inches
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