One month ago, all of the experiences mentioned in the previous blogs began to fade away drastically. Life began to take on new meaning. Self-survival instincts started taking a backseat to protective instincts. The light and dark that distinguish night and day began to mesh into one 24-hour period with a few small naps here-and-there. Two sets of parents…or grandparents…began having no shame as they came up with all sorts of excuses to “drop something by” our house. The desire for cable service began to be replaced by the desire to sit on the couch and stare at a small 6lb ball of entertainment. One month ago, Eden Elaine Rayburn was born.
My labor was the most wonderfully uneventful process. I mean, there’s probably nothing more eventful than bringing new life into the world, but after the events of the past 6 weeks, I never could have dreamed that we’d get to drive only 5 miles down the road to the local hospital, have a “normal” delivery surrounded by our loving families, and head right back home in 24 hours with a perfect, healthy baby girl. Before leaving Texas Woman’s Hospital, we were faced with a pretty big decision. I had been taken off the anti-contraction meds, and I had been through a little physical therapy to start the process of retraining my body to live in an upright position. After a couple days of this, though, I was still contracting at the same rate. I had made it to my goal of 37 weeks with the pregnancy, and the baby seemed to still be doing well, so the doctors gave me the choice of inducing or going home. David and I went back and forth with the decision because there were many pros and cons to each choice. Finally, it came down to the fact that most of the pros that were strictly in the baby’s favor (as opposed to the favor of my or our comfort level) led us to choose to go home. So, we packed up the massive amounts of stuff I had accumulated in that room over the previous 37 days and made the drive back down to Lake Jackson.
I waddled around our new house in LJ for 3 days with a baby sitting in the “go” position and with fluid-filled legs that were majorly sore from finally walking again. Sunday morning, my water broke. From that moment on, it was as if I had a “normal” pregnancy. All I can remember is standing there in my puddle in the kitchen as David ran around the house gathering stuff to go to the hospital (as if we hadn’t been sitting around for 6 weeks waiting for this to happen), and I kept repeating with a huge smile, “We get to see her today! We get to see her!” We’ve gotten to see her every day since then, and it just doesn’t get old!
David and I are both self-proclaimed adventure-seekers. We talk all the time of traveling and where we’d like to go next. We both agree, however, that becoming parents is a far greater adventure than any trip we could ever take. What a blessing it is to find pure contentment here…in the town we both grew up in…doing things like taking walks to the park for a picnic or simply enjoying sitting around home drinking coffee and watching Eden sleep. I’m positive that I’ll never be able to express how thankful I am to the many people that helped me through all of this. A written or spoken “thank-you” doesn’t come close to holding the weight of the gratitude I have for the team of doctors that gave us a healthy, chubby baby….the nurses that made me as comfortable as possible during the moments I thought I’d never again get to join the world of independent people….. my husband who would look over at me from the couch in room 3040 and somehow make me believe he thought I was beautiful while lying there feeling the most un-beautiful I ever have…..my family that instinctively sacrificed in so many ways to help me through this….. and all the other family members and friends and friends of friends that came to visit or mailed packages or texted an encouraging word. All of this meant so much, and the baby that’s sleeping in my lap as I write is the greatest example of the power of love and prayer….and maybe a little bit of medical expertise as well.
One month ago our lives changed forever. For the better.more pics to come soon at http://www.printsintime.com/
