A Tripp is Born

Well, it was every emotion wrapped into one, so I'll tell you the full story. Adam, Erick, and I went to Kroger on a sunny Saturday afternoon. We were in a little bit of a hurry, because I was giving a talk on Baptism and I was supposed to bring cookies too. While I was talking on the phone to a friend, I felt a little trickle, but I wasn't sure if I just needed to go to the bathroom or not. I was suspicious that my water might have broken, but I wasn't wading through water so I didn't panic. I still needed to give a talk. The baptism was awesome, and all the speakers were good. When Adam and I were getting into the car, I decided to put some tennis shoes on and we would go for a walk to see what would happen. As I bent over and sat back up, I felt a gush of water. I figured we should go to the hospital.
The hospital visit was short, and they predicted that it was a false alarm, meaning that I was just peeing on myself. So the nurse gave me a list of things to watch out for and be concerned about and to call or come back in if any of them occur. The rest of the evening and throughout the night, I was periodically "gushing" or "peeing on myself". At 8 in the morning I was worried, because I hadn't felt Tripp move all night and I felt smaller in my belly. So we went back to the hospital.
I didn't want to be a worry wart, but I wanted to make sure Tripp was okay and to hear his heart beat. The nurse, whose name was Amanda, checked me again to see if I had broken my water. She said the test results weren't 100 percent positive, but that I had a whole lot of fluid and in her opinion, it looked like I had. She said she would get the doctor. The doctor checked too and said that it looked like my water had in fact broken, and the reason that it was in question the day before was that women are usually in labor during or soon after their water breaks. So, my dignity was restored in that moment, and the rest of my labor and delivery was awesome. Amanda plays and sings in a band, and she had her guitar with her. So she sang us some songs, duetted with another nurse, and listened to me play a few songs also. My doctor was not really my doctor, but the one on-call. It just so happens that I really liked her and was glad that she was going to deliver Tripp and not my original doctor. I like my doc, but this one was so easy going, everything was MY decision and there was absolutely no pressure whatsoever to do anything. It made my choice-making process a lot easier, because she would say... "Ok, we can go ahead and give you something to start your contractions or we can wait and see if your body will do it on it's own. I'll give you a few more hours and if nothing happens, we'll have to do something (because of risk of infection to the baby), but you can do what you'd like... walk around, or rest, etc". It was like that through the whole thing. I told her of my abhorrence to pitocin, so when it was time to jump start me, she had an alternative that she gave as an option, so that I could have a choice. She was just so cool. They were concerned with Tripp's heart rate every time I contracted, because it went down, but they didn't go crazy with the monitors, because it jumped back up when a contraction ended. They figured the cord was just getting pinched, but they kept a close eye on it, which was good, because when Tripp came out, the cord was wrapped around his neck, but everything was fine. When it was finally time to push, it was about 2 min- if that, and Tripp was out and in my arms at 8:21pm. Even though we were at the hospital a total of 12 hours, I just had a pleasant time. It was great! I did have an epidural, which made it more pleasant for everyone, but I'm so grateful that everything went well. It was exactly what I prayed for and I'm glad the Lord allowed it. I have to feed him now, but I'm glad to share my wonderful experience and wish the same for all.