One of the best days of my life

The night before my kids' birthdays, I have a tradition (I'd say I keep it up maybe... 90% of the time?) where I go into their rooms before they fall asleep and tell them the story of their birth. I don't know if they all love it, but I do know that when I went in and started telling Lars his birth story last night, Theo sat up and said "This is my favorite thing!" He also loves watching the birthday videos I used to make for them (tagged in this blog under "birthday babies").

So anyway, Lars was due on June 14, which was a Tuesday. I was in charge of a large children's choir that performed in our stake conference (a stake is several wards or congregations, and we all meet together twice a year) on June 12. I wanted so badly for my baby to hang on until after the choir performance. We had a few Saturday practices, and the kids sounded SO good in our practices. They sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," "We'll Bring the World His Truth," and a medley of "Called to Serve" and "I Will Be Valiant." Anyway, so on Saturday, June 11, I came home from our morning rehearsal and flopped on the couch. I was SO tired. I don't remember what else I did that day, but I think I mostly stayed on the couch because I was so determined not to go into labor!

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 12, with some serious contractions. I knew, I KNEW today was going to be the day. I got up, showered, got dressed, walked around, swayed back and forth. I went to the stake center. Contractions kept coming. The kids sang their song. It was so good. I honestly can't remember if the contractions stopped during the performance or if I just breathed through them. But for the remainder of the conference, I walked the halls of the stake center, because it hurt to much to stay seated.

We went home, had lunch, I cut out bunting triangles for the kids' rooms while watching Charlotte's Web with the kids. Later, I watched Matchstick Men by myself while cutting out bunting. We called Hannah and Robbie, who were going to come for dinner, and let them know that I might be going to the hospital at some point and to pack a bag (to stay with Theo and Ida) just in case.

Matt made dinner. It was chicken in a creamy mustard sauce, a recipe that I loved (and still love)(Why do I remember what we ate for dinner that day?... funny) but could barely choke down. I excused myself and went to Ida's room to try to get through some contractions without everyone looking at me.

Eventually I told Matt, "Yep, this is it." At which point he and I went upstairs, leaving Hannah and Robbie to put the kids to bed.

My doula, Nicole, came over. She helped me into the shower. She convinced me to walk around and rock my hips in circles, while all I wanted to do was lie on my side and cry (which is what I did during most of Ida's labor). Finally around 9 p.m. we left for the hospital. We took Nicole's car, which I think Matt drove, while Nicole sat in the backseat with me. (I could be wrong about that.) It was a 30-minute drive. We got to the hospital, checked in, went to triage. My doctor was in Fredericksburg at a family reunion. I got put in a delivery room. Lars was born at 10:35 p.m., an hour after we had checked in and about 10 minutes after the doctor arrived. Matt caught him. He put Lars on my chest, and I can see this visual better than almost any visual memory in my memory bank: Lars opened his left eye (right eye squeezed shut) and screamed in my face.

Once we got all cleaned up and settled in a recovery room, I was starved. I had barely eaten all day. It was probably midnight by then, and every restaurant nearby (in Leesburg, which is kinda boonies-ish) was closed. The hospital cafeteria was closed too. A nurse found me an American cheese sandwich that was in a bag somewhere, honestly I don't know where it was from but it was so bad and so dry. I barely slept that night. We knew his name would be Lars, it was our top name, although Linus was a close second choice.

Oh, that was such a good day!