I’ve heard two different narratives about third children. Some say third kids throw you for a loop – disrupting the seamless family dynamic you had with just two offspring. But others say third kids are laid-back and cheerful, easily slipping into the existing family structure. If her birth story is any indicator of her future demeanor, Eisley arrived quickly and easily at a time that conveniently fit everyone else’s schedules.
My hope is that our baby would be born after April 12th. I  had a few things to wrap up at school that day, and then I was planning to work from home until the baby’s arrival. Little did I know when I left campus at 3pm on Wednesday, April 12th, my water would break exactly 12 hours later.
That same evening Kayla took Zianne and Talitha to an Angel’s Baseball game. Kayla loves baseball and visiting new stadiums, so she had planned months in advance to take the girls to a game around the baby’s due date. It was a special auntie date night before Kayla moves away at the end of this month (cue postpartum crying).
Since Kayla was taking the girls all evening, Micah and I decided to sneak in a date night. We used a gift card from my parents and had a lovely dinner on the water in Laguna Beach. I was hoping for a gorgeous sunset, but it was rather cloudy. I had also been battling a cough and congestion for at least a week. Because of the cloudy skies and my stuffy nose, we almost skipped our fancy dinner for something more casual. We debated getting burgers from Rudy’s Shake Shack and saving our gift card, but Micah insisted we follow through on our beach dinner. Although it was overcast, for the briefest moment right when we got called to the beachside hostess stand to claim our table, the clouds parted and we got a thirty second sunset in the midst of the gloomy evening. Micah joked that God always gives me what I want…
At dinner, we discussed baby names and I ate red wine short ribs and walnut cream sauce ravioli. I left the restaurant satisfied with my mini-sunset and filling meal. When I was in labor just hours later, I was so thankful we opted to spend our gift card on quality food rather than eating a greasy burger and a milkshake right before delivery.
We made it home before the girls. When they walked in around 10pm, we looked at all their loot (tote bags and popcorn and cotton candy and cracker jacks) and got their sugar-filled, tired bodies tucked in bed. I finally climbed in bed around midnight, utterly exhausted.
I woke up just after 3:00am, thinking I had dreamt that my water broke. I blinked in the darkness and tried to figure out if it was actually a dream or reality. I decided I should probably check and trudged my huge body to the bathroom. Sure enough, my water had broken, but thankfully it was more of slow leak than a huge gush like I had with the other two girls. I caught it right in time and not even a drop got in our sheets!
I had just showered and shaved the previous evening before our date night, so I brushed my teeth and started gathering my toiletries to take to the hospital. I woke Micah up a few minutes later. It’s important to note that Micah has been lecturing me for months about getting to the hospital quickly this time around. Ever since our good friends accidentally had their third baby at home in their bathroom, Micah has taken our hospital commute time very seriously. He told Kayla and me that if I were to go into labor on a work day, we shouldn’t even bother calling him at the office. Kayla should just rush me to the hospital and text him once I got there. An accidental home birth is his worst nightmare. Kayla and I laughed at these lectures. We happen to live four minutes away from our hospital, and I’m not one to labor at home in pain for as long as I can.
With my water broken, I didn’t feel rushed, but I did try to move fairly quickly just in case I had a short labor or triage was crowded and slow (like it was with Talitha). Micah, on the other hand, did not heed his own lectures. For the first few minutes, he wandered around our room slowly, still sleepy and dazed. I told him I was hoping to leave for the hospital in 20 minutes, but he didn’t seem to move any quicker. Finally, I said, “Micah, I am having contractions every 2-3 minutes. I would like to leave SOON.” Suddenly, he jolted alert and looked at me in disbelief. “Really?!” he exclaimed. That seemed to be the motivation he needed, because he instantly went into the bathroom to quickly shave and shower.
One thing I had been slightly concerned about was childcare while we were at the hospital. Micah’s sister, Kayla, lives with us, but she has a job where she is often gone in the evenings and on weekends. I was hoping the baby would come at a time when Kayla would be home, but I had a couple of my college students on call just in case. When I knocked on Kayla’s bedroom door around 4am to tell her we were headed to the hospital, she jumped out of bed excited. She informed me that she didn’t have to work at all on Thursday and wasn’t on shift until 5pm on Friday, so she could easily take care of the girls and drop them off at school the next day. It was seriously impeccable timing…
