Crave You || Peter Hale

19.Baby Hale

|3 months later|

Our day began at 3:00 a.m. I was used to waking up several times during the night to eat or use the restroom but when I awoke this time, things felt very different. I suppose that when it's your first time to experience early labor, you can't be certain that it's the real thing and I wasn't. I sat up in bed for a few minutes and it wasn't long before Peter woke up to see what was going on. When he asked I said, "I'm not sure. Something feels different." This jolted him upright and he asked, through the grog, "Really?" I told him that it could be a false alarm so I was going to take a shower and see if the warm water falling on my belly might calm things down. Since Peter woke up, we had established that these "waves" were coming about every 3 minutes. My contractions were already 3 minutes apart. I had always heard and read that things started gradually, with contractions 8 or 10 minutes apart. Or it started by waking up in a pool of fluid. Not the case for me.

I made the shower as hot as I could stand and tried to keep things normal. It crossed my mind that this might be my last shower of the day so I oughta, you know, wash my hair and stuff. Just after I rinsed the conditioner I had my first contraction that brought me to my knees. While I was down there, the water getting cooler against my back, the thought of I'm going to meet my baby today washed over me. That realization was more overwhelming than I ever imagined it would be - and I had been imagining it for a long time. I remember noticing that it was May 9 and I almost felt like smacking my own forehead. 9 has long been my lucky number and the fact that I hadn't even considered that my baby knew this seemed all of a sudden ridiculous to me. I called Peter in to help me out of the shower and asked that he get the exercise ball for me to bounce on.

As I sat on it, I brushed my teeth, put lotion on, and even blow dried my hair. I was calling the contractions out to Peter and he kept time. I came back into our bedroom and asked him for the update and he said, "Still 3 minutes." Nothing had slowed or calmed so I told him that I thought it was time to call Melissa to see what she thought.

Peter got her on the phone immediately and she asked for the details and then asked to hear one of my contractions. After one had passed, I got on the phone with her and reiterated what Peter had told her. I suppose I expected a hurried list of things to do or signs to look out for or notes to take, but instead what I heard was, "Well, this is very exciting! I'll call Brylle and let her know and we'll be there shortly." That was the moment that things really felt real. The alarm had officially been sounded. I was in labor.

Deaton soon came and was telling me several things but I wasn't really listening. Eveyone came and I was ready to have this baby.

Between contractions, I was getting cold so a nest was set up for me. Contractions were growing more and more intense and I was pulling more inside of myself with each one.

Sometime between the bath and the couch, things shifted into primal mode. Bits of my animal self had been peeking out here and there but when it officially took over, oh man.

Many little girls dream of their wedding day. That is their fairy tale. Not me. I dreamed of the day that I would get to have my baby at home, just like I had watched my mom have my little brother at home years before. It was all happening but in this fairy tale, I did not turn into a princess - I turned into an animal. One that moaned and groaned and crawled and grunted. At this point in the story my dialogue stopped. I stopped using words to communicate, only mono-syllabic sounds and head movements. This is when something else took over, something beyond my consciousness, something that told me to save every ounce of energy for getting my baby out.

I guess I did get one more full sentence out. Then my beautiful baby boy was born.

Logan Hale has been born.