Rainbow After the Storm - Rhett's Birth Story

Rhett’s Birth Story

09/29/2017 – Your Birthday

The night before I asked a colleague to work for me just so I could take the day off. I thought maybe you weren’t ready and wouldn’t be ready until I actually took some time off and tried to relax a little bit. I stay very busy with work and love to be there for my patients so it’s hard for me to take days off or have down time without feeling guilty. This doctor said that she would cover my shift which turned out great since it would have been VERY hard for me to adjust in labor. Haha.

I woke up at 7am and went to the bathroom. I had what is called “bloody show” which means that labor is expected to happen anytime either in the near future to sometime in the next few days. Because of how I was with your sisters I just assumed that you would meet us in a few days and didn’t really think too much of it. Around 8:30am I started having contractions but I honestly didn’t think anything of it because I was having decent contractions for two weeks now with you. (Just like I did with your sister Sydney except it was 2 ½ weeks with her) Your dad left with your sisters to go take Addie to Pre-K and I went up to the office to let in the doctor covering my shift because she did not have a key yet. When I got there, I needed to do a couple of housekeeping things and realized that we didn’t have the ipad at the office which meant there was no way to accept payment if I wasn’t there with my phone. Your dad was going to bring it up to the office after her dropped off Addie so I was just going to wait until he got there. While I was there I got adjusted and it was REALLY uncomfortable because I was apparently in active labor and didn’t know it. I knew the contractions were intense but my pain tolerance is surprisingly high I guess and was still somewhat in denial that this could be real labor. After my adjustment it almost seemed as if they became more intense and I had to focus on getting through them. Thankfully your dad got to the office shortly after and I basically just said “okay I gotta go home now. Bye” and walked to my car and drove home still having consistent contractions.

At this point it was around 9:40am or so when I finally left the office. 

When I got home I just went into my bedroom and sat on the floor. I felt like I needed to relax and see if this was the real deal or if I just needed to rest and prepare myself for another 12-hour labor. Your dad got home shortly after I did and started rushing around getting things ready. He was filling up the birth tub, putting shower curtains on the bed and sheets over, calling everyone on the birth team and my sister and picking things up because we weren’t exactly ready for you to come at this point. 😊

All this time I just sat on the floor and went through each contraction one by one focusing on the fact that with each one you were that much closer to meeting us. 

My midwife, Lisa, was there pretty quickly after I got home it seemed and came in to see how I was doing. I told her that I thought I had to be going through transition because they were much stronger than they had been before and I felt like I needed to make noise to get through them. I said that if this wasn’t transition then there was no way that I would be able to make it through labor like this. Thankfully it turned out that I was in fact going through transition which was a blessing. 

There was a point where Lisa talked about the baby that I lost the year before and that she wanted me to make sure that I wasn’t holding onto anything from that. I had a moment of crying which I felt was necessary for me to proceed with your labor and allow myself to accept the loss of that baby and the gain of you. It may seem like a moment of weakness but it was far from it. It was a moment of acceptance. I was finally allowing myself to be excited to meet you after being scared for so long that I may lose you too. 

I got into the tub shortly after and it felt a lot better. I was glad that I was not in there during transition but glad to be in it now with the contractions that were now bringing you lower and lower.  I dreamed that I would deliver in a specific way multiple times and that’s exactly what happened. 

Your dad made a playlist for me and I looked up at the TV as I delivered your head and saw that the song Rainbow by Kesha was playing. It could not have been a more fitting song for you as my sweet rainbow baby. I also had a dream that you were going to have light hair and you do! Especially in comparison to your sisters. 

We are still trying to figure out what song you were technically born to because I can’t remember and neither can your dad. Ha. You were born at 11:56am just a few hours after I woke up and had no idea that you were about to make a fast and furious debut. I was 39 weeks and 6 days. You’re my only baby that came BEFORE their due date. 

After your head was delivered I told your dad that you were coming and he caught you and then handed you to me. When he said that you were a boy the whole room was shocked. Neither your dad or me could believe it! We were totally expecting to have another girl and just be girl parents but we could not be happier to have you join our family! 

I hope you know just how loved you are. By not only your parents and siblings and other family members but by my friends and colleagues and even patients who prayed for your health and well-being throughout my entire pregnancy. 

Want to know something funny? You didn’t have a name your first day of life. We couldn’t decide on anything that we thought was perfect for you so we decided to sleep on it. 

The next day we knew that Rhett Bartholomew was what your name should be and I think that it’s going to be a perfect name for our perfect son and final puzzle piece to complete our family. 

We love you Rhett. 

Love,

Momma