Shelby’s Arrival

Hello friends!  Since I was jumping back into the blog world I thought I should start with Shelby’s birth story.  I know many of you followed my story through our infertility journey and this February we finally got to meet our sweet girl.

It was a Wednesday evening and I had gone to our bedroom to rest that evening.  My husband Brett came in a little later after my stepson Nathan had gone to bed and we laid there talking about our plans for the weekend.  He was going to take the boys up to his mom’s that weekend and I had a plan to go buy all of the last minute baby items we still needed but had not received since we were right at two weeks out from the scheduled C-section.  As we were chatting, I felt something odd.  As many of you Moms out there know, when you are pregnant your body can do some interesting things that are completely out of your control.  So basically, I was lying thinking “Did I just pee my pants?”

I tried to casually get up out of bed and go into our bathroom without telling Brett my thoughts.  With every step I took-there was a gush and by the time I got to our bathroom I said “Um, babe, I think my water just broke!”

As he got up and walked around the corner to see me he could tell that, yup, that is what was going on.  Thanks to my own mother’s prodding, I had packed my bag for the hospital that previous weekend even though my doctor had said “Oh yes, your cervix is completely closed,” on my OB visit that Friday and I felt sure that Shelby was in no hurry to arrive.  Obviously she had other plans!

Brett went and woke Nathan up and I started getting dressed and trying to think about what else I needed in my hospital bag. The whole time in my head I was thinking, “Wow, this is happening now!”  I don’t think I was going fast enough or perhaps was just wandering around trying to make sure I didn’t forget anything because Brett kept saying, “Come on, we need to go!”

We dropped Nathan by his mom and stepdad’s house as we left and headed to Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital.  I didn’t know until later, but Nathan put on Facebook “My stepmom’s water just broke!” Glad the grandparents had already gone to bed and weren’t on Facebook!

Thankfully, it was about 10 PM so there was no traffic and we arrived at the hospital in about 35 minutes.  I called my mom and dad on the way with the realization that they would not be there until the next day since they are seven hours away.  (Of course, my mom already had their bags packed!)  I called my best friend, Dustee to let her know and also my boss, Amy.  With every phone call there was a little more reality setting in-we are about to have a baby!

We parked and I stepped out of the car to another GUSH of water.  Nice.  No one tells you this kind of stuff is going to happen!  Walked on up to Labor and Delivery and they get me hooked up to see what was going on.  After a change of clothes and some monitoring they checked to make sure it was amniotic fluid.  Once that was confirmed, they called the doctor and said, “Okay, we’ll have a baby in about 30 minutes!”  Everything seemed to move super fast from that point.  The next thing I knew I was in the OR getting the epidural and staring up at bright OR lights as they all buzzed around getting ready.  Then Brett came into the OR and started to stroke my hair while they got all of my vitals where they wanted them and got ready for Shelby’s arrival.  Then Dr. Nangrani said “Are ya’ll ready?”  We both replied yes and we waited what felt like forever.  Then we saw Dr. Nangrani’s head appear a little above the blue curtain and Brett said “Everything okay over there?”  Shelby had seemed to change her mind and Dr. Nangrani said “This girl doesn’t want to come out!”  After a little more maneuvering the next thing we heard was the best sound ever: Shelby’s first cry.  Loud, strong, and beautiful!  We both cried tears of joy and thanked God for our healthy baby girl.  Shelby Faith Pollard arrived on Feburary 16th at 12:11 AM weighing 5 lbs, 14 oz and was 19 inches long.

The next day was filled with arrival of family and friends to meet her and offer their well wishes to us.  She is now going on four months old and a complete joy in our lives.  Stay tuned for more stories of our adventures in parenting.

Makala Pollard is a Sr. Marketing Specialist at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, Stepmom to two boys, and New Mom to four-month-old Shelby.