Introducing the Fourth Wuehler

Saturday I had a bit of a melt down. I felt a frantic rush to get the house clean and all baby equipment set up. Brent tried to put me down for a nap and I resisted, telling him it was more important I get everything in order than get my sleep. Long story short, Brent won and I woke up a bit more contrite and apologized. I told him I wasn't sure what had come over me but I'd heard pregnant women will "nest" like crazy when the baby's about to be born. That should have been clue #1.

Sunday I went to church mostly to make sure Mindy (who is due a couple of weeks after me but is known to go early) was still there. Phew! She was :) As usual, I just went to sacrament and then Brent took me home so I could take a nap. Brent sternly told me I had to nap, not just catch up on episodes of The Locator. I was still exhausted from the day before so I told him not to worry. Just before he walked out the door I flippantly said, "I'll try not to go into labor while you're gone." Memo to me, memo to me, watch what you say because you never know when the irony gods are listening and laughing. Brent pulled his cell phone out of his suit jacket pocket and told me just in case he'd have it on. It didn't occur to either of us that would mean little when he returned to church and was surrounded by lots of noisy toddlers.

15-20 min after Brent left I was eating lunch and watching the Duke game. Suddenly I felt wet and so I ran (Read: waddled) to the bathroom. Feeling like a geriatric with no bladder control, I emptied myself and pondered how I could have done that. Then I stood up and another gush of fluid came out of me. Not so geriatric at that point. I called Brent... no answer. I called my mom... no answer. I called my sister Katrina and told her what happened. She confirmed that my water probably broke and I needed to get to the hospital. I told her I couldn't get a hold of Brent (who also had the car) and she reminded me every ward has a clerk's office. If church was still going on there was probably someone in there who could hunt him down for me. Just for good measure I tried calling him again... no answer. I called the hospital and gave them the rundown. They gave me the green light to come in.

I called the clerks office and Dave answered. I told him I needed him to run down to the nursery to severely chastise my husband for not answering his phone. "Ooooohkay...." he responded. Then I told him my water broke. "Oh! Okay!" I'd completely forgotten that to get to the nursery, Dave would have to go past the open room where RS was being held. He swiftly grabbed the RS President and together they headed to the nursery. Sources tell me they then saw Brent run out, Dave run out, the RS President run out and basically no one got anything out of the lesson after that. I received a call from Brent telling me he had given the car seat and charge of Liesel to the RS President who would follow him home to grab her pre-packed diaper bag. He also told me he'd be home in 2-3 minutes. Perhaps it's good to mention here he was still at the church which is 10-13 minutes away.

We took the Mass Pike into downtown and got stuck in horrible traffic. Turns out it was the St. Patrick's Day parade in South Boston and there was some kind of emergency that was tying things up even worse. We didn't move an inch for 15 minutes and finally Brent started taking side roads. We drove by what looked like a huge fire coming out of a manhole and finally, finally made it to the hospital. Things from there went fairly quickly. Our nurse told us if the baby was born after 8 PM we'd get an extra night in the hospital. At 7:30 I was fully dilated and ready to go but we waited. This isn't our first time at the rodeo and we knew what an extra night at the hospital (with nursery) means.

Ireland was born at 8:35 PM weighing 7 lbs 8.3 oz and 20 inches. Start to finish it was just about 6 1/2 hours to bring her into this world... or an eternity depending on your view :) The estrogen to testosterone rating in our house has gone from 2:1 to 3:1 and Brent couldn't be happier. Me? I've fallen in love again and am so excited for this newest addition to our little family.