You know those stories of labor where the baby comes so fast that the mom barely makes it to the hospital and without enough time to get the epidural she was planning on having? Well, yeah, this is one of those stories… LOL.

From start to finish, my labor with Adelaide was exactly five hours long. Here’s how it all went down.

The night before I went into labor (or maybe I was technically starting labor lol), G and I were sitting on the couch watching TV and I started feeling some noticeably frequent Braxton Hicks. I even mentioned to him that “maybe we should put your parents on alert.” G’s parents live five hours away in Florida and are the ones who would be coming to stay with the boys while we were in the hospital.

But that was it and we went to bed.

3:30 am

In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up with a contraction. Since that had never happened before, it crossed my mind that “maybe today would be the day.” But I figured I had plenty of time so I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

After about 20 minutes and a couple more sporadic contractions, I figured I wasn’t going back to sleep. I got up and started doing a few things I wanted to have done in case we were having a baby that day.

5:30 am

My contractions started to get stronger and steadier and I started Googling the progression of natural labor. I should mention that I’d never gone into labor on my own before. Our first son, Fischer, was born a week after his due date after my water had broken, but labor didn’t start on its own. And Beckham was a scheduled induction 3 days after his due date. All that to say, I was NOT expecting this and even though this was my third labor, I had NO idea what I was doing LOL. In addition, I was in denial because it was five days BEFORE her due date and I was NOT ready. The house was a mess, my hospital bag wasn’t completely packed and the nursery was a day or two away from being finished. I had only JUST installed her carseat the day before.. so.. yeaaah that’s how prepared I was!

Alright – back to labor. During my Googling, I had read that a hot shower could help relieve the discomfort of contractions.. so that’s where I headed. But it didn’t help much.

6:15 am

I stood in the bathroom and texted my friend, Aubrey, who had agreed to be our emergency interim babysitter if we needed to rush to the hospital. I let her know what was happening and we made a plan to drop the boys off at their house on the way to the hospital. At this point I was still holding out hope that I could wait out at least a few more hours so my in-laws could get on the road and at least some of their drive out of the way before we burdened our friends with two extra toddlers.

6:30 am

But at that point my contractions were making it hard to think and I walked into our room and woke G up. I told him “I think we need to get your parents on the road,” and he immediately sprang into action.

Even at this point I think I was still in denial that my contraction interval and intensity were telling me to get to the hospital. I cringe when I think about how I took my sweet time getting dressed and ready when deep down I think I knew we needed to GO.

8:00 am

Contractions were strong and intense and went from over 7 mins apart to 5 mins apart VERY abruptly. I shoved a few last things into my tote bag and stood on our stairs landing yelling to G that “WE NEED TO GO.” He snatched the boys up and got them in the car while I struggled to get down the stairs, slide the nearest shoes onto my feet and start out the door.

By a little after 8, we were pulling out of the driveway and I shot a text to Aubrey that we were on our way to their house.. only to shoot her another one 5 mins later to say something along the lines of “nvm, we’ve got to get to the hospital. she’s coming.”

If you’re wondering what the atmosphere in the car was like at this point, just imagine those movies where the husband is racing/weaving through traffic, honking at cars loudly while the woman in labor is yelling in pain. That’s exactly what was happening. Our poor boys did NOT understand what was going on and I just remember trying to reassure them that mama was okay in between the pain of each contraction. Beckham kept saying “What, mama? What?” I tear up thinking about how worried and confused he was.

8:22 am

I remember the time on the clock vividly as we were FINALLY pulling into the hospital complex. At this point I was trying sooo hard not to push with each contraction and I was SO RELIEVED that she was not actually born in the car… our brand new minivan by the way LOL. With G’s help, I got out of the van and made it barely through the threshold of the hospital before I had to stop, so G ran to get help and a wheelchair. Moments later they were rushing me back to a room and I felt my water break as I was being wheeled down the hallway.

While they did that, G got the boys out of the car and ushered them into the waiting area. At that point our friends were thankfully arriving at the hospital to pick them up because the lady at the front told G “They’re delivering her now” and he rushed back to find me.

Once in the room, the amazing nurses and delivery team quickly got me undressed, in a bed and hooked up to monitors.

Then, a nurse checked to see how far along I was and I will never forget her saying, “Oh yeah, she’s going to have another contraction or two and we’ll have a baby.”

That was the moment it dawned on me that there would be no epidural and I just remember saying in my head “Okay, welp, this is happening” and I said a quick prayer that I wouldn’t have to push for very long.

8:30 am

My prayers were answered because after just two pushes, she was here. G wasn’t even in the room yet! Which.. under different circumstances would have made me super sad – but I was just so relieved and beyond grateful to have made it to the hospital and that she was ok! He walked in just in time, though, to cut her cord and, to me, that was enough.

Addie James.

If you’re wondering how we picked her name: Adelaide has been G’s favorite since before we even got married and he fought for it to be the name we used for her – I was leaning towards Campbell but Adelaide was a close second so he didn’t have to fight too hard 🙂 James is after her Papa’s (G’s father) middle name as well as her great-grandfather’s first name. All of our babies have family names as their middle name and this felt like such a sweet way to honor two family members who have meant a lot to us with our final baby!

If I had to describe Addie’s labor in a couple of words, I would call it wonderful and horrible at the same time LOL. The combination of how fast she came coupled with the fact that I pretty much assumed she would not actually come on her own really was the perfect storm that created the most chaotic birth lol! But I can’t think of a better way to end our season of having babies than with this crazy, exhilarating, adventurous, once-in-a-lifetime story. I’m just so grateful that everything worked out; for our sweet friends who dropped everything to help us; for wise and accommodating medical staff and for a husband who took control of a hectic situation and for my three safe, healthy, beautiful babies!