Last Friday night at about 11:30pm we got "the" phone call. My sister-in-law Chel'ea was one week overdue and her time had finally come. She was having contractions about 2 weeks ago but it never progressed, so we think it was just braxton hicks. She didn't really know the difference at the time. Well, this time it was for real. Her midwife had come to their house and confirmed that she was in labor. She was only dilated to about 2 centimeters, but was definitely feeling the contractions. I actually hadn't really thought about making the trip to Winthrop, but it happened to be Friday night and I had the weekend off. My other sister-in-law Julie and I decided we wanted to make the trip up there to support them. I talked to my little brother and he said to just wait till morning because the midwife said it would be a slow process. Well, I talked to my mom and she was WIDE awake. This was her first grandchild and all, so she was not about to go to sleep. Julie and I decided we were gonna make the drive that night cause we were already awake and ready to go. We called my mom to see if she wanted to come with us, and obviously she said yes!!
So, the three of us girls left Spokane at about 2:30 AM (yes, you read that right!). It is about a four hour trip and since we were in my new car I was the designated driver. It's kinda crazy but we stayed awake the whole trip up there. I think there was a little bit of excitement in that car. I also had a few caffeinated beverages to keep me going for the trip. We made it into town at about 6:30 am and stopped for coffee and bagels before heading to Kevin and Chel'ea's house. We got there and Chel'ea was upstairs with her midwife and her mom. She was having a little bit of a difficult time, so we all just hung out downstairs. By this time she was about 4 centimeters, I think. We decided to lie down for a little nap, so we weren't quite so cross-eyed. Julie and I slept in the guest room for just about 2 1/2 hours. My mom couldn't really sleep, so she might have gotten about an hour of rest.
At about 2pm we decided to take a little walk to get some fresh air and wake ourselves up a bit. We didn't know how far along she was because she wasn't really letting the midwife check her. We got a call in the middle of our walk that the babies head was crowning... Oh no!! We come all this way and wait for hours on end and now we are going to miss the big moment! We all started running back to the house. We got there and she had just started pushing. She was not as far along as her sister had said in the phone call. Oh well, at least we were back now. She had been laboring in a warm pool most of the time because she had a lot of back labor. She said it helped to be in the warm water. About two hours later is when she actually had the baby.
You have to admit he's pretty darn cute!!
At 4:40 pm Calvin James Drozdov was born. He was 8 pounds even and 20 1/2 inches long. Both mom and baby did wonderfully. I was very proud of her. The midwife had two assistants to help her and they stayed for a few hours to monitor both Chel'ea and Calvin to make sure they stayed stable.
The happy new family!!
Ater we had all eaten dinner and met and held Calvin, Julie and I decided we needed to head back home. My dad was on his way up there, and he and my mom would be staying with the new family, so we decided it best to come home. We left Winthrop at about 8:00pm and got into Spokane at about 12:15. On the way out of town I picked up about 3 more caffeinated beverages. By this time I had only had about 2 1/2 hours of sleep in the last 40 some odd hours, so I was wiped. But I had Julie to keep me awake as I drove back home. Overall, it turned out to be a very good weekend! I am very glad that I was able to be there and meet my first nephew on his birth day! I have to say I think my mom is loving her new role as Nana!!
The two happy new aunties!!
