Tatum’s Birth Story Pt 1.

I am not sure I have enough wine for this (lol) but here we go.. 

Even thinking about Tatum’s birth makes me sooo stinkin’ emotional. It’s such a different feeling when you have a beautiful birthing experience vs. one like I had with Sawyer. Tatum’s started out extremely rocky and I just knew I was going to have another awful experience, but come 10:45pm on 5/19/2021 everything turned around for us.

I had my last doctors appointment at 38 weeks— I was checked and only dilated to a centimeter. My doctor offered to go ahead and schedule an induction for the following week at 39 weeks (his only on call day being Wednesday 5/19) and I took him up on it. I was induced with Sawyer and while I would love to have that natural, my water broke, let’s get to the hospital experience, the thought of that also gives me extreme anxiety. I am a planner. On top of that I have a toddler with the closets relative living 35 min away— induction seemed to be the best option for us.  

5/17 — drive thru pre op Covid test (horrible) 

Fast forward to 5/19– 

My induction is scheduled for 7:30am, but I was told by my doctor to wait for a call from the hospital. I woke at 6:00am with the first thought in my head “omg, it’s baby day”. 

I go downstairs in my robe, grab my coffee, sit on the couch and convince myself that It’s all good, gonna stay calm, I’ve done this before. My moms cooking breakfast because I remember I was absolutely starving last time we did this. I ate a big breakfast, chugged some water and waited by the phone. 7:30am rolls around and no call. Next thing I know it’s 8:30am, bags are packed and in the car, still no call. 

9:30am, no call, and well.. you get the point. It gets to be 11am and I’m snacking like crazy just incase. (When they call you, you have 20 min to get there just FYI). Travis suggests we go get lunch, but I’m too afraid I’ll miss the call or we won’t make it in time, plus my nerves were too everywhere to be in public at this point. We go on a walk, then travis went to get Jimmy John’s (I longed for it and I knew she was coming soon, so deli meat heck yea). I continue watching the phone, hour after hour passes us by. I called the hospital only to be told that they’re busy and women who go into labor naturally come first. I get it but rub it in my face, lady. It’s sawyers nap time and I just know that we will get the call when she’s napping and I won’t get to tell her bye, so I tell her an emotional good bye and lay her down, sobbing as I leave the room. 

4pm Sawyer wakes and still no call, I’m happy to hug my baby girl, but the anticipation and waiting by the phone was literally killing me. At this point I just know my induction will be rescheduled to another week and today is not baby after all :( 

7pm I climb into bed to try and rest, but end up watching real housewives. 

9:30pm Travis comes to bed and he’s convinced it’s not happening and that I should try to sleep (yea right). Travis goes to sleep, my moms asleep on the couch and I’ve told my baby girl goodnight and goodbye once again (not knowing if that’s the last time I’ll see her before she becomes a big sissy).

10:00pm I can’t take it anymore. I break down. Balling my eyes out. I can’t believe they’d do this to a mother only wanting to meet her precious baby. Today was supposed to be the day..

10:45pm I get the call!!!

I had been crying so hard my nose was completely stuffed. "LeAnne, can you be here in 15 min."

ABSOLUTELY, lady!

I woke Travis, told him it’s time to go, and off we went to get our babe!