New Life

As you can imagine, I have been super busy with a tiny little human that has completely taken over our lives, but it has been worth every second of it. I never knew what exhaustion was until I became a mother. Throw in a spring training birth and being alone most of the time and “tired” seems to be a common word of mine. As if being a baseball wife wasn’t stressful enough, add in a little one and things change completely. I have the upmost respect for baseball wives that have more than 1 kid doing this lifestyle. There are some days where it is so hard that I tend to wish our life was a little bit more normal. However, it is so rewarding at the same time. I named this blog post “New Life” because I want to tell our birthing story and the new life that came with it.

My due date was March 22nd. S was in spring training in Jupiter, FL, and we knew his flight would be a last minute thing. I wanted to schedule an induction so S could book his flight and be there for the birth. At 35 weeks, the doctor starts to check you for dilation and see where the babies head is. At my 35 week appointment, Sutton’s head was down, and I was dilated 1cm. At 36 weeks, I had a sonogram to check and make sure everything was looking good. My stomach was measuring a week behind. During the sonogram, we found that Sutton was breeched. I wasn’t worried at all I knew things would be fine. My 37 week appointment was on a Tuesday, and he had flipped again and was head down. I talked to the doctor about scheduling an induction date or if he was breeched at my 38 week appointment we would schedule a C section. She didn’t want me having him before March 15th and no later than the 29th. I just couldn’t believe he had been flipping so much; it just seemed crazy to me. My doctor said she has never had a baby to flip like Sutton did….. future Olympic gymnast on our hands.

This might be little bit TMI so you might not want to read any further. I’m just trying to keep it real here. After my “check” at 37 weeks, I started to lose mucus that week. It was enough for me to contact the nurse. She said as long as I was not having contractions to not worry about it. Also, let’s remember, my husband is at spring training, and I’m alone at home. With that being said, my mom had planned to come stay Saturday night with me. After telling her about the mucus, she decided it might be a good idea to just go ahead and come stay Friday night too! I went ahead and packed the car with everything but my bag just in case something happened.

Once my mom arrived, we went to Wal Mart to take things back and start getting last minute things prepared for Sutton. At about 2:00 AM, I felt a really big contraction, but I just figured it was braxton hicks since I was 37 weeks and 3 days and it was also my first. I didn’t expect anything until another 2 weeks. I get up and feel some water on my leg. I turn the lamp on and see a small patch of water on the sheets. I immediately wake up my mom and tell her I think my water broke. I call labor and delivery and they tell me to go ahead and come in just to be sure if I did or not. I decided to wait and not call Scott yet until I knew something for sure. We began getting ready to go to the hospital, and I started having more contractions. Once we got in the car, we started to time the contractions to see how far apart they were. They were about 4-5 minutes apart! My mom suggested I go ahead and call S because she said I was in labor. Well, my smart husband decides he needs his phone on silent while his wife is 37 weeks pregnant in another state. We could not get him to answer his phone obviously. Once we got to the hospital, it was funny trying to get in since as this point it was 2:30 AM they lock the labor and delivery side so you have to use this call system device outside to get in (that was fun). We get inside, and I’m steadily losing water. My mom called my mother in law to let her know what was going on and started looking up flights for S to get home. In the meantime, we still haven’t received a phone call back from S. Between me, my mom and my mother in law, S had 36 missed calls and about 100 text before he called me back.

While I’m waiting to hear back from S, the nurse checked to see if my water broke and it had. She said the doctor on call would be in shortly to check if Sutton’s head was down or not. The doctor came in to check and said, “I feel a butt.” I started crying because I knew what that meant, and on top of it all, my husband was not answering his phone. My greatest fear throughout my pregnancy was S not making it to the birth! I prayed everyday that everything would work out for him to be there to experience the birth of our first born. The nurses started prepping me for a C section and finally S called me back around 3:30/4 AM. I told him what was happening, and he immediately booked his flight and headed to Fort Lauderdale to fly home. Sutton was born at 5:30 AM and obviously S didn’t make it. It was the greatest joy to hear my son’s first cry and to know he was out and healthy. The nurse grabbed my phone and took a ton of pictures and videoed Sutton for S to see him and hear his cry.

When S was booking his flight, the direct flights from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans were all booked (imagine that). So, he had to go to Atlanta first. He was able to see the video and pictures of Sutton once he landed in Atlanta and my dad picked up S from the airport and delivered him to us around 12:00 PM. What I learned from this experience is birth doesn’t go the way you plan most of the time. Babies have a mind of their own and the most important thing is to make sure you and baby are healthy. No, it wasn’t fun not having my husband there for the actual birth, but I learned I needed to put myself and child first and move forward. I felt an indescribable strength during the whole process that I have never felt before. I’m a wimp when it comes to pain or needles and that day none of it bothered me. I know that strength came from the Lord. I wouldn’t have made it through without Him and His grace.

S flew in on Saturday and had to leave to go back to work on Monday. It was a rough day; I just couldn’t process the fact he had to go back but as usual I pressed forward. My sister stayed a couple of days and my mom for a week and a half. I couldn’t drive for 2 weeks and sitting up and walking was hard at the beginning. You need so much help when you have a C section and to not have my husband to help was hard. Baseball wives that are moms have a whole new meaning to me. We press forward because we have no other choice. I couldn’t make it in this lifestyle without my family, and I have been so blessed with family that has stepped in to help and support S in his career.

Our lives have been forever changed by this sweet blessing. I plan on doing more post about our new life with Sutton and how it has impacted our baseball journey and everyday life. What else would you like to hear about? Feel free to email me at hillarybcopeland@gmail.com, and I will do what I can to keep you posted on it.