The plan on Thursday, August 1st was for Patricia to go to work and make it to August recess (on Capitol Hill August is when Members are in their congressional districts and staff take time off) and Adrian to wait for our new washer and dryer. Baby Girl Tamez had other plans.
Patricia's water broke around 5:15am and she called the on call Dr to get further instructions. Dr. Engel said to take our time getting to the hospital so we showered, gathered all our items and headed out before the morning rush hour truly got started.
We arrived at Sibley Hospital around 7am and Patricia had indeed broken her water but Baby Girl was nowhere near position. Dr. Nevin put Patricia on pitocin, told us to get comfortable and be prepared for a long day. Thankfully we had a room with a view and an incredible medical staff attending us.
Labor slowly progressed throughout the day through two shift changes. For the last two weeks we had seen Dr. Jackson for our weekly appointments so we were happy with the possibility she'd be delivering our baby. It still required our stubborn little lady to cooperate though. Dr. Jackson made a bold prediction when she arrived at 6pm that she'd be delivering her at 3:00am.
Patricia began having stronger contractions in the early evening but was nervous about the process of getting an epidural so she held out until the pain became too much. The anesthesiologist soon became her favorite person in the world and it wasn't until Baby Tamez arrived that he got bumped from that position.
The epidural allowed us to get a little rest until the big moment arrived. Adrian awoke to Nikki, our Labor and Delivery nurse, saying, "This little girl is going to arrive soon." Half asleep he thought he was dreaming but realized it was real when Nikki started preparing Patricia and the room for delivery. It was shortly after 2am and both of us were starting to believe Dr. Jackson was the baby whisperer as her 3am prediction was starting to sound like a real possibility. Mommy, for her part, was still singing the praises of the anesthesiologist and couldn't believe this moment we had been waiting so long for was about go happen.
Baby Tamez didn't give her Mom any hard time in the final stages of labor. She was born 30 minutes after Mom started pushing. She arrived at 3:01am, only 1 minute past Dr. Jackson's (AKA the "Baby Whisperer") prediction.
Dr. Jackson quickly warned us we had an adventurous child on our hands as she had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck not once, not twice but three times. She's been our miracle baby from the start but we were especially grateful to God she didn't experience any trauma in delivery because of her adventurous ways.
Valentina Lauren Tamez was born at 3:01am. She weighed 7 pounds, 2.6 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Ten fingers, Ten toes and all around perfection.
Here are a few photos we took on our phone but we'll post others soon.
