From the very moment I found out I was pregnant, I started thinking ahead to my due date…which forced me to think about whether or not I would continue working after our baby was born…which led me to planning my last day at work (you can assume that I decided not work full time post-baby). When asked, I would often tell my coworkers, “My goal is to work through June (June 29th being my last day). I’d love to take the month of July off and live it up like a school teacher.” HA HA, yeah, I totally planned on floating in a pool for the month of July as I worked my way up to August 1st (our estimated due date). I certainly didn’t want to be one of those women who worked all the way up until they went into labor. Feel free to laugh – I’m totally that woman! Clearly, God and Felicity had different plans. 

To celebrate my last day in the office, my husband and I decided to grab some New York Style pizza at Randy’s pizza. It was hot…I want to say something along the lines of 105 degrees. I was waddling and it took everything I had to get comfortable while we waited for our pizza order. Finally it arrived, so I took a few napkins and started patting down my pizza of extra grease. My husband thought my approach was a little gross and asked that I throw the napkins away. I got up to throw them away and felt a little trickle of water running down my leg. I noticed that the bathroom was a few more steps away so I kept walking to the bathroom to check it out.

I honestly didn’t know if my water had broken or not (it wasn’t on my radar yet…I mean, we hadn’t even packed a hospital bag or installed our car seat…I was supposed to have five more weeks), but I found myself sniffing the toilet paper to check the odor. It was roughly 7 pm. I went back to my seat and got up again for some reason…same thing happened. More water, another trip to the bathroom. This time, I told my husband to get a box – we were taking the pizza home. And from that point, every time I moved a bit, a little more water came out…and then a huge gush that confirmed my initial thoughts. Yep, we’re about to have a baby.
I called my doctor’s office to see if I should go to the hospital to get checked out. My practice has about eight OB-Gyns on staff…all women, with the exception of one man. Interestingly enough, the one male doctor is the one that has seen me more than anyone else…but not necessarily the one I’ve wanted to deliver my baby. He was on call that night. He told me he’d meet me in labor and delivery. So, we raced around the house to throw my mental hospital bag checklist together before heading to the hospital. I couldn’t decide if I was excited or scared – I just knew that I was five weeks early and I wanted my little girl to be healthy.

We checked into the hospital around 8 pm. My pre-registration information was slightly screwed up. Apparently Ashley Sisk got mixed up with Addison Fish, so it took a minute to get that cleared up enough for me to head back to triage. The nurse assigned to us had been working since 6 am, but the hospital was flooded with women having babies that night so she stayed on board…at least to help me have a baby. I’m seriously convinced that it was so hot outside that the heat was melting mucus plugs.

In triage, our nurse confirmed that my water had broken. She also informed me that I was already 4 cm dilated. I think there was mention of pitocin if my labor didn’t progress…little did she know that my labor would progress so quickly. In fact, I had just finished telling her my labor plan that included an epidural around 5 or 6 cm. As soon as a room opened up, I was moved into a proper room.

My contractions increased with intensity every 2 minutes, then every 1 minute, until they were coming on so quickly I could hardly breathe. I went from 4 cm to 8 cm in probably an hour and a half (I lost track of time) – no time for epidural or drugs. The doctor showed up at 9:40ish, checked my cervix and then sat down to wait for me to dilate to 10 cm. It didn’t take long and they indicated to me that it was time to push.

I had no idea how to push a baby out, but I did feel the need to take a poop so I just went with it (if you’ve ever had a baby, you know what I’m talking about). If I remember correctly, my contractions consisted of four letter words that I try my best not to speak followed by “I’ve gotta poop!” Oh, and I kept reapplying my husband’s visitor sticker as if that mattered. Six painful pushes later (and plenty of screaming bloody murder – I’m pretty sure I scared anyone thinking about having a baby) and Felicity Morgan Sisk was born at 10:03 pm. If you’ve done the math, from the time I went into labor until her arrival = 3 hours. No drugs…100% natural…and still wearing my jewelry!

Felicity weighed 6 lbs, 3 oz and was 20 inches long. She has since lost a little bit of her body weight, but that is completely normal. Yes, she was born 5 weeks early, but she is absolutely perfect. Nope – I’m not biased at all. In the past week, we have been spending a lot of time working on a feeding schedule (or rather encouraging her not to fall asleep with every feeding)…thus the reason that it looks like I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. In fact, this photographing mama has hardly had a chance for a photo shoot, but I’m hoping to work on that this week.

With that said, it’s time for me to take advantage of some quiet time…in the form of a nap. Stay tuned for more photos and more stories (including going back to document my last shower). Hope everyone had a great week. See ya soon!