Atticus C Arrington is HERE!

Atticus C Arrington arrived January 20th at 11:50 pm, exactly one week late.

He decided he would spare me the induction scheduled for 7am the next morning, so my water broke at 8pm. After thinking I had peed on myself and throwing my pants into the wash, my contractions started immediately 4-5 minutes apart. I spent 30 minutes on the toilet thinking it was horrible gas pains, and then went to pacing around the kitchen like a mad woman. Maggie and Mom timed my contractions and kept asking for severity. They all seemed super strong to me, as the pain was so strong that my body kept threatening me to throw up at the end of each contraction.

Finally Billy talked my mom into letting him call the doctor. They told us to come on in... Billy went into mad man mode, packing up everything, including my lip glosses (????) and chicken wings and pizza (really????). During this time he knocked my earring holder and all of my earrings all over the floor and ran into the kitchen only to shatter a large glass all over that floor. I screamed "You need to chill!" in the middle of a contraction, and my mom countered with "He is just excited and trying to help." On my exhale I managed to get out "Well he is stressing me out." Thankfully I apologized in the car on the way to the hospital.


Maggie drove Billy and me, and Mom and Butch followed behind. Maggie was so skilled at comforting me through my contractions, letting me squeeze her hand, and managing to safely drive us 45 minutes to the hospital! Mom said she knew when a contraction occurred because Maggie would speed up 10 mph and then a minute later be back down at the speed limit.

Maggie claimed an alien came out of me as we neared the hospital. As she rounded the exit, I begged her to slow down and then when we got to the hospital, sweet Billy was trying to get me dropped at the door, but I yelled, "turn RIIIIIIIGGGGHHHHTTT" in a voice that she couldn't ignore. We got out and made our way to the door, but my legs gave out on me as body collapsed in chills. Mags covered me in her coat and we made it to the door.

They offered me a wheelchair, but I couldn't sit, so Billy and I headed up to the birthing floor at 10:45pm. Now was Billy's time to shine. He was so good and so kind and so encouraging as I tried to pee in a cup and was put into the bed.

The nurse checked me and I was 8cm dilated. I could tell by her reaction that we were in a race against the clock and baby at this point. After two more contractions, I involuntarily started pushing with just the nurse in the room. She told me to try not to, as I was going to strain my cervix, but it couldn't be controlled. I said, "OK, then I am going to poooooooooooooop."

The doctor had not arrived yet, and I could tell the nurse was getting anxious as she called for more help. They were able to get my IV in as I asked for an epidural. The nurse kindly let me know that wasn't going to be an option. I was pretty scared at this point and Billy was so encouraging, yelling "Ohhh shoot this is about to happen. You got this Boo!! This is happening!!!" It was so cute. He continued to try in vain to get me an epidural, but it wasn't going to happen. The doctor arrived and checked me. She said the baby would likely be born that night and not on the 21st. She calmly told me with each contraction we were going to push. After four contractions, intense sweating, intense shivers in between each one, Atticus came flying out. I remember seeing the doctor catch him vaguely and I remember being scared about the placenta coming, but it being painless. Then the happiest moment of the night was watching how excited Billy was. After they let me hold him, we both were shivering so bad that they had to put Atti under a lamp. Billy wouldn't leave his side and there was nothing that could make my heart smile any bigger.

After the birth, the doctor pushed on my uterus, which was really painful and I asked for medication, but since I wanted to try breast feeding immediately, she told me I shouldn't because it could be passed to the baby. I was so thankful I didn't.

Atticus was cleaned up and given his first bath, which Billy filmed. Mom and Maggie came up (for a second time... they came up during the birth, but I turned them away because I was in so much pain).

Nothing could make me happier than seeing them with B and Atticus. Butch came up shortly afterwards and got to meet him and take some pictures for me. After they left, we were moved to our room and reality set in. We had a baby, and it was just Billy, me and Atticus from here on out.