FELICITY JANE, Part One

I have a sneaking suspicion that this story will be dished out in at least four parts.

I'm a busy woman and don't have a lot of uninterrupted free time.

Who does, right?

When I found out that my due date with child ten was 12/12/12, you can bet this girl was happy.

Even numbers galore.

Better news yet, another daughter was on the way.

Sugar and spice and everything nice.

Little Miss would even up the teams... 5 boys against 5 girls!

We were VERY excited about this precious little gift about to make her way into the world, into our family, and into our hearts.

Carrying her proved to be pretty uneventful, but I was really feeling my age this time around.

That whole "not-a-spring-chicken-anymore" concept was creeping in on me.

I was 21 when I had Colby.

Now I was 36. Wife, mother, and manager of The Criscitello Homestead.

Because of a prior c-section with my second set of twins, I was having to fight for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) once again. My two previous births had been successful VBACs, delivered by my family doc right here at our local hospital. Since the birth of our five year old, Libby, the climate had changed enough that the hospital now had a strict "No-VBAC" policy. Too risky, they decided. So off I go to take my business elsewhere.

Crouse in Syracuse will always have a special place in my heart. After all, it was the place where docs were willing and even excited to care for me with my first twin pregnancy. That pregnancy was a bit of a train wreck. Pre-PROM (pre- premature rupture of membranes) at 12 weeks with twins put me into a high-risk category. Crouse didn't blink an eyelash while local docs were urging me to abort. That's another story for another day. I will say that the end is beautiful, though. God worked a miracle and we now have two strong, perfectly healthy ten year old boys!

The plan for baby #10: Pre-natal care at home with a local midwife and drive to Crouse in Syracuse when labor starts. If we made good time and got there before I was ready to go to the hospital, Gina and Shey live in the area and graciously opened their home should I need a place to kill time. If we got caught in a snowstorm on 81 halfway between Watertown and Syracuse, well, let's just say there wasn't a plan for that.

On the night of Thanksgiving, I began having very tricky contractions. I couldn't tell if they were Braxton Hicks or the real deal. I drank lots of water. I put my feet up and rested. I soaked in the tub. At 3 am, I woke Eric up and told him that my contractions were painful and steady. He gave me the classic Eric line, "What do you want me to do?" I said I didn't want him to DO anything, other than be prepared to hop out of bed at any given moment and pack for Syracuse. I agreed to wake him again if things picked up. They did not.

To be cont'd.

Libby being a bit sad.

Libby deciding to be happy about a baby coming soon.