A Delivery Story-Part 2

As September drew near my anticipation of delivery and the excitement of meeting our baby grew.  It was hard to believe that after 14 years of friendship here Chris and I were getting ready to welcome our first child into the world. As my due date drew near I found myself continuing to work, despite the encouragement of everyone around me to take it easy. It was my goal to work as long as possible. I even went as far to carry towels to work in case my water broke while at work. The day I carried in the towels should have been a sign to myself that it was time to stick closer to home. Nope, not me! My father-in-law even began driving me to work, so that I would have a way home in case I went into labor downtown.

Yes, I was CRAZY!!

Is it me or does Hollywood make pregnancy and delivery look EASY? In almost every childbirth I’ve seen depicted on TV or in a movie the woman’s water breaks while she’s home in bed, she rushes through her home grabbing her hospital bag, keys and husband and off they go to the hospital. The woman then pushes for one commercial break and out pops a clean, 8-pound baby. What happened to the hours of contractions that lead up to the delivery? No one shows the woman losing her mucus plug days before delivery.  No one shows the woman struggling through contractions while trying to keep her composure. No one shows the doctor using forceps when the baby needs help being delivered.

A couple days before my due date I began to have light contractions at work and my boss STRONGLY encouraged me not to return to work. That night I was up most of the night with contractions.

The next day the fun began…

As the sun began to come up on that Wednesday morning in September I realized that my life would drastically change in the next few hours, whether or not I felt ready.  As I lay on our living room couch watching reruns of all my favorite TV shows I wondered how the day would turn out.

Would I scream out in horror as I pulled every hair off of Chris’ arm?

Would I yell obscenities at Chris as my child made his way into the world?

As the morning hours entered, my contractions began to intensify and Chris woke from his uninterrupted slumber, the last time for many years to come.

Chris made the decision to stay home with me and we settled in to watch hours of “Parenthood”.  It seemed like a good choice, considering our current position. One can only watch so many hours of drama before going stir crazy. We soon found ourselves going out for some fresh air, to walk our normal loop, a 3-mile trail near our house.  About half way around the loop Chris received a phone call from his boss, telling him to get into the station immediately. Like any hormonal wife I was not thrilled with my husband leaving me during this intense period of my life. Before I could even get comfortable again Chris was back home with shocking news. He had been called into the police station in order to be questioned about a murder that occurred the night before. It’s not unusual for him to be questioned in murder cases, but this time he was questioned not as an officer, but as a suspect.

MY HUSBAND WAS A MURDER SUSPECT!!!!

 

Let me back track.  This past summer Chris and I were out walking our normal loop when we came across a woman walking her dog. We purposely did everything we could to ensure that the dog saw us coming around the corner. Well, we weren’t successful and the dog lunged after Chris actually biting him on the leg, destroying his jeans and taking out a chunk of his leg. Long story short, we ended up in the emergency room for Chris to get a rabies shot.  I wasn’t about to take the risk of him coming down with rabies, especially while I was pregnant.  As the summer came to a close we received a couple hospital bills in the mail. Chris attempted to contact the dog owner to ask her to cover the bills. Unfortunately she never answered or returned his calls. Fast forward to September when Chris was called into the police station on the day I went into labor. When Chris entered the room at the police station the first thing his boss said to him was “How do you know “Jane Doe”? Chris had to quickly rack his brain to remember the name. Once he realized that was the name of the dog owner he explained that her dog had bitten him a couple months before. His boss went onto say that “Jane Doe” was murdered the night before and Chris’ phone number was all over her phone. When Chris explained that he had called her trying to get her to pay the hospital bills, his boss was extremely relieved as he was afraid Chris was having an affair and/or in some kind of lovers feud. Once Chris’ boss realized that Chris wasn’t a suspect he was soon released to return home to his extremely pregnant wife.

As the day progressed so did my contractions. After timing my contractions and attempting to go by the 511 rule (contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting one hour, for at least one hour) we headed to the hospital around 4PM.

                                                           

Have you noticed how in the movies the woman is always seen being wheeled into the hospital as she’s screaming bloody murder?

No one offered me a wheel chair!!

Instead, we parked the car in the nearest available parking spot, which was about a mile from the door. Half way through the parking lot I had an incredibly intense contraction that almost knocked me off my feet, requiring me to hold onto the nearest car, then we wound our way through the halls of the hospital. Once inside the nurse had the audacity to ask me why I was there.

HELLO!!!!!!

I’m having a BABY!!!!!!!

Does my LARGE belly not make it clear enough to you????  After dancing around the subject for what seemed like an eternity we finally told her that my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart. That seemed to break the code and within minutes I was wearing the ugly hospital gown and hooked up to monitors.

Many people may give me a hard time for saying this, but I actually had an enjoyable birthing experience.  Around 7PM my parents came to the hospital. At that point I was tired of hanging out in the hospital bed and decided to take a walk through the halls. Due to the fact that I was hooked up to Pitocin I had to wheel the Pitocin through the halls with me.  If I wasn’t experiencing a contraction then I was laughing at the reaction from my family. My mom spent the time trying to make me laugh, my dad was walking beside me acting uncomfortable with watching his daughter in this state and my husband was taking pictures of the clown act. 

As the evening progressed we found ourselves visited by members from both sides of our family. Then around 8PM the PARTY GOT STARTED!!!!!!!!!!

As I was sitting up in bed visiting with my family the door swung open and in walked my doctor. Dr. C is always full of ENERGY and a HUGE smile. With Dr. C she carried a cupcake from “GEORGETOWN CUPCAKES”, as we had a birthday party to celebrate! She promised me that we would have a baby by midnight. Those are INCREDIBLE words to hear when you’re lying in a bed hooked up to machines. Over the next couple of hours my water broke just minutes before Dr. C was going to break it, I dilated completely, and the baby dropped.

Around 11PM I decided that I needed DRUGS!!! The anesthesiologist administered the epidural. So many people have asked if the needle hurt. I have no idea!! I was so focused on trying to avoid having a contraction while they stuck a LARGE needle into my spine. From this point on I felt AMAZING!!!

Around midnight the doctor came and asked me to do a “practice push”. She was in for a surprise when low and behold my son decided that one push was his way out of the birth canal. Within minutes the room was full of nurses preparing for a delivery. After 15 minutes of pushing my 10 pound 7 ounce made his way into the world.  Within seconds my son Campbell was placed on my chest.

Instead of focusing on my son I couldn’t get my eyes off my husband, a man I’ve known for half my life, a man who I’ve only seen cry a couple times.  As I looked at Chris with tears in his eyes I couldn’t help but realize how blessed I was to be lying there with his son on my chest.

The epidural worked so well that I never had any idea that Dr. C. cut me twice to take out my LARGE baby.  Within minutes I was on the phone calling family, all the while my doctor was sewing me up. I'm still amazed at how incredible the experience turned out being. I never imagined that I would give birth to a toddler or that he would come as quickly as he did.

As I look at my 5 month old now and think back to his first day of life I can’t help but feel blessed to have him in my life. My life will never be the same again, as he's completely changed and blessed our family. 

Come with me now as I continue on this incredible journey called motherhood. Already I've experienced the sleepless nights, the blowout diapers, the puke stained clothes and best of all the smiles in the middle of the night, the sound of my son giggling and the opportunity to see his joy when I walk into a room.