After all those episodes of “Bringing Home Baby” and “A Baby Story” on TLC, I was prepared for whatever torture the big delivery day might bring. Watching the screaming, cursing women go through their 5 days of labor got me in the mindset that I could conquer any near death experience that was going to come my way. I was surprisingly prepared for a painfully horrific labor.
“Chris, wake up. I think my water just broke," I couldn’t hide the tone of giddiness in my voice. Chris opened his eyes a little, turned his head to face me, and gave me a hello-my-sleep-is-precious look. Then, just as fast as he registered what I was saying his expression changed from sleep deprived to astonishment. “I was having a dream I was chasing someone and I peed my pants,” I continued without a pause, “but it was really just my water breaking.” By this time Chris was up and grabbing our things to start our adventure. It was 5:00 in the morning and my contractions didn’t start for an hour or so, so we took our time getting ready for the hospital.
When we got there, the nurse told me I was still dilated to a 2 ½ (same as my appointment the day before when Dr. Beirer striped my membranes). She told us that she “thinks” they’ll let us stay. “I’ll see what I can do to get you a room,” she told us, “but they might send you home still.” Hello, Niagra Falls here. What does she mean “thinks”? I looked at the clock as we waited in our make-shift room. It was now 7:30 on a rainy Thursday morning and my contractions were starting to pick up.
After moving in our room and getting situated, we did the only thing we could do. We anxiously stared at the little blue line that showed my contractions getting closer and stronger on the monitor. When the nurse asked me for the fiftieth time, “on a scale of 1-10, where is your pain?” I told her I was ready for the epidural. It was either that or listen to her ask another fifty times. Good thing I did because the next hour was the most “Baby Story” it got as we waited for the anesthesiologist to get out of a c-section. Chris stared at me in disbelief as I kept saying with every breath, “Chris, it hurts, what do I do?” Before this moment I would have prided myself on being pretty tough, but during this hour I was quite the wimp.
When the anesthesiologist finally came, the needle in my back felt like nothing compared to the contraction pains I was having. God bless that man in blue. If only he had a tip jar on his little cart he rolls around, I would have given him our entire life savings at that point. The epidural came at 11:00 AM when I was almost dilated to a 5 and after that I have Kami and Chris to thank for pumping me with pain killers. My amateur thinking thought that I wouldn't push it until I really needed it, lesson learned!
Our little piece of heaven entered this world at 6:30 PM, a mere 13 ½ hours after my water broke and after pushing through only a few contractions. Labor was actually an awesome experience and nothing horrific at all. We waited all this time for this little guy and being a parent is even more amazing than we'd ever imagined!
Lungs screaming, arms wailing, Hayes David came to us 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 ½ inches long. He’s been a healthy, active baby from the very beginning! We were in love at first sight with his long dark hair and chubby little cheeks. Now we are just soaking it all in and loving him as much as we can while this little guy is still little! What a perfect day!
Kami, thanks once again for sharing this experience with us and capturing Hayes' big entrance!
I would never have believed how much our lives would change these last few weeks. I find myself just staring at our little man so that I'll never forget his little tiny smiles, puckered lips, and newborn stretches. (His signature move is a fist pump/knock combo straight into the air. He’s either knocking on an invisible door or celebrating his first victories of life, I can’t decide which).
