Henry’s due date was our first son,
George’s birthday – June 5th – but
since I’d been having quite regular
and even “stuck” Braxton-Hicks
contractions for a few weeks, I
suspected he might come early like his
brother had. So in early May, when a
co-worker, Jenni, asked if I would
trade a half shift with her, I told
her I would be happy to but she was
taking a gamble with me being able to
pay her back. She said she was
willing to take that risk. So I
worked the 8 pm – 1am portion of my
May 4-5 police dispatching shift and
Jenni came in to relieve me at 1.
Mary (my partner) was happy to see me
leave as I had told her earlier that
my Braxton Hicks were starting to get
a little painful. She had
said, “Great!” and rolled her eyes – I
knew she had a great fear of my water
breaking while working a shift with
her. So I guess she was glad we made
it through the shift without
incident. Even though the pain really
wasn’t that strong, I did have a
feeling throughout my shift that I
should “get my ducks in a row,” so in
my spare time I printed off a final
copy of George’s care routine for his
babysitter(s) and filled out my
timesheet.
I drove home and got ready for bed.
My husband was still awake, so we were
laying in bed talking at about 1:45 am
when he looked at me with big
eyes, “Uh, did your water just
break?” I started to laugh – sure
enough we were laying in a big warm
puddle! Henry had actually just
kicked me up by my left rib and I had
heard a loud pop, so we knew he had
broken my water with his little strong
foot! I couldn’t stop laughing for
about five minutes – I think it was
the combination of nervousness (Wow,
this is really happening now!) and
déjà vu since George’s birth started
off so similarly (with my water
breaking as I was going to bed on the
night of the 4th heading into the 5th,
Tuesday heading into a Wednesday,
about a month before my due date).
But there were differences between
this event and when my water broke
with George. Most notably, with
George, my water came out in a gentle
trickle. But with Henry it was a gush
every time I stood up. With George I
had to walk around for a couple of
hours at the hospital to get my
contractions to kick in but with Henry
I felt strong contractions right away
that were only, on average, five
minutes apart. Luckily, I was mostly
already packed, but I was rushing
around the house, trying to pack the
rest of my stuff while my husband
called my mom to start driving up.
Every time I walked more fluid would
pour out of me and the labor would get
stronger, so my husband got me to sit
down on a towel and tell him what to
pack. Since my labor was coming so
fast, we got a friend who lived just a
few minutes away to come so we could
get to the hospital sooner (apparently
my mom showed up just 15 minutes after
our friend arrived, but oh well!).
We got to hospital, which was located
only a couple of minutes away from our
little duplex, at about 2:45 am and
were brought to Labor Room #2. I was
3 cm dilated and 80% effaced –
alright – a good start! My husband
had not slept since 7 am, so I told
him to sleep while my labor was still
manageable. I used the bouncy ball
and squeezed the bars at the foot of
my bed to make it through labor until
about 5 am. Every hour the nurse
hooked me up to monitors to make sure
Henry and I were doing alright. At
the 5 am check I woke up my husband
and told him my labor was getting
harder. I asked him to fill the
Jacuzzi for me and asked the nurse to
check me: 5 cm and 90%. “Okay,” I
thought to myself. “Let’s get working
and get this kid out in an hour or
so!” I got in the tub at 5:20 or so
and at first it seemed that my
contractions were slowing down. While
that felt better, I didn’t want that!
I had my husband turn on the radio and
all of a sudden, the labor HURT!!!
For four or five songs and DJs
talking, so maybe for the next 40-50
minutes, I felt like it was one LONG,
HARD contraction that just wouldn’t
stop. I thought to myself, “I’ve GOT
to be in transition now!” I just kept
saying (and yelling) “Ow, ow, ow!” My
husband kept telling me I could do it
and I was thinking to myself, “Oh, I
don’t know about that!” I was praying
for God’s help and then Nicole C.
Mullen’s song “Call on Jesus” started
playing. I figured it was His way of
telling me He was there with me and
we’d make it through. Then I started
to wonder if I would know when it was
time to push. I’d read before that
some women never feel the urge to push
at all. But just then, I felt it! So
I yelled out, “I need to push!”
My husband got up fast and pulled the
emergency cord to get a nurse to come
and….it didn’t work! He ran out to
the hallway and pulled a cord he saw
on the wall. THAT one worked – all of
a sudden a zillion nurses were in my
room (it was shift change so there
were two shifts’ worth on duty at the
time). Joann was the one in charge.
She grabbed my arms and said she had
to get me out of the tub. I told her
I couldn’t and didn’t want to and she
said that we weren’t going to do a
water birth. Finally she and and my
husband managed to help me out of the
tub and over to the bed. She checked
me, sure enough, I was 10 and 100% -
time to have a baby! I guess I
progressed much faster than anyone
expected because my doctor wasn’t
there yet. So a very dour faced old
doctor named “Minten” came in. The
nurses introduced us and between
contractions I tried to say “hi” to
him and explain that I didn’t want an
episiotomy, etc. He just stared at
me, frowning and not saying A THING!
Then my doctor showed up (later she
told me she had RUN down the halls to
get there as fast as she could).
Minten said nothing – just got up,
took off his gloves and left. Good
riddance! I started to push and it
was VERY difficult. I didn’t think I
would be able to get little Mr. Huge
Head out, but my doctor and my husband
encouraged me so much that by 7:27 am
(and I never did look to see what time
I started pushing), Henry was out!
After seeing Henry's big head, my
doctor was afraid his shoulders
wouldn’t fit out of me, so had me push
him out in one full, fast shot. This
meant she didn’t have time to clear
out his mouth, so he ingested some
amniotic fluid and wasn’t crying at
first. I said, “Cry, Henry, cry!” and
he finally did. He was such a cute
bundle of boy – 7 pounds, 2 ounces and
21 inches long!
I got to hold him for a few minutes
but his lips started to turn blue, so
off he went to NICU to be put on
oxygen. At one point he was also
started on an antibiotic because they
thought he had pneumonia, but that
turned out to be untrue. I nursed him
every three hours, even in the middle
of the night (and I got to stay at the
hospital for a couple nights even
after I was released because they had
extra room, so I only had to commute
from home for a couple days) and the
NICU time was scary but he was BY FAR
the biggest and strongest kid there,
so it was just a matter of getting him
out of the bili bed (oh yeah, he was
jaundiced, too) and to a low enough
need for extra oxygen for him to be
able to join us at home. He came home
a week after birth, on May 12th, was
on oxygen for another week. At 2 1/2
months of age he developed RSV, which
was quite scarey, but everything
turned out fine and today he is a
healthy, happy, strong 4 year
old.
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