Monday, April 23, 2012

labor and delivery.



River's birth was nothing short of excitement and pain-- I had determined at the beginning of my pregnancy that I would have a natural, non-medicated birth, but within minutes of my first contractions, I was thinking about how I might get the epidural. But let me backtrack a little here...

At about 12:40 am, I awoke from a deep sleep when my water broke. Fortunately, I was able to react quickly enough to get to the bathroom {mostly} in time. I wasn't exactly sure that this was what had happened until my contractions started shortly afterward. They were more intense than I remembered and quicker too.

My Husband convinced me to hurry up and get in the shower while he timed them. Two minutes apart. Wait a minute-- weren't they supposed to start off slower than that. Like 8 or 10 minutes apart?

Something was definitely different than the other times. I couldn't even move either!

This was really bad since I needed to blow dry my hair and get some last minute things together. Never mind the fact that my overly laid-back husband hadn't yet packed. To his credit, he was able to get everything I needed, prod me into action, make sure the house was in order, call up a friend from church to stay with the kids, and get packed rather quickly.

He really didn't have much choice because I was yelling at him that my body was instinctually starting to push the baby out and I could not stop it for the life of me. I told him to call 911, but he said that we'd be on our way before they arrived.

By the time I painfully lifted my legs into the front seat of our suburban and buried my head in a pillow, it was right around 2 am. Our 20 minute car ride to the hospital only took about 15 minutes as no one was on the road, we got all green lights and my Husband drove with as much speed as possible without being reckless. Chris Tomlin was filling the car between my shouts as I informed Hubby that the baby would be coming out any moment. He began to pray that I hold on until the hospital. As if I had a choice. Ha!

After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled up and he quickly ran into the hospital to grab a wheelchair as I yelled at him not to leave me.

By this time, I was having back to back contractions and could not get out of the car, but somehow he managed to get me out, through the ER and into the elevator.

At this point, I told him to go to the 8th floor. He said that it was on the 2nd floor. I screamed that I was going to have the baby in the elevator. He hit the button for floor number 8. When the doors opened, we were on the wrong floor and he pressed "2" (he hasn't really gotten on me about this since he knows I wasn't really in my right mind, otherwise I might never hear the end of it).

We got off on floor 2, labor & delivery, and went immediately into a delivery room. I didn't check in, I didn't change my clothes--- and when the nurse checked me, the baby was there.

As it turned out, they had to wake up the doctor on call at the time, who just happened to be MY doctor! We arrived at the hospital at 2:15 am and River was born at 2:38 am. Just like that!

To read about Jasper's birth click here

To read about Ruby's birth click here

10 comments:

Kate @ Bliss and That said...

Love it! So quick, so natural... Glad you made it in time! My water broke with 3 of my 4, but it certainly didn't speed things up like yours! It still took mine anywhere from 9-18 hrs then... The Lord programmed me for long labors, but with lightning transition and birth. I'll take it... :)

Kelly said...

Good for you! You did it!!

Now, for #10, Lord willing, you may want to consider doing this in your comfy bed...no need to run around in that kind of pain ;)

pieceofcakelife said...

My heart was racing just reading that account :)..

Crazy family of 5 said...

We 2nd was the same way. She arrived 2 hours after I had woke up with contractions. We droped of our son at my MIL's and flew down the highway. When we got there my husband checked me in as a nurse took me upstairs. I kept telling her I had to push and she kept saying hold on! Maybe 2 minutes later my husband arrived and the doctor caught her with one hand in her sweater and one out. I am not even sure if she had time to put gloves on! Luckily, our daughter was fine and is a beautiful 9 year old!!

Robin said...

Wow, amazing!! Wonderful story!!

Melinda said...

I have been away from Blogger for a while and did not even realize that Baby #9 was expected. Wow! Congrats sweety and what a beautiful boy he is!
My own labour with Little Man #2, Kaleb, was similar. Although I was in labour the entire day it was painless and when the active stages of labour began it was no time before Kaleb was on his way, racing to come into the world (he is still racing today, 9 years later) and despite my attempts at telling the nurses "He's coming" (I somehow knew he was an HE!)only to have them insist that I had only been 6cm minutes before, when they finally listened and had a look, Kaleb was right there, having come all on his own!

Anonymous said...

wow! great story! one of my 7 was born in 45 minutes total and when i read your first few lines, it all came rushing back to me! congrats again :)

Mellissa Rose said...

Congratulations! River is a wonderful name. My hubby & I have never had a baby (and never will) but for some reason I am always interested in labor stories. LOL!

Unknown said...

Sounds really exciting! I had to giggle that your hubby was not packed and so laid back :)

Nikki said...

That was so much fun to read. It brought back many happy memories for me as some of ours have been FAST too.:) Thankfully, I planned homebirths. With baby #3 I learned that you do not always have to push as the baby comes anyway. He too was black and blued badly. Our midwife who arrived after baby said it had to do with his decent being so fast...kind of like a kid on a slide hitting the bottom hard after whizzing down the surface. So glad it all turned out fine.