Bethany asked me to blog about her birth. 🙂
Of my four labor and deliveries, her’s was the most comical as well as the most difficult. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
First, I went out to eat lunch with some friends. Someone suggested Mexican. Great Choice, I love Mexican! I got the huge, deluxe burrito. I would regret that decision about 10 hours later.
At the restaurant, towards the end of my burrito, my water broke. Yep. 3 weeks early. And my husband was out of town. It was just me and my not quite yet one-year old boy, Mark. I excused myself from lunch, and drove myself and my baby boy to my Doctor’s office, who confirmed, yes, I was in labor.
They wanted to immediately admit me but I wasn’t ready. So I went home, laid down with my feet propped up and hoped for the best. But with my water broken and labor starting up for real, I realized my plan was kaput. I threw some things in a back pack, packed Mark’s diaper bag and off we went to the hospital (which was maybe all of 3 blocks from our house).
A friend graciously took Mark for me once we got to the hospital and I checked in. And settled in for what would be the longest and toughest of all of my labors.
Since it was a small town and a tiny hospital, I soon started having a steady stream of visitors. Not a bad thing, just distracting when one is trying to breathe through contractions.
My husband arrived back in town, but had to go to the church for the first night of Upward Basketball Evaluations. It was our first year of Upward Basketball. Great Timing.
As the night wore on, I finally couldn’t handle many more people. So I unhooked myself from all the monitors, left my room and disappeared to another wing of the hospital, where I found an empty room. I sat in that room by myself for about 1.5 hours, laboring in the quiet room alone, where I could concentrate. Of course, this created a flurry of activity when they couldn’t find me anywhere, and a decent chewing out by the head nurse. But I didn’t much care, I had burned an hour and a half of the labor away quietly and efficiently alone.
Of all my pregnancies, this one was the one that it was hardest to resist asking for pain medication. Labor was intense and the distractions were high. My husband had returned after Upward Basketball, but I sent him back home to get some sleep. I knew it was going to be a very long night. And it was.
Finally, at around 11am the next morning, it was time for the birth. I was beyond ready to meet my new little girl. There was some concern that because of the difficulty of the labor that I’d have to opt for a C-Section. I was almost out of strength, and even had lost the ability to speak. But that didn’t happen and soon I was holding the most perfect, sweet baby. She didn’t cry much, just a tiny yelp. She was perfect in every way. I was so proud of her. Her brothers and sisters were so excited to meet her, alone with her church family all of whom I swear were right outside my hospital room. 🙂
