The "Birth Story", Or, what you won't read in the saturday papers.
Friday night, we were scheduled for induction at Richland.
This pregnancy has been pretty annoying. Heather's had intermittent pains, a little spotting, cramps, all sorts of little harmless things which has diminished her enjoyment of the "expecting mother" zone.
Heather's been dialated for 3-4 weeks now. She's been 5cm since tuesday. No one thought she'd hold on until the 17th.
She even had false labor pains a week or so ago.
So, the alarm goes off thursday night/friday morning at 4:00am. At 4:10, Heather sits up.
And her water broke. Contractions start immediately.
From the potty she says I should get up, get her Mom, and hurry. So I do. I discover what's happened. t's early, so my brains not really working anyways, I haven't really SLEPT, we were expecting to get up to go to the hospital anyways.
At 4:30 the minivan is loaded and we're on the road. Her mother and I stress that the timing of the contractions is important. She says about 5 minutes apart. 5 minutes later and I find my own observations show it's more like 3-4 minutes apart.
And then we're flying down I-26. There isn't much traffic, and I recall my old driving habits, get in the far left lane, and dodge right when something comes up. Watch for cops, can't afford the delay.
We're not going to make it. That much is just starting to dawn on me. It's unthinkable, but it's about to become true.
"PULL OVER!" she exclaims. This one I can ignore, it's only once...
"PULL OVER! SHE'S COMING!", OK, she said it twice. 4 lanes to the median. It's the sign for the Greystone Blvd. overpass, we're on I-126 now. This is the zoo exit.
I fling my door open, open the back for Heather's Mom, sling myself around the car, and yank open Heather's door.
Yea, I can see it from Heather, she really is coming.
I yell for Vic to come "catch". Heather pleads to see if I can get her seat to lay back. It does, either that or I broke her seat, but it reclined.
Now I'm in the back seat, Heather turns a bit to get her long legs sorta out the door, towards where her Mom is. Vic looks up at me and gives me a terrified look, I answer back with "Just CATCH! That's all...".
It's zero hour.
There's NO anesthetic, and Heather points this out. That once again she has to endure another labor without her best friend, the epidural.
That's the last thing she says. I have to keep her pushing. I can see by Vic's absolutely terrified face that she's crowning. So, I do my job and get Heather nice and riled up. I did what I knew would work, challange her, call her into question, and her stubbornness will do the rest. I did the same when Nicholas was born, time to do it now too.
And just as sudden as it seemed to creep up on us. POW! There's a BABY! Vic caught it like a wide receiver, arms out parallel, elbows down. Baby even slipped and slid just a fraction. But, you must understand, Heather was REALLY pushing, so Autumn came out with some velocity.
"HOLD HER UPSIDE DOWN! CLEAR HER MOUTH", or something like this came out of my mouth. Heather cleared her mouth with her finger. I was about to exclaim, "Pinch Her!", when she started wailing.
OK, exactly one quarter second of relief.
BACK IN THE CAR! I don't remember much of this part. Down I-126 to Elmwood, then turn at Bull. We played "ring-around-the-rosey" with the hospital, because I couldn't remember the shortest route to the ER.
AT the ER, park in front of the doors, jump out. Tell the Charge Nurse I have a baby in the car. Explain to her that I had a new baby I just delivered in the car! That put a fire under her...
The rest of that dark morning, the following day, it's all kinda blurry. I remember WHEN it all caught up with me, I started thinking I might be at risk for another seizure, but I managed through it. I think exhaustion helped me from demonstrating my crazy to everyone at the hospital.
That was my Friday.
This pregnancy has been pretty annoying. Heather's had intermittent pains, a little spotting, cramps, all sorts of little harmless things which has diminished her enjoyment of the "expecting mother" zone.
Heather's been dialated for 3-4 weeks now. She's been 5cm since tuesday. No one thought she'd hold on until the 17th.
She even had false labor pains a week or so ago.
So, the alarm goes off thursday night/friday morning at 4:00am. At 4:10, Heather sits up.
And her water broke. Contractions start immediately.
From the potty she says I should get up, get her Mom, and hurry. So I do. I discover what's happened. t's early, so my brains not really working anyways, I haven't really SLEPT, we were expecting to get up to go to the hospital anyways.
At 4:30 the minivan is loaded and we're on the road. Her mother and I stress that the timing of the contractions is important. She says about 5 minutes apart. 5 minutes later and I find my own observations show it's more like 3-4 minutes apart.
And then we're flying down I-26. There isn't much traffic, and I recall my old driving habits, get in the far left lane, and dodge right when something comes up. Watch for cops, can't afford the delay.
We're not going to make it. That much is just starting to dawn on me. It's unthinkable, but it's about to become true.
"PULL OVER!" she exclaims. This one I can ignore, it's only once...
"PULL OVER! SHE'S COMING!", OK, she said it twice. 4 lanes to the median. It's the sign for the Greystone Blvd. overpass, we're on I-126 now. This is the zoo exit.
I fling my door open, open the back for Heather's Mom, sling myself around the car, and yank open Heather's door.
Yea, I can see it from Heather, she really is coming.
I yell for Vic to come "catch". Heather pleads to see if I can get her seat to lay back. It does, either that or I broke her seat, but it reclined.
Now I'm in the back seat, Heather turns a bit to get her long legs sorta out the door, towards where her Mom is. Vic looks up at me and gives me a terrified look, I answer back with "Just CATCH! That's all...".
It's zero hour.
There's NO anesthetic, and Heather points this out. That once again she has to endure another labor without her best friend, the epidural.
That's the last thing she says. I have to keep her pushing. I can see by Vic's absolutely terrified face that she's crowning. So, I do my job and get Heather nice and riled up. I did what I knew would work, challange her, call her into question, and her stubbornness will do the rest. I did the same when Nicholas was born, time to do it now too.
And just as sudden as it seemed to creep up on us. POW! There's a BABY! Vic caught it like a wide receiver, arms out parallel, elbows down. Baby even slipped and slid just a fraction. But, you must understand, Heather was REALLY pushing, so Autumn came out with some velocity.
"HOLD HER UPSIDE DOWN! CLEAR HER MOUTH", or something like this came out of my mouth. Heather cleared her mouth with her finger. I was about to exclaim, "Pinch Her!", when she started wailing.
OK, exactly one quarter second of relief.
BACK IN THE CAR! I don't remember much of this part. Down I-126 to Elmwood, then turn at Bull. We played "ring-around-the-rosey" with the hospital, because I couldn't remember the shortest route to the ER.
AT the ER, park in front of the doors, jump out. Tell the Charge Nurse I have a baby in the car. Explain to her that I had a new baby I just delivered in the car! That put a fire under her...
The rest of that dark morning, the following day, it's all kinda blurry. I remember WHEN it all caught up with me, I started thinking I might be at risk for another seizure, but I managed through it. I think exhaustion helped me from demonstrating my crazy to everyone at the hospital.
That was my Friday.