(Disclaimer – this might be the longest, most rambling post for the shortest labor ever written. Part 2, my experience after my baby was born, coming next week)

It started off as a normal morning. Our first child was born 12 days late and we were still 12 days away from baby number two’s due date. Went to work at 8, walked to the park over lunch and sat on the swings with my daughter, got home from work at 3. Nothing too exciting there. After we got home we did laundry, took a shower, made homemade mac & cheese for supper, and tackled those dishes all while watching severe weather coverage on the computer. 

Living in tornado alley during the spring is always interesting. The day was Monday, May 20th – the day of the Moore, OK tornadoes. In our house May 20th will be remembered for something else as well, the birth of our second child.

My husband Shaun works in radio and they cover tornado warnings anywhere in their listening area. That means he worked later than usual that night – arriving home around 7:30pm.

At this point I was just having mild contractions anywhere from 15-30 minutes apart never lasting more than 30 seconds. Was this going to be the night or would the baby decide to wait for another day?

There was some discussion going on as to what we should do – go to the hospital, not go, wait longer, call someone. . .  In the meantime, our daughter gets ready for bed and is hanging out with us.

The hospital I go to is in a city 1 hour and 15 minutes away, and just minutes away from the area devastated by the tornado earlier that day.   My mom received a phone call from my husband and she suggested we call down there and see if it was a good idea to come since they are closer to the tornadoes. The hospital said come on down.

Total time elapsed by this point, about an hour. It is now around 8:30. We start packing a suitcase and getting ready to leave.

Contractions are getting stronger now and a little closer together – but still not lasting much longer than 30-45 seconds.

As I get to the point I have to stop what I’m doing and lean over the counter when a contraction comes, we reconsider our hour plus drive. Maybe that’s not such a great idea. 🙂

Shaun starts getting worried and calls my mom again. She says this sounds like it’s close and tells us to go to our local hospital and she’ll call our friend that we were planning on having watch our daughter.

Change of gears here – we now start gathering the bare essentials and Shaun puts them in the car. Basically our camera and phones. Everything else can wait, right? Our friend calls back to see if she should meet us at home or the hospital. Shaun gets my opinion,

“The hospital” I quickly respond without having to think.

As Shaun is buckling the toddler into her car seat my water breaks. The time now: 9:10pm. I start yelling for him to hurry, telling him I don’t think I can get in the car and make it to the hospital. At this point Shaun starts getting really worried – he’s determined we make it to the hospital. After a contraction finishes I go to the closet and grab in old beach towel to sit on in the car and we are on our way. Of course the first light we hit is red. Shaun keeps trying to inch forward to go through it and I keep responding with,

“No. You can’t run the light. Don’t get us killed, you have to wait.” Can you tell that I am a rule follower?

The light turns green and Shaun presses the accelerator to finish our short drive to the hospital 1 1/2 miles from our house. I guess that’s a good thing about living in a small town.

9:15pm we hurriedly stop in front of the Emergency Room and Shaun walks inside to tell them his wife is having a baby. The staff takes their time getting a wheel chair thinking I am hours away from delivering as I start getting out of the vehicle. Thankfully a nurse outside sees that I’m actually in labor to some extent and pushes me inside while Shaun gets our daughter. One good thing about having used the ER 4 years earlier is that I can bypass the check-in desk – the receptionist already has my info pulled up.

Finally, I am in triage. A young nurse starts asking me questions: when did your water break, how far apart are your contractions, when did they start? I interrupt her saying, “It doesn’t matter right now. This baby is coming!” There’s nothing like not being believed when you are in the middle of labor (or the end of labor). She tells me, rather sternly, “It’s okay. Now how far apart are your contractions.” When I mumbled some response and she asked me another question I respond with, “I can’t sit here anymore, you don’t understand the baby is coming.” She might have been a tad frustrated, still not believing me when she said “You’re fine, we are going to push you up to labor and delivery.” I honestly couldn’t sit another second and started to stand up. Thankfully another nurse said “it’s okay, you can come over here, motioning to the bed in triage. I started to undress and FINALLY they knew I was serious. I heard the one nurse say, “She’s not kidding. There’s a head.” In my head I was thinking, “No way, that’s what I’ve been trying to say this entire time.”

(Shaun has our daughter and at some point during all this he leaves the triage room to get her transitioned into the care of our friend.)

All of a sudden the triage room is bustling with nurses and the ER doctor comes in. They might be a little frantic. One nurse is putting an IV into my hand as the child is coming. The baby’s head is out. (We’ve come this far with no effort on my part – my body is just doing its thing on its own). They tell me to push to get the shoulders out and with a halfway/kind-of push a new baby is delivered into this world.

The time? 9:23pm.

 

The rest of the story: To be continued (Find Part 2 Here)

Linking up with Christian Mommy Blogger and Intentional By Grace to Fellowship Fridays, Weekend Whatever, and Babies and Beyond