My New Arrival

It had been an eventful evening. A friend came over for a visit and stayed late. I caught up on my computer business afterwards and we "went to bed". A process that can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 hours depending on how tired I really am or how urgent certain tasks are. My second son must have had growing pains, because he was waking up every 30 minutes with a fake cry but an obvious notion of an inability to get comfortable. I would give him a drink of water and he would lie back down...but around 1:45am in my very pregnant state, I felt an uncontrollable burst of water exit my body and was suddenly on high alert for the presence of regularly intervalled contractions. They were coming, and were definitely real contractions of which I was quite confident since this would be my 3rd time delivering a child into the world. They were not coming at regular intervals and were not close to one another, so I decided to hang out in my own bed for a while, placing a towel down under me "just in case" of any mishaps. My second son woke up a few more times before the clock turned over to 3am and I decided to wake my husband. "Honey, wake up" "Can you hear me?" "Wake up please" "I need you to hear me" "Can you hear me" "Are you awake yet?" "Are you awake?" "Are you awake yet?"......To which I finally hear the reply, "Why are you asking me if I'm awake?" hehe.

"Honey, if you don't have a bag ready, you should get one ready, because I'm pretty sure my water broke." "Oh, right...ok" So we get bags ready, I have a few more contractions, convincing my husband that we do need to go to the hospital. So we wake up our visitor, who will be at home with our 2 other boys and let her know we are going to the hospital. A little after 4am my husband and I are on our way and arrive to the delivery room prepped and ready to go around 4:30am. The contractions continue and the nurses do their duties, some of which I find a little old fashioned, but am not willing to fight it out while my husband informs the nurse he will not be wearing the protective garments given him upon our entry. This difference in our personalities will turn out for the best within the next 2 hours. By 5:30am the nurse informed me I was dilated to 4 cm, which meant I to me and my husband that I was progressing at a slower rate than I did with our last child. Now the contractions had progressed more seriously and I suddenly thought that I would not be able to handle this little person's entrance into life without help, tried some laughing gas for 2 breaths which became very irritating after 2 seconds which meant no relief was coming very soon, which meant I was back to square one. My husband tried to encourage me, "You know, just because your not progressed as far as you like in your dilation, doesn't mean you're not progressing, you are progressing in other areas. The baby is moving down and the cervix is still thinning out so you are progressing......."
I had to change positions and moved onto my side hoping it would provide some comfort. A little comfort was found, but the contractions kept coming stronger, longer and with less relief in between each one. The next contraction I felt my body curl up and thoughtI wouldn't be able to handle any more. Then another uncontrollable urge to push came. I heard the nurse yell at someone, "GIVE ME THE DOCTOR!!! GIVE ME THE DOCTOR!!!" and her hand was between my legs??? I could see purely by the look that swept across my husband's face that this child had crowned and was going to be born very soon. My husband felt familiar enough with the whole process of childbirth that a baby who is crowning did not cause any panic in him. He very calmy asked the nurse, "Can you please calm down? You are not helping!" I heard the nurse again, "HURRY!!!! HURRRY!!!!!!!" Still with her hand between my legs in some form of attempt to keep the child from coming out. Again my husband requested calmly, "Please be calm..." Between the screaming orders, the screaming patient, and the sudden frantic activity, my husband stepped in again to express his own thoughts at the nurse holding her hands between my legs, "DAMN IT, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!!!"
The urge to push overwhelmed me once again to which I did not deny my body and just gave in to this unbelievable force. I felt incredible relief and a deafening silence fell over the room. I looked up, and there was my child on the bed. I was just staring in awe, my husband was staring, the nurse was staring, the nurse aid was staring....and some man I hadn't seen all morning was walking in who could barely keep his eyes open and still getting oriented to the fact that he was even walking. It seemed to take him a long time to just get a pair of gloves on.
We heard the baby crying; he was crying he was alive. Somehow, some people were able to get their act together and the umbilical cord was cut and the baby was moved over to the baby warmer (which had not even been turned on yet) to do his initial exams and assessments. Then he was whisked away to the nursery for further evaluation. About 15 minutes after my son's birth and taken to the nursery, my doctor showed up at my bedside.
"What happened?" He says to me. hehe.