My eldest DD turned nine today. DH was reminiscing about the event during dinner. He reminded me how hot it was. It was so hot, in fact, that the hospital started turning women away only an hour after we arrived. They had to drive a half hour north to the next closest hospital. Thank the good Lord I didn't get turned away or we'd have had a highway birth. Here's the story as best as I can remember it:
I remember standing in the shower the morning of July 14, and listening to the radio announcer saying that today was Bastille Day, the French holiday commemorating the fall of the Bastille in 1789. I thought, that’s a cool day to have a birthday but it won’t be today. I went to work like any normal day. Around 1:30pm I started feeling really tired and not quite right. By 3:30pm I was exhausted and had a headache. Because all the essential work had been done and no one else needed help, I asked if I could go home to rest. I called DH from the cell phone to say I was going home to sleep. On the way home I started having really bad cramps. By the time I got home, I decided to call the doctor’s office. They said I should head right to the hospital. So I called DH, who was just leaving anyway, and sat back to wait. But DH got caught in traffic, and it took him over an hour to get home. He pulled in about 4:50pm and I was rolled up in a ball on the floor in pain.
We got to the hospital at about 5:15pm. They sent us right to a room. After a brief exam it was determined I was about 3cm, so they hooked me up to a monitor for a half an hour. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so after the half hour was up they told us to try walking around. We didn’t get very far down the hall when I announced I had to go back to go to the bathroom. However, after spending quite some time in the bathroom with no results, I went back and lay down. But I kept feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. DH didn’t know what to do to help me out, and the nurses didn’t really help give him any ideas. Finally after complaining about it for a while the nurse decided to examine me again. She immediately announced, with surprise in her voice, that I was at 9cm. “What!” I said. I was planning to have an epidural, but we were too far along for that. My doctor was on her way to break my water, but she was stuck in the same traffic DH had been stuck in. The next contraction the nurse announced I was now a 10 and could start pushing. “Without my doctor?” was my concern, but at that moment it didn’t matter. E was so determined to get out, and all I wanted was to get her out.
The nurses gave brief instructions about pushing, and my water broke after two pushes. Then the nurses went out into the hall and grabbed a doctor who wasn’t needed at the moment. After an all to brief introduction (we still don’t know his name) he sat down and said “Three minutes and we’ll have this baby out.” He told us right away that they would have to suction her lungs because she had swallowed fluid. A few pushes later, at 6:41pm, she were out and they said she were a girl. DH and I were both shocked because all the way through people had been telling us we were having a boy. So DH turned his attention to E while the doctor worked on me. But I was still in a lot of pain, and nothing they were giving me was working. One nurse attempted to give me a sedative in my arm, but after the needle was in, it backed out and stuck her. Finally they gave me something that put me in La La land for the next hour and a half. I don’t remember much but I know I got to hold E for a short time before I fell asleep. DH followed E around and took pictures so I wouldn’t miss her first bath. Then Grandma and Grandpa got to see E. We called Nanny and Papa to give them the news. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or in this case, herstory.
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