He has arrived, and he didn't waste any time!
Early this morning I woke up around 1:00 a.m. with a 4-year-old in my bed and a little bit of a crampy stomach. As I lay there
awake, I noticed that they were contractions, so I grabbed my phone and started
timing them. I fell back to sleep, but again was woken up by the
contraction around 1:13 a.m. Not knowing if this was due to my upset
stomach, lack of water, or actually labor, I decided to go out to the kitchen
to get a few things done that I didn't have time to do earlier, drink some
water, and see if they improved or progressed.
As I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the dishes from dinner,
I timed them as they came.
1:17 a.m. another contraction, 28 seconds duration
1:20 a.m. another contraction, 44 seconds duration
1:26 a.m. another contraction, 48 seconds duration
Intense but short, I wondered if these were real or not. I grabbed
another glass of water, and decided to sit down and fold the laundry on the couch;
seeing if that helped them fade.
1:33 a.m. another contraction, 1:22 seconds duration
After folding some laundry, I went back into the kitchen to wash
the hand washables. I figured I'd head
back to bed when I was done. I kept my phone with the contraction timer
app close so I could track any contractions/Braxton Hicks I was having.
1:38 a.m. another contraction, 38 seconds duration
1:40 a.m. another contraction, 38 seconds duration
1:42 a.m another contraction, 47 seconds duration
1:45 a.m another contraction, 30 seconds duration
1:49 a.m. another contraction, 47 seconds duration
1:53 a.m. another contraction, 56 seconds duration
1:59 a.m. another contraction, 38 seconds duration
By this time I was pretty confused about if I was in labor or not.
With them being so short, it didn't feel like my previous labor patterns,
but with them being so intense and clustered together, it could be labor. So,
to see if things changed, I thought I'd go take a shower and see what would happen.
But before I did, I woke Derrick to tell him
to call his mom and give her a "heads up". I figured if she wanted too she
could sleep on the spare bed if it turned out to be false labor.
So, he did that, and I took a shower. In the
shower they weren't as intense, and seemed to be more drawn out, so I got out,
dried off, but decided to pack my bag just in case it was true labor. I
had a few tough contractions as I tried to get dressed, and then one big one
that dropped me to my knees. I panted through it at the side of the bed. I
was shaky, light headed and instantly it felt just like my contractions when
I normally decide to move from the birthing ball into the bed, as upright
positioning gets very difficult when I'm around 7 cm dilated. This
worried me slightly, as normally I’m at the hospital at this time, and I picked
up the pace of getting things together.
I got up, finished packing (all the while breathing
through contractions) and confirmed that Derrick's mom was indeed coming over.
Derrick started helping gather bags and soon his mom arrived (the poor guy had just gone to bed around 1:00 a.m. after working
late on the computer, preparing for tomorrow, so I'm sure he wasn't excited to be up, packing bags.)
When Vicky arrived, I was in the
living room, wearing my long grey skirt and t-shirt, sitting on the birthing ball, changing
out the video camera SD card so we would have an extra few hours of video. (I
wanted to make sure I had 4 hours of video rather than 2).
Also, I sent a text to my doctor to give her
a heads up that we were heading to the hospital, unsure if she would get the
text or not.
I endured a few tough contractions about 3
minutes apart, and then we all agreed I needed to get going.
"You should probably go now before you
have another contraction." Said Vicky as I sat there messing with my phone
(trying to decide if I should also call my OB
doc, confirming she got the text).
"Ok, you are right." I replied as
I got up to go to the garage. It was seconds later that I walked down the two steps
into our garage, when an intense contraction brought me to my knees "too
late" I shouted back to her as I panted through the contraction, squatting at the driver's side door.
After it passed we got into the van and
drove to the hospital. Leaving the driveway, I called my doctor, as I knew from
the contraction that things were moving quickly. She answered, and before I
could hang up, another intense contraction was starting. The time was 3:14 a.m.
The drive to the hospital is roughly 10
minutes or less, and Derrick and I had our normal silly banter about "what
if" situations as he drove, especially when I remembered I had forgotten the
special soap for the baby, and calling his mom to grab it from the kid's
bathroom. I endured a few more contractions and then, as we turned on the
road to the hospital, I asked him to stop the van as it was too much movement
for me to get through the contraction while moving. He slowed, creeping the van along as I
breathed through a tough contraction, and when I opened my eyes, we were in the
hospital parking lot. I was very thankful!
He pulled up to the emergency door, looked
at me as I started grabbing a few bags and said "I can come back down and
grab them, you can leave them." And before I could reply, I again dropped
to my knees in a squat, panted through another strong contraction, and shouted,
"Go get a wheel chair... Quick!", as he hopped out of the van.
He quickly returned with a wheelchair and a
transfer tech to help push me upstairs. I climbed in, grabbed my bags,
and headed into the hospital. Hospital security greets everyone as they come in
after midnight, so I, of course waited as he "wanded" me for weapons
and looked through my bags. (We experienced this when I was in labor with Everett too.) At the same
time I answered questions for the triage nurse that was calling upstairs to the maternity floor, and
we were on our way down the hallway to the elevator.
A few times I asked the transfer tech, a nice, patient man, to stop the wheelchair so I could endure a contraction, and when we got up to the floor I
knew I had very little time.
As we approached my room, we were greeted by the nurses and techs.
I informed them I had called my doctor and I was very close to complete,
if not already completely dilated. They
smiled nicely, told me that there was a doctor on call down the hall, and she
would come see me and then call my doctor and let her know what was going on.
As they handed me the gown and instructed me to get undressed, I
felt like I had to go to the bathroom, so I quickly stripped down, sat down, and then
realized what a big mistake that was! I thought to myself, I could possibly have this baby on the toilet!
"Why did I do this? This was a bad idea." I said out-loud to myself
as I searched around for the pull cord while another contraction was building,
(the tech had left me to go grab a birthing ball and Derrick had gone downstairs to get the tripod from the van) and I quickly pulled the cord
to get assistance.
In seconds, a nurse was at my side, and completely naked, I
scrambled into bed as fast as possible as the contraction peaked. As I
breathed through the contraction, she hooked the monitor straps around my
waist. "I'm having a problem getting a good read." She said as
the monitor picked up the baby's heartbeat, "I might need you to turn on to
your left side."
I realized at that point, what I was communicating and what she
was hearing were two different things. Then, at that moment, Derrick rushed
back into the room (I can only imagine what he thought, seeing his overly
pregnant wife completely naked in the bed, shouting demands and struggling
through a contraction.)
"I need a doctor now to check me, I think I'm complete, I
feel like I need to push soon." Was my best attempt to clear things
up. Then I turned to Derrick,
"Derrick, set up the camera now, so at least this baby can have a little
bit of video to watch. I think he’s going to be here soon."
Both of my requests were filled. An on-call resident had
been sleeping down the hallway in another room, so they quickly grabbed her and
after a contraction (and after helping me into a gown) she confirmed I was 8-9
cm dilated (she stated she couldn't feel cervix on the one side but could on
the other) and I was about -1 station. She
said what I dreaded her to say (since my doctor was not there yet), "There is
just a little lip of cervix on that one side, otherwise I'd call her
complete."
Those are the words I've heard many times before, and usually
following the contraction after the doctor says those words, we have a baby.
"Call my doctor again, she's going to miss it!" I
requested, and the hospital staff all said her phone had been going to
voicemail and the doctor on call would be here if I needed.
"Derrick, get my phone, she's the last person I called...
call her right now and tell her she needs to hurry." (At that moment
I wished I wouldn't have waited to call her in the first place... I should have
called her when I called Derrick's mom, like I had planned, and she would have
been there already.)
He got her to pick up, the time was 3:45 a.m. and she said she was
in her car, in route.
As another contraction was building I knew the only saving grace I
had was that my water hadn’t ruptured. I
prayed I would not rupture on my own until she arrived, and that she would get
there in time for the delivery, and waited through another contraction.
I struggled to breathe through the contractions and fight the urge
to push... and then, I couldn't hold
back any longer. My body started to push and with a small gush of fluid, I
realized my membranes had ruptured and his head was crowning. "You guys
don't understand... he is here, HE IS HERE... seriously, she's not going to
make it, and somebody else is going to have to do this." I lectured as my
body continued to push.
"You're doing great Lisa, try not to push... Breathe short
breaths... pant." Were the instructions I was given from the sweet
nurse coaching me through the crazy ride. I could hear the on-call
resident saying my doctor was in the hospital, on her way up.
Easier said than done I thought as my body continued to do what it
is programmed for... and a few seconds later, my doctor was at my side,
instructing me to go ahead and push and pause to allow my body to stretch.
Literally, one-minute later (we confirmed it with video), with my
body in complete control, me hanging on to the bed rail and any ounce of composure I
could harness, I pushed one last time and she placed our baby boy on my chest. The time was 3:54 a.m.
The roller coaster ride was over and the amazing miracle of birth
was staring me in the face. God's amazing design! God's perfect
miracle, our baby Eli, was in my arms. I can't describe that exhilarating feeling, that warm wet body in your arms and the tiny face that searches for
you. It is overwhelmingly an unimaginable gift! Just typing these words makes me long for
that moment once more.
He didn't cry too much, he honestly seemed stunned, as was I about
how fast he came, and after a bit the nurse asked me if she could move him to
the warmer so she could get him to cry and see if he would pink up a bit.
I said yes and instantly he started to cry and his
color quickly changed from the dusty purple to bright pink.
Derrick, running the video camera, managing my regular camera, and
trying to watch Eli as they examined him under the warmer, smiled at me and
told me how great I did. “That was a
walk in the park!” he exclaimed, and then rephrased his statement, “At least for
me.”
He was right, mostly anyway.
It was more like a 100-mile-an-hour mad dash through the park, but yes, he
was right; it was quick and really not too bad overall.
I actually, looking back on it, feel like I missed out slightly
(if you can even begin to understand what I mean), as I didn’t get to
experience what I normally have in the past.
You see, as much as some women would disagree, labor and birth is
such a rush for me. It is a place where
I can center myself on every moment, focusing on each contraction as they build,
swell, and then riding them down like a gentle wave, that pulls away from the
shore, moving great mounds of sand as it does. The body is really an amazing machine, and God’s perfect design is mind-blowing when you begin to realize the power involved in every moment. Every second.
It’s truly incredible.
With everything happening so quickly with this one, I felt like I
didn’t really get to absorb the magnitude of the beauty of labor, and felt like
I was riding a roller coaster on hyper-drive through the fascinating forest I so
long to marvel in.
Even with that said, it was still an incredible experience, and if
anything, it makes me realize even more how much God is in control. And I am
thankful He is.
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,
the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on the earth is
yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom.
We adore you as the one who is over all things.” 1 Chronicles 29:11 (NLT)
