My Own Baby Story

I've been meaning to sort-of fill you in and to write down for our posterity about the night Kipp was born. I'm not sure why I've been putting it off. Maybe because there are some painful memories associated with his birth...as in the physical pain, which wasn't pleasant and it doesn't get any easier with the more you have. I read this book once by this lady who was a Bradley Method instructor/guru/educator/whatever and she said that there was no pain in her natural childbirth experience. I don't believe her and think she is a straight-up liar. I don't know how it is physically possible not to have some pain...but whatever, I digress.
So, yes, I have had 4 natural childbirths and as I said, it doesn't get any less painful or easier the more I have. With Isla and Kipp I really had no choice since they entered the world so quickly. People may think I'm crazy for doing this given anesthesiology is readily available this day and age. But I always assure people that ask that if I had to labor longer than I do or push for more than about 3 minutes, I too would seriously consider an epidural.
Mother's Day morning I awoke feeling pretty good, having slept the entire night without waking with contractions after several nights of little sleep and days of being uncomfortable. I thought that would be the day Kipp would arrive, but didn't want to get my hopes up since my due date was still 11 days out. We went to church, came home and I took a nap and woke up having contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart for about 3 hours, then just stopped all together. So my hopes were dashed. I got everyone fed and in bed and Blasen and I head to bed around 10:30 and as soon as my head hits the pillow the contractions start up again.
I start timing the contractions and they are about every 10 minutes. After an hour of this I decide to get in the shower and see if they go away. My water breaks and I know we better get a move on it. We have to drive about 25-30 minutes to the hospital and Isla was born just over an hour after my water broke with her. I wake-up Blasen and tell him to hurry and I call our neighbor to come over. My poor neighbor Gary shows up  at our door half asleep in about 2 minutes. Blasen is small talking and making sure Gary is comfortable and I tell them WE HAVE GOT TO GO folks and I'm getting in the car.
I try to breath and relax thru my contractions on the way to the hospital, but the thought of having this baby in the car nearly petrified me. By the time we got to the hospital they were 2-3 minutes apart and the poor door girl at the ER wanted to wheel me herself to Labor and Delivery instead of waiting for Blasen. At the same time, she wanted Blasen to hurry because she surely did not want to deliver this baby in the elevator. (I have to say hospitals that don't have the L&D on ground level where you can just drive up and jump out are poorly designed.) Blasen is practically running as he pushes me in the wheel chair. I'm sure whatever security guard was watching the security cameras that night got a good laugh as he watched our progress thru the ER, up the elevators, and to the L&D waiting room where the admissions lady told me I was going to have to wait. Blasen kindly let her know that we may have this baby in her waiting room if they didn't get me back to a room ASAP. That lady got herself in gear, especially when she heard me near tears having contractions (I was to that point in labor). The charge nurse came out to put my armband on, took one look at me and said she was wheeling me back herself. (Time-wise, it had been just over an hour since my water broke.)
I'm wheeled into a room that is not set-up and doesn't have all the necessary supplies according to the nurse. She tells me to go to the bathroom and change out of my clothes. That was the longest walk to the bathroom, yet it was just halfway across the room. I really just wanted to be lifted up to the bed and have my clothes cut off me.I was in between contractions, so I practically ran in there and stripped my clothes off as fast I could. I got to the bed, which she was making, and she told me to wait a moment so she could put down an extra pad. I could cry! People, you don't tell a laboring woman to "wait" or "hold on". She has very little control at this point. The nurse checks me before they do anything else. I was about 6 1/2 cm and I let them know they have about 15 minutes before this baby gets here.
Things get moving now. They ask if I want an epidural and I tell her there is no time for one. That's when one of the nurses says, "We probably should listen to her. It sounds like she knows what she's talking about." They ask stupid random questions like, previous babies' weights, who my pediatrician is, etc. When I could not answer their questions because I was trying to breath, they got the hint and decided to wait until after. I told them I needed to start pushing soon and again that word...wait. I apologized for how rushed everything was but assured them I would not be waiting for anyone. Thankfully the doctor on call lived across the street and he got there just in time to put on gloves and a gown and catch the baby. I remember when pushing that he realized he didn't have a stool to sit on and asked for one.
Like I said before I don't have to push for very long, so after 3 good pushes he's out and I'm greatly relieved. I lay back on the bed and take a breather...that was a pretty intense 20 minutes from the time we got to the hospital to the time he was born. A nurse tells me to sit up and look at my baby and I want to say "give me a minute to catch my breathe okay?! Sheesh!"
I know that nurses are more used to the scheduled births that are more common today and those usually take awhile to progress. For the "planner" that I am, you're probably surprised I don't take that route myself. In this instance, I'll defer to nature to take over, as difficult as that is for me. Despite it all, we all made it through the ordeal...me, Blasen, Kipp, nurses and doctors. The nurses even joked that we should get a prorated rate since we weren't in the L&D very long. And the doctor asked Blasen if he was paying attention because next time Blasen may have to deliver the baby himself. Nothing like a little excitement to wake everyone up.
Everything was happening so fast that we didn't even have the camera. It was in the car with my bag. I had told Blasen not to worry about my bag, to just park and get his butt in the hospital, so it was my fault. Thankfully, his phone takes good pictures.
Lesson I learned...buy a house across the street from the hospital.



P.S. I apologize for the lack of brevity and the change of tenses...that's never been my strong suit and I wrote this in several sittings.