So not everyone is into reading birth stories, but this is for my own recollection more then anything…so stop now if its not your thing. 2 days past due, I had an appointment for a Fetal Stress Test (to make sure the baby was thriving) that measures the babys heart rate and activity. Everything was great. Even that morning when getting Maverick ready for daycare, I remember telling him, that my tummy hurt. After the FST, I had a hair appointment (my last little bit of pampering time for myself for a while) and a lunch date with my husband and subs at Ridgewater. At my hair appointment, I again had a couple instances where my stomach would cramp up. When I got to Ridgewater, I remember telling him that weird things were happening to my body today and that I might be having contractions. He got a giddy look on his face and made a comment about it happening tonite. I had plans to goto Target shopping, but Neil suggested that I go home and take it easy. I took his advice, and had a couple more of the cramps on the way home. I got home at about 2:30 and started to write down the times I would get the contractions. They were not consistent. I then decided to lay down for a while, and whenever I would get one, I looked up at the clock and noticed they were about ten minutes apart, sometimes more like 15 or 20. Something was happening but it just was not strong enough of consistent enough to convince me. Neil had called to check on me, and I told him they were not consistent and not to worry about it. He was going to make some stops in Willmar before coming home, which would mean he would be home by 6 or so. As time, went by, I began to get the contractions more often, and then felt a little scared of being home alone, and also anxious about having to pick up Maverick at daycare. I called Neil at 4 and asked him to just come home because something was happening. In the meantime, my brother and mom had also called and I told them that my doctor was on call this weekend and the nurse had a hunch it was going to happen this weekend. In my mind, I thought that it would probably happen in the middle of that night or Saturday. Neil came home and picked up Maverick, and again I felt like things were inconsistent, sometimes they were 10 minutes apart, sometimes more or less. I remember Neil making the comment, that if he wouldn’t have rushed home he could have picked up a pizza or something. At that time, I had NO desire for food, and the boys had pizza hotdish. It was about 5:30-6 and I knew now that I was defintly having contractions. Neil told me to call the hospital but I though it was early yet. I was writing down all of my contractions now and knew that they want you to have contractions that are 5 minutes apart, 1 minute long, for at least an hour. Mine were 5-7 minutes apart, 30-45 seconds long for an hour or more. I called the hospital and the nurse said, I could come in to get checked, but if I am not progressing that they would send me home. I did not want to be sent home, especially since we had to go all the way to Willmar.
My beautiful baby boy is so perfect.
I started to walk back and forth on the top level of our house to see if that would help speed things up, I think it did. When I would get a contraction, Mav would say, “mama what are you doing?” and I would reply, “relaxing”. Ben called Neil at about 7 or so to ask if we had the baby yet…little did he know it was about 2 happen in only 2 hours. After walking around upstairs, I decided to lay down for a while on the bed, to make sure the contractions still came when I was still. They did. After about 15 minutes, my water broke. It felt like a big kick, and I heard (or maybe just felt) a big POP. My water broke and I started to yell for Neil. We immediately got ready to go by packing up last minute items and getting Mav ready to goto the farm. My contractions instantly got stronger and closer together, like 2 minutes apart. When we got to the farm, I remember Greg and Judy saying “Hi” and “Good Luck” and I am not sure if I even responded. I was concentrating on making it thru each contraction. On our way to Willmar I looked at the speedometer and saw that Neil was going about 63mph. I thought about telling him to go faster, but did not want to get him nervous. About 3/4 way to Willmar I felt like I had to push. I remember the same feeling that I first had while in the tub at the hospital in labor with Maverick. Neil kicked it down to about 80 mph. Each contraction made me feel like pushing and I felt every small bump. When we got to the hospital, Neil first went to the wrong door, which lost us 30 seconds, but felt like an eternity. I had called ahead to let them know I was coming, so when he pulled up to the ER, they were waiting for me with a wheelchair. Everyone was staring when I was wheeled thru, I can only imagine how awful I looked. They wheeled me up to the OB floor, while Neil parked the truck and got the bags. I got to my room and put on the hospital gown, all while fighting the rushes. My doctor was not there yet and there was 2 nurses there. One checked me and I asked how far I was dilated and she said, “complete”. When I asked if my doctor was going to be here soon, one of the nurses said, “the nurses deliver more babies then the doctors” which made me worry but looking back they were trying to keep me calm. The main nurse said to the other “your taking this one.” They were excited to deliver the baby but guided me thru holding back the urge to push. I did this for about 10-15 minutes, and then the doctor came and suited up. Now I could finally push…. and it felt so good. I started to push hard and they told me to slow down. With each breath I would push slowly. Finally the head was out, then the shoulders, then I was holding my new little guy. I remember I could not stop smiling, of relief to be done with the ordeal, and to be holding my new little baby. It was 8:55, and only a little over an hour ago, I was at home
