the day aj was born
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| first photo with mommy |
To tell the story about the day you were born,
first you need to know some background information. I would say that the true anticipation for
the day you would be born began May 13th.
It was a Friday, the day of our 36 week appointment. Along with many other mothers, I breathed a
sigh of relief at this point in the pregnancy because the next day started my
37th week; the day you were considered full term and could be
delivered if needed without worry. I was
half expecting you to come early because your big sister was born one week
early, but half expecting you to be one week late because I got off so easy the
first time around. At the appointment we
had the doctor check to see if I was dilated at all yet and Dr. Niederhauser’s
response was something like “Woah, yeah, you’re 4cm.” Hmmm. Almost halfway there. Right. That sent us into a nesting panic attack. Ok, maybe it was just mommy. From that point on, I was prepared that…any minute…it could happen. And it was worse to know that when I was in
labor with Hannah I went from 5cm to 10 cm in one hour. One
hour. I was glad that I knew this
information because it was helpful; we now understood the sense of urgency to
get to the hospital in the case that labor began or my water broke. In many ways, however, it made the waiting
so.much.worse.
Put the bags in the car; take the bags out of the
car (repeat). Leave the office as if
never coming back; return to work in the morning (repeat). Was that a contraction? YES.
No. No. No.
Nothing. No. Maybe. I think.
Nope. (repeat). After almost two weeks of living on pins and
needles, two trips to triage because I just had a “feeling” something wasn’t
right, and several trips to see Dr. Niederhauser without much change, I finally
stopped waiting for it to happen at any second.
Instead I tried to take it easy and know that you would come when you
were ready. I continued to plan my day
so that I was prepared if it happened, but tried not to question every twitch
my body made. I focused on my next
appointment instead. It was on Friday,
May 27th, the day before I was 39 weeks along. It was with Dr. Gisi, who is one of my
favorite doctors at the clinic and familiar with my history. We knew he would provide a fresh perspective
and we fully trusted his advice.
May 27th arrived. We got ready for work and took Hannah to
school as usual. I put all of our
hospital bags in the car as I had been every morning for the past two
weeks. I drove to work and completed as
many tasks as I could before leaving at 1:00pm for my 1:45pm appointment. I joked with my co-workers as I left that I
would see them later. We laughed because
the week before I had told everyone that I wasn’t sure I’d be back and had
fully shut down my computer and locked up my office. Nope, this time I would not jinx it, I did
not shut down or lock up. I left a
little early because I was starving and thought I would pick up a sandwich from
the snack shop in the hospital atrium before heading up to the clinic. Your dad and I met at the snack shop but to
my surprise they were partially closed for remodeling. No cold sandwich for me; I settled for a bag
of Doritos.
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| first photo with daddy |
Dr. Gisi came in the room and I told him that we
had been around 5cm for a couple of weeks.
He was surprised to hear how far along I was without contractions
starting. This confirmed my suspicion that
even though the doctors told me repeatedly that some women “walk around at 5cm
for weeks,” it wasn’t very common. He
checked and responded “You are actually 6cm now. A good 6 cm.”
He said that my water would break at any point, probably tonight. I fully believed him, he was the one that had
checked me at my 39 week appointment with Hannah, and in fact my water did
break that night.
I then asked
him if we should be worried about getting to the hospital in time, since
we live in Polk City which is about a 30 minute drive to the hospital (while
speeding). “Well, when you are this far
along, you could very well have a baby within one hour of your water breaking”
was his response. This I also fully
believed as I had gone from 5cm to 10 cm in one hour while in labor with Hannah. He said that he would rather see us walk
around the hospital for a couple hours, because that alone could be enough for
my water to break, and then go up and check in at Labor & Delivery for an
induction. “Otherwise Dan could be
delivering a baby on the side of the road tonight and we really don’t want
that.” Agreed. In the meantime he
was going to check in with the on-call doctor to make sure they were ok with me
being induced one day before I was 39 weeks (doctors at my clinic hold their
patients to the 39 weekpoint for scheduling an induction). I smiled because Dr. Niederhauser had already
told me that she was on call and that if I didn’t go into labor before Friday
to just show up at L &D…enough was enough!
So that was it, it was (finally) the day! Yay! We
decided that we would still follow through with Dr. Gisi’s suggestion to walk
around a little. Your dad’s office at
Wellmark was just across the street from the hospital so we walked over so he
could shutdown his computer and let his coworkers know that he would be out the
following week. I also let my coworkers
know that they were going to keep me for a couple of hours so I would not be
back. I was happy to see my very close
friend Stina working in the entryway (she also works at Wellmark) and she offered
to walk laps with me while your dad took care of things in his office. Your dad and I walked back to the hospital
rapidly taking care of plans for Clark’s to pick up Hannah from school, and
letting family members know that we would be delivering a baby soon! Yes, you could say that things happened
quickly…
At approximately 3:00pm we walked straight past
triage and straight into a room of our own in L & D! The nurse quickly checked us in; asking all
kinds of questions, while she inserted an IV and hooked me up to all sorts of
monitors. She also confirmed that I
wanted the epidural. Yes.
It was around 4:00pm that Dr. N came in to check on things, she was ecstatic
that she would have the privilege to deliver our baby (I think she and Dr. Gisi
both really wanted to deliver you, he was working the following morning)! She broke my water and we waited for the
anesthesiologist to arrive with the epidural.
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| first photo with hannah |
Your dad was so present and helpful throughout
everything. I don’t mean just while I
was laboring in the hospital, he came to all of your baby appointments and went
through everything along with me during the past nine months. He was, however, also very encouraging and
supportive while I was in labor. He
wasn’t sure when I delivered Hannah if he would make it through labor without
passing out. But because that went so
well, he felt very confident this time we could handle it, just the two of
us. And we did! Nothing could have made me happier in that
moment; we would be the ones to welcome you first, we created you and we love
you the most.
By 5:00pm, and after a little bit of a challenge
inserting the epidural just right (turns out if you don’t eat enough lunch you
might almost pass out during this process), I started to become numb from the
waist down. It felt good and bad at the
same time for awhile. I couldn’t feel
pain, but I had an uneasiness in my legs like they were falling asleep and I
really wanted to either shake them or get up and walk…but obviously I couldn’t
do either. I couldn’t stand it, but it
wasn’t anything that a few clicks on the epidural didn’t solve. By 6:00pm things didn’t feel at all, and that
felt better. I started to relax. After another hour I was fully dilated to
10cm and ready to push. I just couldn’t
wait to hold you in my arms.
7:00pm, people started entering the room as if the
circus was about to begin. It didn’t
surprise me; it wasn’t my first circus after all. I was a little more relaxed this time and I
remember noticing in particular the ridiculous looking garb worn by the staff,
blue space-like looking suits and all sorts of crazy shields. At the last minute we took a quick poll in
the room to see how many guesses for ‘boy’ and how many for ‘girl.’ Your dad, Dr. N and her crew of space people
all guessed ‘boy’ and I guessed ‘girl.’
Then the pushing began. I
remember Dr. N saying “Come on, come on, come on, come on, push Mama” as things
contracted and you inched your way into the world. Five good rounds of contractions and pushing
and you were here.
8:02pm “Do you see what you’ve got there mommy and
daddy?” asked Dr. N while smiling as you entered our world. Your dad and I were both thinking the same
thing as tears rolled down our cheeks –Please
just say it! “It’s a
BOYYYYYY!!!” And just like that, you
were here. Our family of three became
four. Dr. N set you on my chest. Daddy and mommy were so happy to see you and
to know that you were healthy. Even
though neither of us would have admitted it until then, we were so happy
because we both really wanted a boy!
You were cute from the moment you were born, in fact, the cutest boy
anyone has ever seen! We just held you
and looked at you together for the longest time, our precious little AJ, our
miracle.
