***warning - this is a
really long post!***
Since Sunday, the events of 6 years ago have been rolling through my head. Six years ago Sunday, was March 27, just like this year. It was actually Easter Sunday that year & I remember the indigestion I got from my Easter dinner that I just couldn't shake. I remember still puzzling over my indigestion on Monday, March 28 and starting to feel occasional cramping. I remember talking to my friend Traci at work on Tuesday, March 29 and telling her about my occasional cramping feelings and the fact that my back was hurting (more than usual). I remember her saying something to me like, "That sounds an awful lot like the beginnings of labor." I remember going to my school nurse after that and talking to her about it and her telling me that unless the cramping began to regulate itself and came at regular intervals that could be timed that I shouldn't worry. I remember sitting with our small group friends that Tuesday evening & realizing as the evening went on that the cramping feelings were starting to come at regular intervals. I remember telling Brandon on the way home that I was starting to get a little worried, and talking myself out of being worried. I remember waking up at 1:00 in the morning because these "cramps" just weren't going away and getting the book I'd been given at my first OB appointment and finding the chart that compared false labor to real labor. I remember waking Brandon up after looking at that chart and telling him I was 99% sure that this was the real thing. I remember going to the hospital and then getting sent home when my
cramps contractions backed off to less than 6 in an hour (5 in an hour, b/c that's so much better!). I remember heading back to the hospital at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 30 not knowing that I would not eat, take a shower, or sleep, among other things for the next couple of days. I remember Brandon calming me down when they told me I was dilated and I freaked out because I knew that meant there was likely no stopping what had already begun. I remember my amazing nurse, Karen, sitting with me for an hour during the afternoon when Brandon went home to take care of a few things, because she didn't want me to have to be alone. I remember my mom & dad coming to visit me for a few minutes that evening even though we told them not to worry and make the trip down because they were worried about me. I remember my doctor telling me that they were going to have to move me to St. Luke's downtown because they couldn't deliver babies earlier than 34 weeks and I was only at 32. I remember the horrendously jarring ambulance ride to my "new" hospital home and the paramedic marveling at the fact I wasn't screaming like a maniac when I had contractions. I remember thinking in my head how weird it was when my new doctor (a male - which I never would have felt comfortable choosing for myself) and a whole team of people came in to check me, and I didn't even care that a whole slew of people I'd never seen in my life were checking out my nether-regions. I remember laying awake all night, wishing for sleep, but it never happening. I remember Thursday, March 31 as a really long day...I'd had nothing to eat or drink since I'd been in the hospital and knowing that I wasn't going to get anything for the time being. I remember the nurse offering me a drug (which turned out to be some type of narcotic) that would help me rest since I hadn't slept. It did help me rest for about an hour, but at least it was something. I remember an ultrasound tech coming in, so they could make sure the baby was ready when the time came to deliver. I remember
finally getting a Sprite and believing that I had never tasted anything so good. I remember asking for more narcotics that night & then a conversation with Brandon where I told him that all our words "sounded like they were on springs, because everytime we said something I could hear...Boooiiiinnnnggg at the end of each word" & Brandon told me that he had an idea - "we should just stop talking". :) Then I had some kind of crazy, psychadelic dream...not nearly as restful as my first experience, but after I came out of my drugged stupor at midnight, the nurse gave me a cherry popsicle, which was the best thing I felt I'd ever eaten in my life. At 5:00 a.m. on Friday, April 1, I told the doctor who came to check me that I felt like I was having trouble breathing. The medication I was on to slow my labor was a muscle relaxant, and it was just making me feel like an elephant was sitting on my chest. The plan had been to take me off the medication later that day anyway, so the doctor moved it ahead of schedule by a few hours. I remember things really kicking into gear after that. I remember Brandon leaving to go buy a newspaper to keep for our baby as a record of the day he/she was born & coming back and telling me that he ate not one, but two, McDonald's breakfasts, because he didn't know when he'd eat again (to the person who has not had anything but a Sprite & a cherry popsicle in the last 2+ days!). I remember my amazing nurse, Denise, telling me that all things happen the way they're supposed to happen right before she broke the news to me that the (one???) anestheisiologist had an emergency c-section & I wasn't going to get the epidural that I'd requested. I remember being wheeled to the delivery room thinking that even though I knew this was going to happen, I really wasn't ready. I remember Brandon whispering in my ear, constantly encouraging me and praising me, supporting me even though I think he was probably more scared than I was. I remember the doctor joking (maybe not totally joking) with me about how I had to hurry up because he had a plane to catch at noon. I remember him telling me in his East coast accent about all the "platinum blond" hair he was seeing and wondering why if he was seeing all this platinum blond hair, that the baby was taking so long to actually get out! I remember hearing the team of doctors and nurses who took the baby once he was born saying, "The baby's breathing on his own!" and feeling so relieved and then having to ask..."Is it a boy or a girl???" I thought that was always the first thing the parents were told when they didn't know already! Guess not. I remember holding my sweet Luke for the first time and being so amazed at this perfect gift I'd been given. I look at him today and know that I didn't even know the half of it then. Happy 6th birthday, Luke!
