This week has been busy, I've got a lesson to prepare, HFPE to help with, and I had a Business meeting with a new mom due in June today. Amanda's birthday is tomorrow, she'll be 15 and is anxiously awaiting the chance to get her drivers permit! She can't wait to learn to drive dad's truck! She already practices shifting for me when I drive.
Of course it makes me think back to that night in 1993...
We had gone shopping during the day at the Madison Sq. Mall and I did a lot of walking around. I wanted to buy a coming home from the hospital outfit... (that was important to me then, so I didn't' have to come home in my maternity clothes, yuck!) I found a cute pair of stretch pants (yes stretch pants and legging were all acceptable clothing back then! LOL!) and a long t-shirt. I had a low back ache, but who doesn't at 38+ weeks pregnant? That night we ate a big greasy dinner of steak sandwiches, and for Christmas I'd given Bill a Fry Daddy, and we made deep fried french fries...
I ate a nice big dinner, having no idea I'd be having a baby later. My first baby was a full week past my EDD, so... I figured I'd at least go to my due date! Although, my OB was 'concerned' that I wouldn't make it to the hospital, and wanted to induce my labor, and was doing weekly ultrasounds to check on the baby's size, to see if she was big enough... some story about if the head circumference was a certain number of centimeters or whatever, that it correlated with the baby's lung development, and they could go ahead and induce so that I would be at the hospital. I actually was going along with this plan, and would probably have ended up with a Pitocin induced, unnatural labor.
I'm so glad that things started on their own. Amanda is sitting here reading over my shoulder and said that she knew she needed to come to help me become who I am today, so she got things going...
Back to the story...
So we put Rebekah to bed for the night and ate our greasy dinner, and we watched t.v.
Nick at night... The Dick Van Dyke show was on, and it was the episode where Rob (Dick Van Dyke) was telling his son Ritchie about the day he was born... complete with flashbacks.
In true Dick Van Dyke style he goes through all these crazy practice drills, so he'll be ready when Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) goes into labor. He sleeps in his clothes with his pajamas over top so he would already be dressed if he needed to get up and rush her to the hospital... (because most mom's when they go into labor 'need' to rush right to the hospital so they can spend hours in labor strapped to the table before finally giving birth). He placed his shoes on the floor by the side of the bed, so that when he sat up he'd slip his feet right into his shoes. He placed the telephone on his chest so he could dial the hospital as soon as he'd woken up, and his hat in the bookshelf headboard so that he would reach up and grab the hat and place it on his head as he sat up, while dialing the phone and putting his shoes on his feet pretty much all at the same time. He did this repeatedly with silly outcomes each time and resulting hilarity... and when the time finally came, if I recall correctly he grabbed Laura's suitcase, hit the clasp, flinging all her clothes on the floor then picked them up shoved them back into the suitcase struggling to shut it with things hanging out of the sides. then when he finally leaves the house he leaves Laura behind... you get the picture.
Bill and I sat there laughing all the while, thinking how silly the whole scenario was.
That night I bed and woke up thinking my water had broken... I thought, that I should roll over and see what time it was so I'd know not just what time or what day it was, but also what month it was. Just after midnight, March 1st... o.k. so I made it to March. Then I got up to go to the bathroom where it was confirmed my water had definitely broken and as I sat on the potty, I thought, I'm not getting up until I have something clean and dry to put on. So, I call out to my husband who is sleeping soundly in bed, and being fully awake, I start calling out my order for what he needs to get me: sweatpants, underclothes, etc, etc... so Bill wakes up hearing me say something about sweatpants and he thought I was telling him he needed to get up and get ready because he was late for P.T. or something! I slowed down and told him my water had broken and I needed him to get me some things... he sat up and started darting around a bit crazy, looking for the things I needed.
I began ticking off my mental check list making sure I had my stuff together and Bill called a friend down the street to come stay with Rebekah, and tried to call the hospital to tell them we were on our way. He didn't get through at first, so we gathered our stuff and got things in the car, while we waited for Debbie to get there. About 30 minutes after my water had broken, my contractions started , just like my first labor with Rebekah. Then Bill finally got through to the hospital, L&D and told them we were pre-registered, who I was and that my water had broken. They said very casually... o.k. come on in and we'll see you when you get here... Bill then explained about my first labor going quite quickly (so he'd heard... he wasn't there for Rebekah's birth, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia, so all of this was a first for him), and they got a little bit more animated and said they'd put a call in to the Dr.
We got on the road and as my labor increased, my stomach decided it didn't particularly like all that greasy food I'd eaten for dinner and I had to make Bill pull over on the side of I-565, on the way to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital, Huntsville, Humana (now Women's and Children's of Huntsville), and they got me upstairs. The first thing I wanted to do when I got into my L&D room was to get a drink and wash my mouth out! so I headed for the sink in the corner of the room! the nurses were rushing frantically around to get everything set up, and then trying to get me to change into the hospital gown. Meanwhile I was contracting away... I am sure I freaked the poor nurses out when I grabbed onto the end of the bed and squatted during the contraction, but man that was what helped me feel better. The nurse kept telling me I NEEDED to get changed into the gown and get up into the bed. Finally I managed those tasks, no small thing in transition! I laid down but could not stand to be on my back, so I rolled onto my side. The nurse wanted to get the I.V. in my arm and I put my arm back toward her and all she had was the side to go with, but that was all I was giving her. She got the I.V. in , but I was bruised nearly from my wrist to my elbow for days.
The nurses got me prepped, and the Dr. rushed in, asking if he had time to change/get gowned up. The nurse told the Dr. to hurry she could see the baby's head without me even pushing. He got down to business, which was to get the table raised up to his level..., he's tall, then he draped me with 'sterile' drapes, including putting leg drapes on my legs and feet as if I had some contaminant my baby would catch from my own body, then they put my legs up in the stirrups, which I hadn't had for my first birth. Then what was helping me to deal with things was to reach back and grab the pillow that was behind my head, I had done the exact same thing with my first birth as well, it must be what works for me. I then had the chanting and counting to ten, push! push! push! coming at me from all angles. The nurse told me I needed to round up and grab my knees and push with gravity to get the baby out. The funny thing is, (o.k. not funny ha ha, but funny/odd, strange in retrospect), was that from the video camera angle at my side, the bed really had been raised up to the Dr's level; and my tail bone was raised higher than my hip bones and yet they were trying to tell me to push with gravity! I was literally pushing my baby out UP HILL, and my body was pushing whether I wanted it to or not! I certainly had no need of forced count to ten pushing. Once I had delivered her head, the Dr. grabbed her and pulled the rest of her out and immediately called her a peanut, and asked when she was due, she was only 11 days early, but she was a little thing! Miss Amanda Katherine came into the world at 1:30 a.m. March 1st (less than 20 minutes from the time I came through the door to L&D!) and weighed in at 5 lbs 9 oz.
Then while I spent two days in the hospital I got very little rest. The hospital was in the process of joining with the other hospital and they were doing construction, and I listened to jack hammers all day long. And the nice nurse who came in at 1 am to tell me it was shift change and she was my new nurse... she chatted for a full hour. Don't get me wrong, she was very nice, but I didn't really want to chat in the middle of the night when my baby was literally 24 hours old. No fun.
I remember Rebekah coming to the hospital to see me and the baby. She looked at me, then looked at the baby in my arms, looked at my belly where we'd been saying the baby was at and it was no longer as big and round as it had been, and looking back to the baby... you could just see the little gears spinning in her head trying to figure it all out! Very sweet.
I would never have believed it if you'd told me back then I'd be back in Huntsville, AL and I'd have 6 kids way back then! I can't imagine my life without any one of them. They all bring so much to our life!
Happy Birthday Sweeetheart!!!!
Of course it makes me think back to that night in 1993...
We had gone shopping during the day at the Madison Sq. Mall and I did a lot of walking around. I wanted to buy a coming home from the hospital outfit... (that was important to me then, so I didn't' have to come home in my maternity clothes, yuck!) I found a cute pair of stretch pants (yes stretch pants and legging were all acceptable clothing back then! LOL!) and a long t-shirt. I had a low back ache, but who doesn't at 38+ weeks pregnant? That night we ate a big greasy dinner of steak sandwiches, and for Christmas I'd given Bill a Fry Daddy, and we made deep fried french fries...
I ate a nice big dinner, having no idea I'd be having a baby later. My first baby was a full week past my EDD, so... I figured I'd at least go to my due date! Although, my OB was 'concerned' that I wouldn't make it to the hospital, and wanted to induce my labor, and was doing weekly ultrasounds to check on the baby's size, to see if she was big enough... some story about if the head circumference was a certain number of centimeters or whatever, that it correlated with the baby's lung development, and they could go ahead and induce so that I would be at the hospital. I actually was going along with this plan, and would probably have ended up with a Pitocin induced, unnatural labor.
I'm so glad that things started on their own. Amanda is sitting here reading over my shoulder and said that she knew she needed to come to help me become who I am today, so she got things going...
Back to the story...
So we put Rebekah to bed for the night and ate our greasy dinner, and we watched t.v.
Nick at night... The Dick Van Dyke show was on, and it was the episode where Rob (Dick Van Dyke) was telling his son Ritchie about the day he was born... complete with flashbacks.
In true Dick Van Dyke style he goes through all these crazy practice drills, so he'll be ready when Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) goes into labor. He sleeps in his clothes with his pajamas over top so he would already be dressed if he needed to get up and rush her to the hospital... (because most mom's when they go into labor 'need' to rush right to the hospital so they can spend hours in labor strapped to the table before finally giving birth). He placed his shoes on the floor by the side of the bed, so that when he sat up he'd slip his feet right into his shoes. He placed the telephone on his chest so he could dial the hospital as soon as he'd woken up, and his hat in the bookshelf headboard so that he would reach up and grab the hat and place it on his head as he sat up, while dialing the phone and putting his shoes on his feet pretty much all at the same time. He did this repeatedly with silly outcomes each time and resulting hilarity... and when the time finally came, if I recall correctly he grabbed Laura's suitcase, hit the clasp, flinging all her clothes on the floor then picked them up shoved them back into the suitcase struggling to shut it with things hanging out of the sides. then when he finally leaves the house he leaves Laura behind... you get the picture.
Bill and I sat there laughing all the while, thinking how silly the whole scenario was.
That night I bed and woke up thinking my water had broken... I thought, that I should roll over and see what time it was so I'd know not just what time or what day it was, but also what month it was. Just after midnight, March 1st... o.k. so I made it to March. Then I got up to go to the bathroom where it was confirmed my water had definitely broken and as I sat on the potty, I thought, I'm not getting up until I have something clean and dry to put on. So, I call out to my husband who is sleeping soundly in bed, and being fully awake, I start calling out my order for what he needs to get me: sweatpants, underclothes, etc, etc... so Bill wakes up hearing me say something about sweatpants and he thought I was telling him he needed to get up and get ready because he was late for P.T. or something! I slowed down and told him my water had broken and I needed him to get me some things... he sat up and started darting around a bit crazy, looking for the things I needed.
I began ticking off my mental check list making sure I had my stuff together and Bill called a friend down the street to come stay with Rebekah, and tried to call the hospital to tell them we were on our way. He didn't get through at first, so we gathered our stuff and got things in the car, while we waited for Debbie to get there. About 30 minutes after my water had broken, my contractions started , just like my first labor with Rebekah. Then Bill finally got through to the hospital, L&D and told them we were pre-registered, who I was and that my water had broken. They said very casually... o.k. come on in and we'll see you when you get here... Bill then explained about my first labor going quite quickly (so he'd heard... he wasn't there for Rebekah's birth, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia, so all of this was a first for him), and they got a little bit more animated and said they'd put a call in to the Dr.
We got on the road and as my labor increased, my stomach decided it didn't particularly like all that greasy food I'd eaten for dinner and I had to make Bill pull over on the side of I-565, on the way to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital, Huntsville, Humana (now Women's and Children's of Huntsville), and they got me upstairs. The first thing I wanted to do when I got into my L&D room was to get a drink and wash my mouth out! so I headed for the sink in the corner of the room! the nurses were rushing frantically around to get everything set up, and then trying to get me to change into the hospital gown. Meanwhile I was contracting away... I am sure I freaked the poor nurses out when I grabbed onto the end of the bed and squatted during the contraction, but man that was what helped me feel better. The nurse kept telling me I NEEDED to get changed into the gown and get up into the bed. Finally I managed those tasks, no small thing in transition! I laid down but could not stand to be on my back, so I rolled onto my side. The nurse wanted to get the I.V. in my arm and I put my arm back toward her and all she had was the side to go with, but that was all I was giving her. She got the I.V. in , but I was bruised nearly from my wrist to my elbow for days.
The nurses got me prepped, and the Dr. rushed in, asking if he had time to change/get gowned up. The nurse told the Dr. to hurry she could see the baby's head without me even pushing. He got down to business, which was to get the table raised up to his level..., he's tall, then he draped me with 'sterile' drapes, including putting leg drapes on my legs and feet as if I had some contaminant my baby would catch from my own body, then they put my legs up in the stirrups, which I hadn't had for my first birth. Then what was helping me to deal with things was to reach back and grab the pillow that was behind my head, I had done the exact same thing with my first birth as well, it must be what works for me. I then had the chanting and counting to ten, push! push! push! coming at me from all angles. The nurse told me I needed to round up and grab my knees and push with gravity to get the baby out. The funny thing is, (o.k. not funny ha ha, but funny/odd, strange in retrospect), was that from the video camera angle at my side, the bed really had been raised up to the Dr's level; and my tail bone was raised higher than my hip bones and yet they were trying to tell me to push with gravity! I was literally pushing my baby out UP HILL, and my body was pushing whether I wanted it to or not! I certainly had no need of forced count to ten pushing. Once I had delivered her head, the Dr. grabbed her and pulled the rest of her out and immediately called her a peanut, and asked when she was due, she was only 11 days early, but she was a little thing! Miss Amanda Katherine came into the world at 1:30 a.m. March 1st (less than 20 minutes from the time I came through the door to L&D!) and weighed in at 5 lbs 9 oz.
Then while I spent two days in the hospital I got very little rest. The hospital was in the process of joining with the other hospital and they were doing construction, and I listened to jack hammers all day long. And the nice nurse who came in at 1 am to tell me it was shift change and she was my new nurse... she chatted for a full hour. Don't get me wrong, she was very nice, but I didn't really want to chat in the middle of the night when my baby was literally 24 hours old. No fun.
I remember Rebekah coming to the hospital to see me and the baby. She looked at me, then looked at the baby in my arms, looked at my belly where we'd been saying the baby was at and it was no longer as big and round as it had been, and looking back to the baby... you could just see the little gears spinning in her head trying to figure it all out! Very sweet.
I would never have believed it if you'd told me back then I'd be back in Huntsville, AL and I'd have 6 kids way back then! I can't imagine my life without any one of them. They all bring so much to our life!
Happy Birthday Sweeetheart!!!!
2 comments:
That was a great story!! It made me smile....a lot!!It brings back memories of my lovely labors. Happy Birthday, Amanda!
I wandered over here from Dana's blog. Tell Amanda happy birthday for me!!! She's great.
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