Patrick and I knew we wanted to have kids right away when we got married so it wasn't really a surprise when we found out I was pregnant about 3 months later. It really was an easy pregnancy, I know I was lucky!! I didn't get morning sickness (Yay!) and really the only time I was nauseous was if I was hungry and I needed to eat right that second! Hmmm, I'm still kind of that way!
I had had a doctor's appointment June 6, 2007 and found out I was 2 cm dilated. I thought, that's good, but it could still take forever for him to come. I was glad that I only had 8 more centimeters to go before I, really he, was ready. Yes, I was one of those mom's who knew that I wanted an epidural before I was even pregnant.
I was still teaching at this point and on June 7th we had our annual field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. I was due on the 17th and just decided that it would be a good idea for me to stay back at the school and get some work done before I was done for the summer. Thank. God. I had taken my lunch break with some other teachers and everyone was sharing their war stories of birth. Not a great idea to share those stories with someone that's due in 10 days, just an FYI. I went back to my room around 12:30 or so and was on the phone with one of my follow teachers when I felt a weird pressure down below and sort of a pop. I have no idea what Trish was talking about and just rushed her off the phone. The only thing I could think of was "get to the bathroom" so that's what I did. When I stood up I felt something trickling, not that big gush that I was expecting. Let me mention again how happy I was that I did not go on that field trip!!
I called Patrick and told him I was about 88% sure my water had just broken and explained what happened. He told me to call the doctor and he was on his way, or maybe call them and him back either way, we knew if my water broke, I was going to have to go in. At this point, he was in Felton and I was working in Middletown, which is about 45 minutes away. I called my mom to let her know what was going on and starting freaking out. I wasn't supposed to be doing this alone! I pictured me being at home with all the people I needed close to me! She told me that everything was going to be okay and to call her when we got to the hospital and she would be up. The trip up to the hospital from where we live is about an hour.
I went up to the office to wait for Patrick so I didn't have to be alone and told them what was going on and again went into the "ugly cry". I wanted a baby, but I was scared to death of the actual having the baby and the pain, did I already mention I wanted the drugs?? It was in the office that I started to have contractions. It felt like a small pain that would start in front and then work it's way around into my back. I decide to go sit in the nurse's office because she's got medical knowledge, right? Thank goodness for my friends there! My school labor coaches were Beth, the school nurse, Donna and Laurie, both teachers and good friends. They did a great job of keeping me distracted by talking about other things and were timing my contractions. It seemed like forever before Patrick got there. My contractions were now 3 minutes apart, yes, that right...this was happening quickly and the hospital was still about 25-30 minutes away!! They kept asking me, "Are you sure you don't just want us to take you to the hospital and he can meet us there?" I told them, no that I know for a first baby these things take forever.
Now, I've always had "belly issues", if you will, so it was no surprise when I needed to go to the bathroom again and again. I, of course, can't go with an audience so I kicked everyone out when I had to go. I only knew after the fact that they were all freaking at this point. Beth had actually gotten all kinds of supplies out that would be needed to deliver a baby.
Finally, what seemed like 42 years later, Patrick arrived. They even made me ride in a wheel chair out to the car. :-) I told Patrick to just get there! Drive 400 mph if necessary, but don't get pulled over...no pressure for him. He called my mom back and told her to head up to the hospital because after seeing me and knowing how close my contractions were, we knew this was the real deal and there was no way they weren't keeping me.
We were on the Delaware Memorial Bridge when my hips began hurting really badly (hello, baby probably moving into them) and that I needed to push...yes, we still had a good 15 minutes or so to the hospital...All I'm thinking is please don't let my baby be born on the side of Route 1!! I
Even after all that they still had to take me into a room to ask questions and get me registered. Thank goodness there was a girl there to be induced that was ahead of me and she let me cut her in line. I don't know who she was, but thank you!! So the nurse is trying to ask me all kinds of questions and all I can think of is "I need to push!" Finally I asked her if that was normal. She told me not really and not to push and stopped with the questions and took me to the triage area. There I was checked and surprise, surprise I was at 10 cm.
They whisked us off upstairs to labor and delivery. Now I felt much better because at least I knew I was where I was supposed to be and that I was 10 cm, no wonder I felt the way I did. I was devastated when I was told there was no time for an epidural but I guess I was already past most of the "I'm going to die" phase. We got into our room and there was maybe 2 nurses and I told the one that I really wanted to push. The doctor wasn't there yet, but she said I could anyway...loved her!! The doctor came in a couple minutes or seconds later and I told her this was her fault because she got it all started checking around down there the day before. She came over and pushing began. I remember in between pushing I would tell the doctor that it was pretty uncomfortable down there and then I would go to push and say oops I forgot to take my breath and do it again. It was like we were just having a normal conversation in between all the craziness going on. I guess we were just very calm because we knew we were in good hands. Aiden came into the world at 3:13pm, about 13 minutes after we got up to labor and delivery.
I still can't believe how quickly he came into this world. From start to finish I think I was in labor for about 3 1/2 hours. Wow! Lucky, I know! I can't imagine it being longer than that! I had no time for the epidural or even an iv for which I was glad because I think the iv frightened me more than anything! Here are a few pictures from that special day:
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| Aiden Patrick 7 lbs 12 oz |
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| Hanging with my new little man |
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| Daddy & Aiden |
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| I love this one! He looks so tiny! |
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| Resting after a hard day's work |
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| There's those pretty blue eyes |
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| The family |
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| Love those cheeks! |
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| Aiden & My Mom, aka Nana |
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| Love! |
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| Getting ready to leave the hospital |
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| Riding home from the hospital |
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| Going home outfit |
My school labor coaches told me later that they had called the hospital to check on us and were told that they had no one under that name registered. They thought exactly what I was the most scared about, that Aiden had been born on the way to the hospital. Turns out that we ended up being in such a hurry that I was never actually registered, well until the following day. The nurses came up to get me to sign something to officially be registered and the one made the comment of, "oh that was you in the bathroom downstairs?" Yep, that was me!
What a crazy and memorable way to have your first born! I like to think that someone up above knows how I can tend to freak out if there is a lot of sit and wait time and just wanted to keep me busy so I didn't have time to panic! I'm very happy and proud that I was able to survive the whole thing without an epidural. It just shows me that I'm a lot tougher than I thought I was! And I'm SO happy that Aiden waited for us to get to the hospital!!
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