MY FIRST BORN
In 1996 my best friend, Michelle Lynn Eck, died in a horrible car accident. Until this happened my husband of three years and I had decided we would start trying to have a family after we had more principle paid on our mortgage, after my Master's Degree was completed, etc. etc. etc. You know the list - you probably had one, too! The night of our dear friend's funeral I threw my birth control pills away. Ken and I decided that our days on this earth are numbered and we never know what tomorrow will bring. We were sure that Michelle wasn't expecting to breathe her final breath on November 9, 1996. We "tried" TWO TIMES and we were PREGNANT! I bought little "I LOVE DADDY" booties and told Ken - he almost passed out. He knew he was a stud but WOW - 2 TIMES?! I made the announcement that we mailed to our friends... it had the Nittany Lion on the front with the words...WE ARE... on the inside I drew Ken with his hands on his head and me with a big belly and the words "PREGNANT!" I was teaching high school at the time so breaking the news to kids who would know HOW I GOT pregnant was...let's say... interesting. There were a couple days of whispering and then the excitement subsided. I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. My due date was in September so I had the whole summer to grow a baby and relax if I needed to. It was a perfect situation although being home all day lent itself to some BIG numbers on the scale. On September 13, my grandfather's birthday and 2 days passed my due date, I went into labor. Ken and I were watching a movie with his parents and at about 9 o'clock I thought, "Ok....that hurt..." at about 9:10, "Ooo, there it is again." The movie was over at about 10:00 and I asked what everyone was doing the next day. They looked at me funny and I said, "Because I have been having contractions for over an hour, now." They squealed and giggled. My labor lasted well into the night and was a bit erratic. We called the doctor a couple times and she said to wait until the contractions were definitely 2 minutes apart and were coming consistently. My parents and my sister were coming that day anyway because I was scheduled to be induced the next day (we were living in upstate NY at the time so they had a 3+ hour drive). We finally went to the hospital, I walked into the ER and saw one of my students - just what I wanted at that moment. I calmly said "hi" and went to check in. (Later I heard from my other students that he shared our "run in" with everyone and aparently I was screaming and cursing and on a gurney with my legs in the air! Nice, Colin!) Upon checking me for the first time, my nurse told me that I was a whole 1 1/2 cm dialated. My head spun around and green phlegm shot out and I blurted, "I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 15 HOURS NOW...IT HAS TO BE MORE THAN THAT!! CHECK AGAIN!" She did. 1 1/2. Crap! I was positive that I wanted NO DRUGS. I drilled it into my Dr's head. NONE NONE NONE! I am an artist remember, kind of a hippy, too, so I truly wanted to EXPERIENCE IT ALL. I wanted to feel every bit. When I thought my spine was going to break from my lovely BACK LABOR, I asked for something...just to take the edge off. They gave me a shot of It-just-pretends-to-work-medicine and all it did was make me dizzy! For hours I laid there hooked up to monitors without the freedom to walk around. I am not sure I would have walked as I was naturally in more pain than I had ever felt in my life. I was so dizzy, just kept my eyes closed. Ken would say, "Shel, they are here to check you." I would assume the position just hoping someone would tell me it was time to push! It could have been the mailman for all I cared - if he said "PUSH" he would have been my hero!
Finally, I thought it was time to push - you know that feeling. You can't control it. BUT, my sadistic doctor thought I needed to wait. WHAT?! So, I hyperventilated doing the Lamaze breathing to keep from pushing. By the time it was REALLY time to push, I had decided this baby was coming out NOW! NOW! NOW! (I am typing so fast right now - it's really funny!)
After a couple pushes a nurse asked me if I had done this before. "Umm, a little busy here - NO FRIPPIN' TIME FOR CHIT CHAT!" I saw my doctor with scissors in her hand...what are those f...YOUCH!
10 minutes of pushing (23 hours of labor) and he was out! My gorgeous 8 lbs. 10 1/2 oz, slimy little boy was laying on my belly. I reached for him and touched his wee little hiney. (I tell him that now and as a 10 year old that is not so cool!) He was beautiful! (I am crying, typing this for you) Absolutely beautiful! He was born on Sunday, September 14th (8 years to the day of the day Ken and I met for the first time!) It was Grandparents' Day and he was the first grandbaby on both sides of our family.
There is something to be said about the love between a Mother and Son! He is as perfect today as he was the day I held him on the outside of my body for the first time.
check back tomorrow for baby story #2)
12 comments:
wow!! awesome idea for a contest Michelle...love your story! I will be checking back to see the links! :)
Michelle-you are sooo fidgety on video! I am a hand talker just like you-that is the Italian in me-what is your excuse? LOL
I love all baby stories, in their uniqueness. I don't know how one will be chosen. I worked on mine all day. I will post it tomorrow. Prepare for a really long story, however. Love T
A Life Changing Day at
http://thekingsmountain.blogspot.com/
Here is the link to my blog. I hope you enjoy the story of Colton's journey into life!
This didn't happen to be Sept 14, 2007 did it? If so, it was my first full day of being Mrs. Rice. We left for our honeymoon in Cancun, MX. We were married Sept 13,1997. GREAT DATE, HUH!
Hey Michelle - I will give you the brief versions of my three birth stories (no blog to link to)!
For my daughter, I worked up until I went into labor. I actually was staying late at the office, as it was a Friday night and my due date was the next day. I was talking to my husband on the phone and said, "Ooh, that didn't feel good," just thinking she had kicked my cervix. Well, I continued to not feel well, drove home thinking, "If I can only go the bathroom (you'll identify with that one! haha) I'll feel better." Umm, no.
The rest of the story was pretty uneventful, except I finally found out with the birth of my third child (and a different doctor) that my primary care doctor had lied to me that it was the hospital's anesthesia department's rule that you couldn't get an epidural until you were 5 cm. It was their practice's rule, basically, because the hospital rule was that the anesthesiology department required your attending to see you, prior to being given the epidural, and they didn't want to come in until you were 5 cm!
Bunch of losers....oh, yeah, and my doctor cut off my epidural when it was almost time to push so I could feel how to do it! But my beloved daughter was born after 23 hours of labor and I was ready to do it again by the next day, I was so in love with her.
We had our son 23 months after our daughter. During that delivery, my doctor was out of town so her partner covered. I had a nurse from h-e-double hockey sticks. She wouldn't call the doctor in until just about when he was being born. Plus, my epidural did not work at ALL and no one would believe me. It was the most painful experience, so much closer to natural childbirth than I had ever intended to get!
In the midst of pushing, the nurse was frantically trying to page the doc, who had gone to another floor in the hospital. They called back on the intercom, wanting to know why she needed the doc. My husband grabbed it and yelled, "Get the doc in here NOW!" The doc came running in, just before our son was born, and it was like a scene out of ER. Completely chaotic, so not what I had wanted.
Prior to our son's birth, my husband and I had decided we would be done. But after that experience (and even more post-birth that I won't go into), I just knew I didn't want it to end like that and I needed to have one more child. I wasn't done yet.
Birth number three, 21 months later, could not have been different! I had written a very strong birthplan, basically scaring every nurse who had to interact with me. Which, of course, made me issue a disclaimer that I really wasn't that bad of a person, just that I DEFINITELY wanted things different this time! I had just the best nurses - in fact, my nurse who had been with me all day even got permission to stay past her shift, just to get me through the birth. My son was born after three sets of pushes, into a calm room, lights dimmed, I mean, I just couldn't have asked for more. It was everything I had hoped for and more. Of course, he is now the craziest and wildest of my three, so I guess the calm birth didn't make a difference!
As I'm fond of telling people, I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I had NO IDEA how much I was going to love it!!!
Kim
Heather - a great day it was!!! :) See - eerily connected you and I!
Kim!
Thanks for sharing and playing our game!
Michelle, you are so darn cute!!! I love your video blogs. And this is a great contest. Who doesn't love baby stories?!
I am working on my birth story... check :
the6gills.blogspot.com
PS- loved to coffee cup, you didn't take a si[ but it was so comforting to watch you hold it. I find myself holding my coffee mugs for a lot of my day and drink little of it sometimes! There is just something very soothing about it... :)
Will post my birth story this weekend more than likely on my blog , and will let you know when I do. Loved the video blog!!
MaBunny
Ok...the 1st story is posted. But here's a little warning, it's pretty long. I tried to cut out stuff. Sorry. Theresa
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