Today is a day I will NEVER forget!

I went to bed about midnight.  Little #4 was due three days ago.  I laid in bed, unable to sleep, for about 3 hours.  Finally, at about 3AM, I got out of bed and realized that the temperature in the house was 57 degrees…in February.  We were in the middle of one of the coldest weeks of the winter and we had no heat coming from the furnace.  I went looking for our space heaters and then went to the basement to put the laundry in the dryer.  I had to do something to keep my mind of the regular, but tolerable contractions my body was experiencing.  While the clothes were tumbling, I downloaded a contraction timer app for my phone and started timing my contractions.  Talk about an awesome app to have!  Forget about needing to find a watch with a second hand, pen & paper. All I had to do was click a button to start timing and click it again to stop.  Brilliant!  Apparently closing the dryer door startled Jake and when he woke up enough to realize I wasn’t in bed, he came downstairs to see what was going on.  I showed him the record of my contractions and we decided to call his mom and ask her to come to the house in preparation for us going to the hospital.

Patti got to our house around 4AM and by the time we gave her the low-down on school schedules, furnace repair needs, and meals, we left the house about 4:30.  Close to 40 minutes later, we pulled into the ER parking lot at the hospital.  We made our way up to the OB floor and were directed to the triage area.  (I had called before coming in and the phone triage nurse had given me the ok to come in.)  What happened next set the tone for the entire morning.  The triage nurse came in with a scowl on her face and made me feel like my presence was an inconvenience.  I wasn’t expecting to have a heart-to-heart with her, but a little cordial conversation would have been nice.  She got me hooked up to the monitor and my contractions were tracked for about a half-hour.  After that, she checked my progress and informed me that I wasn’t far along at all.  She asked what I wanted to do.

Excuse me?

What do I want to do?  Help me out here.  What are my options?  She didn’t really offer any.  When I asked if I could walk the halls, she told me that walking really doesn’t help labor progress and that since this is baby #4, that it could take longer for my body to deliver.

Excuse me?

Apparently mentioning to her that my previous three labors had all gone from start to finish in about 12 hours didn’t mean anything.  Apparently the fact that we were living 45 minutes from the hospital didn’t mean anything either.  I was  finally able to convince her to let me walk the halls for an hour and she told me we’d re-evaluate the situation again after that.

One hour and 15 minutes later, I was checked again and told that I still wasn’t making any progress and was asked what I wanted to do.

Excuse me?

Nevermind that as I was walking, my contractions were causing me to stop and concentrate on breathing through them. Nevermind (again) that we live 45 minutes away from the hospital and we are approaching morning rush hour on a weekday.  Nevermind that this is my fourth delivery.  Nevermind that I know my own body better than anyone else.  We finally convinced the nurse to contact my doctor and get her opinion on the situation.  When she returned to the room, we were told that my doctor said we could go home and that I should keep my late afternoon appointment with her to check if I had made any progress.

Excuse me?  Go home?

Tears starting flowing down my cheeks.  I was tired (hadn’t slept since Monday) and in my gut, I knew I shouldn’t be sent home.  I felt defeated, too tired to stand up for myself.  (I found out later that my doctor had actually given the nurse two options for me – walk the halls for another hour or go home.  I was only told I could go home.)  We packed up our things and headed back to our car.

As we drove back to our rental house, my contractions began to increase in intensity.  By the time we arrived at the house, Jake and I were so exhausted that we went to our room to try and nap.  Laying in bed was extremely uncomfortable.  The time between my contractions was holding steady at about 5 minutes, but the intensity was increasing.  Unfortunately, I had no idea how much “progress” I was making.

We had scheduled two house showings with our agent for later in the morning, so not knowing how far along I was, we decided to keep our 11 and 11:30AM appointments.  I thought that getting out of the house would help take my mind off the contraction pain I was experiencing.  I made it though the first showing…barely.  By the time we drove into the second driveway, I told Jake that he should go in with our agent and if he thought it was worth having me see, we’d schedule another showing.  The few minutes he was inside the house felt like forever.  In hindsight, we should have gone from the showing back to the hospital, but again, I had no idea how far I had progressed.

Jake drove us back to the house and then took Little #1 to school.  On his way home, he decided to stop for gas.  While at the station, I tried laying down in our room to relax.  Ha.  Ya right.  Not possible.  Apparently my attempt to keep my voice low through the pain was not successful.  However, my mother-in-law did a great job covering for me.  When Little #2 looked toward my room with concern, she turned up the television a little more and sweetly told him that “Mom is just singing.”

When I couldn’t stand the pain anymore, I got out of bed and called Jake’s cell phone.  I told him we needed to leave for the hospital immediately.  He pulled into the driveway shortly after and I climbed into the front seat in-between contractions.   As we drove, I clenched Jake’s right hand as the time between contractions decreased and the intensity increased.  Jake remained extremely calm as I kept telling him over and over that I didn’t think we were going to make it to the hospital.  Finally, about 10 minutes into the trip he asked if I wanted him to call 911.  I said yes.  The dispatcher asked if we wanted an ambulance and I said I wasn’t sure.  (Clearly I wasn’t thinking straight.)  We told the dispatcher we’d call back.  About a minute later, I told Jake we needed to exit the freeway and head for the nearby hospital (not the one we were supposed to deliver at.)  He called the 911 dispatcher back and asked for an ambulance to meet us at the grocery store near our exit.  Two cop cars and two minutes later (which seemed like an eternity!) the ambulance pulled into the parking lot.  The medics rolled the gurney out of the truck and brought it next to our car.  I slowly made my way to the gurney and they swiftly rolled me to the ambulance.  All the while, I was telling the medics that I needed to push.  The driver firmly (but kindly) told me that I had to wait until I was at least inside the truck.

Excuse me?

Ok, she had a point.  But honestly, a woman in labor can’t just turn off the urge to push.  Anyone who has given birth will tell you that.  But I digress.  As they put me in the back of the ambulance, the driver apparently told Jake that there was no way we were going to make it to our intended hospital destination to deliver the baby.  In fact, she didn’t think I’d make it to the hospital just a few blocks away.  Turns out she was right.  About 30 seconds after they closed the back doors of the ambulance, I had a strong urge to push and my body took over.  I yelled for the paramedics in the back with me to help me and with one more push, I delivered Little #4 at 12:36PM.

The paramedic who caught her placed her on my chest and wrapped blankets around us.  It all happened so fast that neither medic even knew what I had had.  After a quick check, I was told “It’s a girl!”  A minute later, we pulled into the ER bay of the hospital.  They wheeled us up to a delivery room and thankfully, Little #4 and I both checked out ok after her crazy entrance into the world.

Baby girl, you have one amazing birth story!  I am so thankful for your Daddy’s calm demeanor through an incredibly intense situation, for our relatives who took care of your siblings while we were in the hospital, and for the paramedics who helped deliver you.  We are so happy to have you here, safe and sound!  Welcome to our family!