Aaron's Labor Story

You may be in as much shock as we were. Aaron decided to come 3 weeks early. We should have saw it coming based on my previous doctors appointments, but figured he would be just like Ian and that we would have plenty of time. Oh were we wrong! If you don't want to hear the story skip a ways down :)

How it all began -well not quite began but you get the point. At my 35 week appointment with Aaron the doctor informed me that I was already dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. I did not worry since I was dilated to a 3 at 28 weeks with Ian and deliver on my due date. The doctor considered bed rest but just told me to take it easy -haha like that is possible with a two year old. At my next appointment 36 weeks I was dilated to a 4 and 100% effaced. Again the instructions were to take it really easy -but that the baby size and everything was good so not to worry. I scheduled all of my appointments for the rest of my pregnancy with the hopes that on October 27th she would strip my membranes and we would have the baby that night. The first quarter at Logan High ends on October 22nd, so it would all work out perfectly. My substitute would take over all of second quarter. The doctor would laugh and say if you make it. I figured no worries I worked and did everything up to the day I had Ian.

The first week of October -Ian has been sick, diarrhea galore and not slowing down. On Sunday, October 10th I decided I better take the day off work because I would hate to send him to a babysitters with these problems. So that night I went into work and set everything up for a substitute on Monday (good thing). Everything was normal -put Ian to bed then headed to bed myself. I always wake up around 1 or 2 am and have a bowl of cereal. This morning I did not feel like it but still could not sleep. At about 4 am I started have hard contractions. They were about 7 minutes apart so I did not worry. I walked downstairs and got Tim (he was sleeping in the basement since I went to bed so early and did not want to be disturbed when he left for class early in the morning). At around 5:30 am the contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart but every now and then there would be 3 or 4 of them about 2 minutes apart. We called my dad to let him know that it looked like we were going to be heading to the hospital sometime that morning and that we would call when the contractions were closer. We started debating maybe Tim could make it to the first part of his presentation and make it back before we had the baby. At about 6:30 we decided we better call my dad because the contractions were about 5 minutes apart with random quick ones. So why were we not in a hurry??? Read Ian's labor story. With Ian we went in when the contractions were about 4 minutes apart at 12:30 am and I did not have Ian until 1:20 pm. We figured we had time. My dad arrived just after 7 am and the contractions were about 3 minutes apart. I realized that I never did take a pregnancy picture so I made Tim quickly snap one.

Here I am at 37 weeks -just before walking out the door at 7 am.

When we got in Tim's car the contractions started coming one right after another. Tim was asking how far apart they were but I could hardly talk because there were not any breaks. Wouldn't you know on the 15 minute drive to the hospital we hit every light RED! We got to the hospital and Tim grabbed a wheel chair wheeled me inside and parked the car. We had called the hospital around 6 am to let them know we would be coming in later that morning. We got to Labor and Delivery at 7:28 and they did not check us in but just had Tim wheel me straight back to a room-apparently I must have looked very happy :) We got to the room and two other nurses came and were saying to call the doctor right away. One nurse began putting an IV in my arm and the other nurse checked to see what I was at and replied station 2. My thoughts -what the heck I moved backwards??? Then they began pulling everything out as if I were going to deliver the baby right then. I asked the nurse when can I get my epidural and she did not respond. So I looked at Tim -and he slowly shook his head and said that I would be fine there was not time. Slight freak out by me for the next couple minutes!

By the time everything was set up and ready to go it was around 7:45. The doctor came in broke my water which felt just like a water balloon popping. Everything after that was not exactly pleasant -so I am not going to share detail. However, just as the doctor was saying this next one is the last push you have to get him out (his heart rate was slowly dropping). I looked over and Tim was on his knees and white as a ghost -just about to hit the floor. The nurse shouted to get another nurse to stand behind him and was shouting at Tim to sit down -but he of course did not want to. He finally sat back on the floor as they were trying to get another nurse in to help me. So while Tim is not happy about him writing this because he keeps saying he was not grossed out and that non of that bothered him. He is guessing it is because he locked his knees and had not had anything to eat. Tim did manage to pull through and stood up to help with the last set of pushing just as Aaron was born at 8:01 am.

It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience to say the least -but it was an experience. While I have had almost a week to reflect back on the experience it was kind of amazing. But not exactly the way I would like it to go again -if there is ever an again. Even the nurses were commenting after all was said and done -"Wow, that was a rush" or "That was crazy". On the plus side the recovery has been much easier -non of the shakes, headaches, infections, and all that other stuff. Plus right away on the first day I was up and walking around. So after having the baby they then check us in and filled out the rest of the paper work.

As for Aaron -he is perfect!